When a people lose all that make a nation, a messiah is desperately wanted to save them from extinction. Pakistani people need a deliverer to wrench them away from the clutches of a parasitic military establishment led by ambitious generals  determined to destroy it and call it victory. Having created a sea of chaos and anarchy, Musharaf is clueless that he is leading Pakistan to its demise by drowning it in problems he created. The dangerous drift needs arresting since Pakistan stands at the precipice.

The unending cartoon protests that surprised are a manifestation of deep-seated dissatisfaction imploding into an anti-Musharraf movement. The mobs charged by the foreign acts of blasphemy to the Holy Prophet (PBUH) have found it an excuse to express condemnation of the present rulers who usurped power to exploit the resources of the country for the benefit of the military establishment. While the common man is groaning under the weight of highest ever price spiral, their rulers are having a field day living off the state as most occupiers do.

Without undermining the invisible and visible factors foretelling a change around the corner-if it is not the end of the state-it is time for the electorally recognised political leadership to stage a come back by returning to the mainstream before mulla-military alliance strikes back. The prediction of Jamaat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad that General Pervez Musharraf would not take salute at the 23rd March Republic Day ceremonial military parade, should not be dismissed lightly. He is hinting at another mulla-military re-takeover.

Notwithstanding the genuine anger of the people over the acts of blasphemy, the military establishment tried to use their sentiments to kill two birds with one stone. It tried stage-managing the resentment by allowing its own Mulla "B" teamers to do it to warn the West of the so-called Islamist peril. The initial protests in Punjab comprised of handful of people. It was only after Musharraf's confidante in Punjab-Pervez Elahi-intervened that their numbers increased.  It allowed those discontented with the regime to join in and Lahore saw the worst violence and arson.  And now there are no end to the protests all over the country.

The anti-cartoon protests were cleverly transformed-both advertently and inadvertently-- into anti-Musharraf agitation. The masses were waiting  to settle their scores with the usurper regime denying them basic rights and resources by coming out in the streets. Political sagacity demands of the democratic forces to take over the lead. With the visit of President Bush around the corner, they must realise that the military establishment engineered a road show of Islamist peril to enlist more American support to the General and his military regime (now taken over by the people). Undoubtedly the Mullas got the nod to do it from their masters in the right quarters but the masses have wrested it to be an opportunity to lead to a possible political change.

I stoutly believe that no change for good shall come to Pakistan unless the people want and are willing to die for a better life for their successive generations. Those of us who look towards Washington to gift-wrap democracy and deliver it at our door step are totally in the wrong. Its Western friends professing democracy, time and again, have betrayed Pakistan. For the pursuit of their own strategic interests, they have always shown preference to expediency. We have seen it how they supported the first martial law imposed by General Ayub Khan in 1958 when he made Pakistan a king pin in their Cold War against the Soviet Union. Ayub bartered our freedom, independence and sovereignty for the sake of his own recognition by them rather than seeking legitimacy by his people leading to the break up of Pakistan under General Yahya.

About their support to General Zia, the less said the better. It shall permanently occupy the most gory part of modern history along with Hitler and the like. The entire democratic West-mostly Washington-went out of their way to support Zia's martial law when he ruled Pakistan through hanging, whipping and incarcerating the democracy loving people in hundreds and thousands besides inflicting permanently on the nation his gifts of kalashnikov and heroin culture. His other disservice to the democratic polity was to lay the foundation of Talibanisation of Pakistan,  state sponsorship to ethnicity and sectarianism to divide the power of the people. And all through his long eleven years he received military and financial support from the West in abundance.

Thanks to the Western support in general and Washington's in particular, Pakistan---a country that was established by one of the most democrat of all leaders of his time-the Quaid--to be model of a democratic state among the Muslim countries-was rendered into one of the worst specimen's of military dictatorships to the extent that on many occasions its government of the day was described by the free press in the West, as a country run by  "pimps and prostitutes".

According to one Pakistan anaylst, "The pattern suggests a deliberate effort to destabilise the state of Pakistan by undermining its domestic credibility and support in particular. So, despite the protests over Bajaur, we continue to see the US military carrying out military action on Pakistani soil against Pakistani citizens -- the latest being the violation of Pakistani air space by a US helicopter on 29th January and the harassment of Pakistani citizens in the tribal belt by the release of flares by US helicopters which have hit children and terrorised the locals. Alongside, the US and British media at regular intervals come up with editorials and stories that try to establish the reluctance of the Pakistani leadership towards capture of al-Qaeda leaders. Never mind that the arrest of most of the members of this group so far could not have been possible without the help of Pakistan -- that little fact is conveniently forgotten."

The above observation is a sad reflection over the helplessness of the Musharraf regime to protest with its American masters on even genuine matters of concern.  Some protested on the diatribe of the prestigious Washington Post against President Bush's "courageous leader" Musharraf or his Knight Templar-call what you may (January 25th). The Pakistani general who was an international pariah on 9-11 for staging a military coup and derailing democracy in Pakistan, has been holding the Americans a hostage to the much bloated Islamist peril.

It is rather naïve of the Western media not to mention the fact that despite his 'Jihad' to please the Americans in the post-9-11 period Musharraf in 2002 ensured an enormous electoral victory for MMA in an internationally declared fraudulent, greatly flawed and rigged polls in which results were changed both in favour of MMA and the Kings party while denying legitimate victory to Benazir Bhutto's PPP and PML (N). And ever since the same policy has continued while secular leaders are hunted down, marginalised and defamed, religious supporters of the General have remained prosperous and free to hold public rallies etc.

One aggress with Dr Mazari that the conduct of US policies and war have resulted in the creation of more space for the terrorists when the strategy should have been of denying political space to them. Unfortunately, Dr Mazari does not lament that by undermining democratic forces and supporting a military dictator in Pakistan whose commando mind had masterminded the whole strategy of cross-border terrorism and use of foreign militants for the pursuit of his own geo-political ambitions, the "arrogant superpower and its civil society" had committed "strategic errors."