Is Musharraf Gaining Ground?
By Salahuddin Haider
Karachi, Pakistan

While the Sharif government is battling against terrorism, and in blocking through constitutional amendments the decade-old practice of horse trading in elections, a silent but powerful under-current has begun to build yet another pressure on it---a mounting public desire to see General Pervez Musharrash back in power in Pakistan.
This may appear a fantasy but ground realities are not too difficult to understand. Realizing that poor governance, and failure to attend to public welfare problems, has begun to turn the tide against the present administration, the former military ruler has launched himself in a new mold. Instead of sitting silent at his army colony house in Karachi, he has been now regularly giving TV interviews and delivering speeches to highlight the need for a change.
Whether he can, or would return to power, is a difficult question. He does not wish to  answer  it clearly. “I have left it to destiny,” says he but makes no secret of his desire to be back in authority. ”If I can do anything for my country, I will be too happy to serve my people”. His remarks can easily be deciphered.
Managing the affairs of the country for almost 9 years, the 74-year old military commando fell victim to Machiavellian machinations. His decision to demolish  a mosque in Islamabad, called the “ Red Mosque” or “ Lal Masjid” in local parlance, became controversial, but which proved right as the time passed by. The holy place was full of Taliban, armed with latest weapons, which in Musharraf's mind was a potent threat to the capital city. A second incident for which the ex-ruler came under severe criticism was the killing of eminent politician and Baloch tribal chieftain, Nawab Akbar Bugti. Impartial enquiries into the matter sifted facts from fiction. It became evident after a couple of years that Bugti or his supporters had been instrumental in blowing up  gas pipelines, emanating from his native land of Dera Bugti, but, instead of  feeding his own province, was supplied mainly to industries and domestic consumers in the Punjab heartland. Musharraf tried to pacify him and sent two of his colonels to his hideout in the remote mountainous area. A blast in the cave killed Bugti as well as the army men.
His quarrel with the former supreme court chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry too was the brainchild of the then spy master, General Kayani, and the Chaudhry brothers---Shujaat and Pervez Elahie-- of Gujrat, plus his own hand-picked prime minister Shaukat Aziz. They all deserted him when the crunch came to face the mounting public agitation and Musharraf was forced to shake hands with staunch opponent Benazir Bhutto after talks in the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi.
All these calculations backfired with disastrous consequences for the former head of State. Musharraf had actually chosen an eminent parliamentarian of his time, Akhtar Humayun, son of a four-star general, who died later in the plane crash of 1988 along with the then President General Ziaul Haq, but faced resistance from the two Chaudhrys. The two cunning leaders from upper Punjab also got inducted a mediocre, low level officer Tariq Aziz as his principal secretary. He too betrayed him in the end.
Musharraf and Benazir had reached an agreement to be president and prime minister respectively. The agreement was honoured by Zardari also, but he was forced to remove Musharraf under persistent pressure from Nawaz Sharif, for being a signatory to a co-existence treaty, finalized in London.
Public image of Musharraf stands enormously boosted because his insistence to be ruthless with the Taliban and other terrorists, and tighten screws on the mushroom growth of seminaries has now been reluctantly accepted by the Sharif administration. In the southern Sindh province, 17 such seminaries have already been closed, and a number of those managing it, arrested. Similar action has been taken at army’s insistence in the Punjab province also.
Both these decisions have been severely criticized by politico-religious groups. The unanimity between Sharif's party and Maulana Fazlur Rehman, plus a number of his coalition partners is thus threatened. Sharif’s position is further compromised because of his decision to ban horse trading for election to the Parliament’s upper house, the Senate. These elections, due on March 5, may now be by show of hands instead of secret balloting. The Government’s success in amending the Constitution depends heavily on the cooperation from the Peoples Party of Zardari.
Whether they will join hands once again to bring the 22nd
amendment to the Constitution remains to be seen. The moot point here is whether PPP would allow its rivals to gain a majority in the Senate and elect its own chairman. Will Zardari agree to it is a big poser now. He himself or his party may not like their strength to be affected in the Senate but it has its own limitations for failing to muster enough votes in the Punjab Assembly, which is now going to be a decisive factor.
All these and a number of other factors, like severe inflation, and a likely upward review of fuel prices, plus the government’s inability to  provide relief to the common man, have combined to destroy the image of the Sharif-led administration. The general public now regards Musharraf a much better choice, and has begun to treat him as their savior.