How about a Commission to Probe Nawaz Sharif?
By Hamza Gulzar
Lahore, Pakistan
A lot has happened in this country in the past 10 months or so. A strong President makes an ill-advised decision which goes terribly wrong, a corrupt and overambitious Chief Justice becomes the ‘savior of democracy’, a man with little political wisdom tries to become the champion of the State at the cost of the very stability of that State itself. And lastly, a man more renowned for his corruption and tyranny ends up as a front runner for the post of Prime Minister.
With political chaos and widespread militancy, the foundations of the establishment stand shaken, the people are confused and out of this entire confusion a few individuals strive to gain political advantage.
Despite the bleak picture that I have just portrayed all hope is not lost, in fact with only a few bold and significant steps Pakistan could be out of these troubles for good and it gives me no shame to say that President Musharraf along with a strong military, a vibrant political system (albeit a flawed one) is the best ingredient for success.
I cant help but laugh when people declare Musharraf a ‘military dictator’ for what he has done in the past few months, conveniently discarding his impeccable eight-year performance, forgetting the fact that he saved this country from ‘going back to the stone age’ (regardless of how controversial that decision was), pushed its nuclear program to new heights, presided over and implemented a wide array of structural and developmental reforms, introduced a vibrant local government system, gave Pakistan the best telecommunication system, introduced young and dynamic individuals, gave more emancipation to women than they ever had, liberated the media and lastly conducted the fairest elections in the history of Pakistan which in turn dealt a huge blow to conspirators and traitors both at home and ‘abroad’.
These steps are no mean achievements, one needs to be balanced when criticizing Mr. Musharraf. While I certainly do not condone the way in which the CJ was deposed in March, the way students were put behind bars under strict Anti-Terror laws, the widespread corruption, the rising prices, the problem of basic necessities, etc. but that has more to do with the lack of good advice and priorities than the malicious intent that is unfairly attributed to him. Why have our ‘educated and informed’ critics simply ignored the track record of losers like Aitzaz Ahsan, Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan and Co.?
Why do they not see the other side of the story? The answer: Sheer ignorance and blind faith in a biased media that is acting more like a wild horse than a freed one. I know many would argue that this media has created ‘awareness’ amongst the people but my reply always is ‘based on what? Double standards, disproportionate coverage and creating mountains out of molehills?’ Musharraf should have issued the PEMRA ordinance as soon as he licensed private channels. Before I actually go on to suggest solutions let’s just look at what the past has to say about our ‘heroes’.
Mr. Aitzaz Ahsan, a man who spent his entire legal career defending corruption, endorsing his leader as the ‘chairperson for life’, did nothing to amend the Hudood Laws when he was a federal minister (twice). Instead, he focused more on churning out money through those cases, providing sensitive information to an enemy that broke up our country (and is still wreaking havoc), a man who endorses his party’s successors without any election process because as he says ‘it was an emergency’, does not take part in the elections against his own party discipline (which he says he’s bound to) and focuses more on his ‘movement’, does not allow an autopsy of Mrs. Bhutto as it would ‘devastate him’.
I can write an entire essay on what kind of a hypocrite Aitzaz Ahsan is. In fact ALLAH has an entire verse for such people. Just ask yourselves: do you even now feel he is the kind of champion of democracy that he preaches to be? He should become a member of the N-league. After all, Mr. Ahsan, they supported your ‘movement’ and by the way take support not in its literal sense but in its entirety. You talk about the restoration of judges who took oath under a PCO when they could have refused. You talk about rule of law but then start blackmailing the representatives of the people of Pakistan.
Mr. Ahsan recently in an interview said that Musharraf’s election was unconstitutional because he could not contest the elections from a parliament ‘whose battery was running out’ and that the 30 and 60 day re-election thing is a joke. Mr.Ahsan you cannot fool all the people all the time, here’s what article 41(4) of the Constitution states:
“Election to the office of President shall be held not earlier than sixty days and not later than thirty days before the expiration of the term of the President in office;
Provided that, if the election cannot be held within the period aforesaid because the National Assembly is dissolved, it shall be held within thirty days of the general election to the Assembly.”
And 41(6):
“The validity of the election of the President shall not be called in question by or before any court or other authority.”
Reach your own conclusions.
Then we come down to Mr. Imran Khan. A rabble rouser of the highest degree, a financially clean politician who does his partying abroad and compares Pakistan with African states, a man who always makes contradictory and horrendous political decisions (I can list them but not now) and calls his moral corruption a ‘private matter’ despite being a ‘public leader’.
Mr. Nawaz Sharif is totally bent upon taking revenge from Musharraf at the cost of this country’s stability. He is the only one bragging about the judiciary because he knows he cannot deliver, he can’t cut prices, construct dams or do anything for the common man.
He goes to an Indian channel and talks about the setting up of a Kargil Commission. How low can you get? Your soldiers died in that battle while you were in the warmth of the White House. I wonder what Mr. Sharif has to say about the setting up of a commission to probe into the ‘karz utaro mulk sawaro’ funds, the plans of buying hundreds of acres of land up north with Indian companies to extract profits from mineral resources, the attack on Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah etc.?
You wouldn’t want to be exposed in that Mr. Sharif would you? The restoration of a ‘heroic’ judge could wreak havoc with our political system and could be politically suicidal for our allegedly corrupt politicians whose cases he would have to open to prove his worth. Mr. Zardari is playing the game better. Mr. Sharif says that the people voted for the restoration of judges. Zamurd Khan and Khalil Ramday’s brother lost the elections when they should have swept the elections Mr. Sharif!
A CJ who shakes the foundation of a country’s institutions by taking up more than 6000 suo-motos which include the issues of tomato pricing and transportation movements does NOT deserve to be restored, instead restore those who resigned and stood up in 1999.
Musharraf should go all out against Baitullah and Fazullah. These people are not endorsed by Mullah Omer in fact they have nothing to do with the Afghan Taliban.
Funded and trained by foreign enemies of Pakistan, these people have aligned with themselves various dissident factions and disgruntled and misguided youth. The weapons they are fighting with, the kind advanced wireless sets they use, the way they strike with military precision and the way our soldiers and political agents were beheaded and mutilated negatives any Afghan Taliban involvement. What are hundreds of Indian Commandos doing in Afghanistan in the first place?. If RAW is involved (I’m sure it is) then Pakistan should not remain silent for long. There is absolutely nothing wrong in funding Kashmiri freedom fighters and thousands of other separatist rebels across India especially when they have stepped up their indirect attacks on innocent Pakistanis inside Pakistan.
But all this cannot and should not happen very quickly and this is where Musharraf and Kayani come in.
Both of them have been there long enough to know the kind of conspiracies that are being hatched against Pakistan. Our politicians should get their act together and stop fighting on petty issues. You release Rs. 1,000,000 for a road, fine, and put half of that into your pockets if you want to, but just build the damn road.
We can afford a flawed system but cannot afford a no system at all. Chinese and Russian help should be taken ASAP on the Thar Coal project. Once fully utilized we wouldn’t have to give a toss about Uncle Sam’s aid or Arabian oil.
We should start cultivating edible oil on government farms, military farms, police farms, railway lands, private farms wherever you find the space. It would save us $2 billion.
Start constructing smaller dams in the highlands of Balochistan and FANA instead of fighting over Kalabagh. All these issues would definitely take time, there is no magic wand, there is no short cut but it’s all possible. I would humbly request all our politicians to please for once think of this country. If this is not there, you will not have anything to loot and plunder.
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