Musharraf, Lies and Audiotapes
By Dr Mohammad Taqi
Florida
As predicted in this space, the Pakistani state and its present and former appendages have gone into overdrive ostensibly to mitigate the damage from the increasing international focus on the systematic atrocities being committed by the Pakistani security and intelligence forces in Balochistan.
These desperate moves range from sheer fluff and diversionary tactics on the one hand to outright lies and malicious propaganda on the other. An example of the former maneuver is the letter reportedly written by the Pakistani ambassador to Washington, Ms Sherry Rehman to the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, John Boehner. Alluding to the Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher’s resolution supporting the Baloch right to self-determination, the Ambassador had apparently written to the Speaker last week warning about its adverse effects on US-Pakistan relations. A week has elapsed and no follow-up information has surfaced about the purported letter or what, if any, response John Boehner offered.
The former military dictator Pervez Musharraf has also jumped into the fray, presumably to help the people and world at large in better ‘understanding Balochistan’. Ordinarily, his rants ought not to be dignified with a response. However, as the fugitive generalissimo has gone on to write a two-part article in an English daily and has made a television appearance on a channel owned by the same media group, distorting contemporary history, a brief perspective is in order. But more importantly, Musharraf acted as an individual neither in usurping the high office nor in stepping down and the life thereafter. What he did was as the chief of the Pakistan Army, with the full backing of that outfit. Reportedly, his former cohorts orchestrated his flight from Pakistan and his decision not to return, as well. What he does and says reflects a particular mindset and may not be just the voice of a loner.
Pervez Musharraf’s op-ed piece (March 14 and 15, 2012) and his television spiel addressed six broad areas. He starts with lip service to Balochistan’s plight but moves on quickly to berate and malign the traditional Baloch leadership, especially the late Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, to make a case for how bad the Sardars (tribal chiefs) have been for its progress and rights. He then alleged that the Baloch liberation struggle is not a popular movement and only a minuscule segment of the Baloch supports it. He also attempts to weasel out of being held responsible for the assassination of Nawab Bugti. Musharraf has also listed what he describes as his accomplishments in ‘development’ work. The most ominous aspect, however, is the classic colonial maneuver to drive a wedge between the Baloch and Pashtuns with the unstated objective of pitting the latter against the Baloch freedom struggle. This last area requires a detailed analysis and rebuttal, which will be undertaken in future columns.
The most ludicrous assertion that Musharraf has made is that Nawab Akbar Bugti committed suicide. He claims that the Baloch leader was in a cave when four Pakistani officers went in to ask him to surrender. He wrote, “If the intention had been to kill him, the officers would never have gone in like that. After that an explosion took place and the cave collapsed, unfortunately burying Nawab Akbar Bugti and the four officers inside. The explosion, most likely, was from a planted explosive device or a rocket fired. The officers certainly could not have been carrying rocket launchers. This is a clear case of a self-inflicted casualty.”
So Musharraf’s intention was not to kill Nawab sahib. Really? Remember his chest thumping that those who challenge the state’s writ ‘will be fixed’ and that it was not the 1970s and “they won’t know what hit them”. It is on record that Nawab Bugti’s ancestral residence had been under rocket attack for days before he took to the hills in the Kohlu district in Marri territory. Was shelling also part of a negotiation package? Musharraf made the first attempt on the Nawab’s life on March 17, 2005 with at least 600 mortars fired at the Dera Bugti compound. At least 73 innocent people including women and children, many from the Hindu community, were killed. That too may have been Musharraf’s peace gesture.
The commando may have selective amnesia but the Baloch remember the manner of Nawab sahib’s burial in a sealed coffin without allowing any of his kin to be present. Not just that Musharraf mocked the Baloch and Islamic customs of burial but also obstructed justice and caused vital forensic evidence to be lost. Prior to this, the Musharraf government had denied for days that the old Sardar’s dead body was in their possession.
But then again this is not the first time Musharraf has tried to hoodwink the world. He has bashed the Baloch leadership for an alleged primitive and reactionary approach and attempts to keep their people backward. For all his shortcomings, Nawab Bugti had stood firmly to seek justice for Dr. Shazia Khalid after she was raped, allegedly by an army man, who was summarily absolved of wrongdoing by none other than Musharraf.
The former dictator — a self-styled liberal — continues to be on talk shows and the lecture circuit. It may not be out of place to jog his and his hosts’ memory with his remarks about female rape victims. Musharraf had told the Washington Post in a September 2005 interview: “You must understand the environment in Pakistan...This has become a moneymaking concern...a lot of people say if you want to go abroad and get a visa for Canada or citizenship and be a millionaire, get yourself raped, the easiest way of doing it ...because there is so much of finances...Dr. Shazia, I don’t know, maybe she is a case of money, does she want to make money, she is again talking all against Pakistan...but I know what the realities are.” Lest Musharraf again denies saying that, The Washington Post audiotape can be accessed at: http://wapo.st/GAzfJt.
Musharraf, who subverted the constitution multiple times, also had the nerve to call for a media blackout of the Baloch ‘seditionists’. One would not ask the media to banish even a bigot like Musharraf but his carte blanche to lie may need to be suspended.
( The writer can be reached at mazdaki@me.com. He tweets at http://twitter.com/mazdaki)
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