Double-Talk
By Farhana Mohamed
Khan, PhD
South Pasadena, California
On April 2, President General Pervez
Musharraf in a speech to a friendly crowd (Command
and Staff College, Quetta) stated that there was
no military rule in Pakistan, military is in the
barracks, and all the decisions were being made
by the Prime Minister and his cabinet, and that
General Musharraf was only providing guidance
to the Prime Minister. This should mean that the
Prime Minister “decided” that General
Musharraf should attend on his behalf the critical
New Delhi Summit, or address the UN Assembly,
or hold talks with the US President George Bush
--- the list goes on to testify to General Musharraf’s
double-talk.
Everyone has the right of opinion, especially
General Musharraf, who came to power after overthrowing
a democratically elected government. And then
through lot of tweaking of the judicial and electoral
system he declared himself the President of Pakistan.
This was later “validated” via an
extra-constitutional referendum, in which he was
the only candidate and hardly any one voted. He
then ran a puppet show by replacing Prime Ministers
Jamali, with Chaudhery Shujaat (held office for
only 40 days), followed by the mind-boggling election
of the present Premier Shaukat Aziz (who, though
very qualified, lacks any political constituency
in Pakistan) - all in a matter of months.
In the same memorable speech of April 2, he declared
that there was no truth in the Lady Doctor’s
rape case in Sui and that the matter was unnecessarily
propagated. Not to mention, he also had previously
stated that Captain Hammad (a suspect in the doctor’s
rape case) did not commit the crime. It is hard
to believe that in the 21st Century, a well-educated
and supposedly open-minded man holding the topmost
government position, who frequently touts women’s
rights, would manifest such an irresponsible and
derogatory attitude towards a woman who was violated
in a gang rape case. By the way, no one knows
what was the outcome of the “investigation”
of the case in which, strangely, no arrests were
made and the violated woman physician and her
husband opted to leave the country after facing
systematic harassment.
As usual, the lame-duck Pakistani judiciary is
mum on this and many other issues. Compare this
to the recent Terry Schiavo’s feeding tube
removal storm in the United States. The President
of the United States and Governor of the State
of Florida filed pleas and did some last-minute
legal but politically-motivated legislative maneuvering
to prolong the incapacitated woman’s life.
Not only their legal pleas were summarily dismissed,
but also both were strongly scolded for meddling
in the judicial system and even defying the Constitution
by the presiding Appeals Court Judge who was sitting
at a much lower echelon f power.
On April 11, during a speech to students in Islamabad,
General Musharraf touted the sustained Pakistani
economic growth in the industrial and agricultural
sectors that had led to reduction in the poverty
level. However, he opted not to give any substantial
proof of that revelation. For example, he did
not mention that 8.5 million people had fallen
below the poverty threshold during the Musharraf
era, there was a $2 billion dollar trade deficit,
Karachi stock market had dived down by 4000 points
in matter of weeks, inflation was in double digits,
and housing and food prices had increased by 12
to 13% just in the last few months. Just few days
earlier, when General Musharraf was taken to task
in a one-on -one meeting with the leading journalists
for increasing poverty and skyrocketing prices
of basic need items, he maintained his double-talk
and stated that soon, due to “trickle-down”
effect, the poor in Pakistan would benefit. He,
however, failed to mention that while the average
monthly income of a Pakistani is Rs. 2,500 ($42),
his government had spent almost half a billion
rupees in importing expensive Mercedes (at Rs.10
million, $167,000 each), and Land Rovers for his
battalion of ministers.
In the 1973 Constitution of Pakistan, the President
is only a figurehead and he is supposed to be
politically neutral. However, at present, there
is flagrant violation of that role with the President
making it a point to address public rallies in
military uniform while expressing open hostility
towards certain politicians. Again according to
the Constitution, the Prime Minister is the Chief
Executive Officer in the Parliamentary democracy
but from Jamali to Aziz, the role seems to be
more abiding than deciding with General Musharraf
being addressed as “boss” openly at
least by one Premier. Of course, the only precedent
in Pakistani history of President’s authoritarian
role was during the past military eras - however,
the generals in-charge were crystal clear about
their role and avoided misleading the nation with
any double-talk.
Another glaring example of General Musharraf’s
double-talk is his promise in December 2003 for
stepping down as Chief of the Army Staff by December
2004 but then he backed off from his promise by
stating that the country was more important than
democracy, it was “facing dire challenges”,
and it needed him to be in uniform and continue
to perform dual roles. If this was true, then
all the other global democratic nations would
need “dictatorships” when facing critical
times. Actually, during critical times it is dictatorship,
which destroys and democracy that saves a nation
--- history is rife with such examples. For example,
Pakistan faced its worst defeats and suffered
humiliating dismemberment only during the military
rule, and almost all major successes were achieved
during the democratic era - albeit imperfect.
Let’s read the writing on the wall: Despite
what General Musharraf says, he’s the omnipotent
authority of Pakistan. And from the meek and grateful
Parliamentarians - belonging to the King’s
Party that he founded - to the hand-picked Prime
Minister(s) all are completely under the General’s
control. No double-talk here.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
