The Seven
Years of General Musharraf
By Perwaiz Ahmad
Fullerton, California
It
is one thing to shoot one self in the foot and
it is utter stupidity to aim and then shoot oneself
in the foot. Gen Mussharaf has done just that
by removing the chief justice without the due
process of law.
Like Ayub Khan and Zia ul Haq, Gen Musharraf won
the hearts of millions when he came to power with
good intentions but slowly fell in the trap of
unscrupulous advisors and politicians and made
some wrong decisions to suppress the wheeling
and dealings of others in his cabinet.
He should go because he had seven years to bring
a verdict (for or against) the "corrupt"
politicians that preceded him which was also the
basis for his bloodless coup but he could not;
he had seven years to have elections and step
aside perhaps as a watchdog entity to prevent
blunders and more blunders by selfish and greedy
politicians; seven years to reduce poverty level
but it has grown worse, seven years to improve
power supply but we see 10 hours of load shedding
today as I write; seven years to resolve the Balochistan
crisis but it has been used for political gains
like Kashmir; seven years to improve the crisis
in the NWFP but he did not.
To make things worse and demonstrate absolute
power, he fired the chief justice of the Supreme
Court which finally broke the camel's back and
tipped the balance against him. It appears that
the nation will not calm down unless he keeps
his promise of holding an open and transparent
trial.
The Newsweek reported that the General is in the
final stages of making a deal with Benazir to
share power. This will be a strongest blow to
the nation of Pakistan and any residual respect
the nation has for the armed forces will be lost
forever.
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