The “President”-in -uniform of Islamic Republic of Pakistan was again in New York to address the 60th session of UN General Assembly. According to constitution he is not the head of the government & it should be the Prime Minister who should be performing this duty but government in Pakistan is of the armed forces & is run by the armed forces, for the armed forces. How much the armed forces care for the constitution became amply clear when General Zia described the constitution as “ a pamphlet of a few pages, which I can tear & throw away whenever I feel like.” General Musharraf of enlightened moderation fame, however, is shrewder than his predecessors. He does not say so but does it.

As expected the media in Pakistan hyped the dictator’s sojourn in USA as if he is the only head of state going to address the UN General Assembly. It was flashed repeatedly that a special room has been furnished by UN for General Musharraf to grant audience to other heads of government. Musharraf ended up receiving his guests in the office of Pak Ambassador Muneer Akram in one of dozens of committee rooms in UN.

Similar hype was created for Musharraf-Man Mohan Singh meeting on the side of the UN session giving the impression that the said meeting was going to open new vistas in Indo Pak relations particularly towards solution of Kashmir dispute. However when the two leaders emerged from their four hours long meeting, the body language was more than enough to know the results. A grim faced Musharraf with a grim looking Man Mohan Singh read out a short statement that the only agreement reached between them was to disagree. Both of them left as soon as Musharraf finished reading the statement without speaking to the press .

After taking a u-turn on his rigid position on Kashmir which resulted in the failure of Agra summit, Musharraf, Pakistan & Kashmir are as far away from a solution of Kashmir dispute as they were when Agra summit collapsed. In spite of Pakistan giving a number of major concessions starting from unilateral declaration of cease fire on LOC, crack down on the Jihadi organisations operating across the LOC to abdication of our half a century old stance of solution of Kashmir dispute through a plebiscite as per UN resolutions, Indian PM kept saying till his departure for New York that there will be no more changes in the borders & that Pakistan is not doing enough to stop infiltration of terrorists across the LOC. No wonder Musharraf wore a long face while emerging out of that meeting.

The next was meeting with President George W. Bush. An impression was created that Bush is busy in the hurricane Katrina fiasco & would meet only four leaders including Musharraf. It turned out that in addition to granting a 30-minute audience to Musharraf including the photo session, he met dozens of others including Man Mohan Singh whom he met for a respectably long period.

The next disaster waiting for Musharraf was the speech delivered by Bush to General Assembly. It was publicised by Government of Pakistan that Bush would be giving a full-throttle admiration of Musharraf regarding his role in war against terror & thus helping to save his house of cards back home. As the Pakistani delegation listened to Bush speech without blinking their eyes & breathing heavily, the speech ended without a mention of Pakistan. Adding insult to injury the American President applauded the fast emerging economy of India & expressed his desire to work with India in the newly developed strategic partnership.

Following the meeting between Pakistan’s foreign minister & his Israeli counterpart, Pakistan’s government kept on saying that there is no plan for a meeting between Musharraf & Sharon. However when they met briefly Pakistani foreign office was quick to explain that it was a meeting by chance. When journalists asked the Israel’s PM to comment on this comment, he retorted, “I do not meet anyone by chance.” The much-publicised address by Musharraf to American Jewish Congress also ended with a whimper as he failed to tell the audience anything substantial as regards interfaith relationship, Arab-Israel & Pak-Israel relationship.

As if all these disasters were not enough, Musharraf proceeded to give an interview to the staff writers of Washington Post. As the hue & cry over this interview has already sent shivers down the bones of every Pakistani as well as a large number of international organisations including Amnesty International, it would suffice to quote the pearls of wisdom verbatim as published in Washington Post dated 13th September ’05. QUOTE; “Musharraf also became animated when he spoke about Mukhtar Mai, a 33-year old illiterate woman who spoke publicly about having being gang raped on the orders of village council in 2002. Mai, bucking taboos, won public sympathy & government support after she demanded that the men be charged & convicted. But earlier this year Musharraf earned the ire of Bush administration when he blocked her from travelling to the United States to publicize the case. Musharraf said Mai was free to travel now—though she has never left Pakistan—and that he had no regrets about how he handled the incident. He said Mai had come under the sway of the organisations determined to harm Pakistan’s image and he did not think Pakistan should be singled out when the curse is everywhere in the world. He said that he has seen reports or figures about rapes in the United States, Canada, France and Great Britain showing that it is happening everywhere. You must understand the environment in Pakistan, Musharraf added. This has become a money making 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.” UNQUOTE. No comments.

In  a previous article I diagnosed Musharraf  as suffering from an acute state of compulsive megalomania. The diagnosis is confirmed as per quote from the above-mentioned interview in Washington Post. QUOTE; Musharraf said he had totally turned around Pakistan and had made key advances in fostering democracy including protecting freedom of press, empowering local government, improving the position of women in society and giving greater representation to minorities. “Leave the developing world aside; I think we are better than all of them”, Musharraf declared. “Bring the developed world and let us compare Pakistan’s record, under me, a uniformed man, with many of the developed countries. I challenge that we will be better off.” UNQOTE. No comments.

The climax of this chain of events of PR disasters came on 17th September ’05 during a function arranged to “highlight the role of Musharraf in the progress of women in Pakistan.” When a lady stood up & questioned Musharraf on his remarks about the women in Pakistan wanting to be raped in order to go abroad, the General blew his top. He shouted at the lady,” You people are against Pakistan & me. I am a soldier. I will fight you. I can shout louder than you. You must be a supporter of Benazir Bhutto.” The situation became so tense that General Jahangir Karamat (Retired) Pakistan’s Ambassador to US, had to tap Musharraf on the shoulder & moved him away from the podium. May the enlightened moderation rest in peace?

Pakistanis must realise that no one and nothing is indispensable except the state. The gentleman under discussion has failed to deliver, to progress on the path to democracy, to improve the quality of life of the masses, to protect the dignity of our women folk. On every count, he has done just the opposite. His latest act in New York flopped beyond hopelessness.

It is time curtain should come down on this slothful drama. 20th September 2005.
 
The writer is Pakistan’s former Director General Health, former Minister Health & Population Welfare Sindh & former Pro-Chancellor Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences Sindh. He is author of two books.