Past master in game of deception, this megalomaniac
character is
now busy repainting his Praetorian image with a brush that would make him look
like a modern, progressive and liberal democrat on an election trail to save
what he calls Quaid’s Pakistan confronted by a definite demise. His slogan for
“mother of all elections”—a close contest between the moderates and the
extremists to be held some time in 2007-- is a passionate appeal to the
electorate to vote for the “moderate and enlightened” candidates to stem the
rising tide of extremism threatening Pakistan with extinction.
According to some political analysts, this obviously
means his own election a third time as the President in uniform and election of
those persons green-pencilled by him and his intelligence apparatus as
candidates. A source in the PML-Q revealed to me that in his recent closed door
meetings with the key figures in the party he had just one assignment for
them—get him two-third majority. He also assured them that his entire
administrative set up including the intelligence agencies—would be at their
service to make their task of winning two-third majority easier. He also allayed
their fears of new political alignments and assured them “we will sink and swim
together”. Those who know him well and the commando that he is, they believe
that he would do what he was taught in the SSG as the basic instinct—if there is
a trap situation—run if you can, there is always another day tomorrow.
His desire for the election of “enlightened and
moderates” is much similar to Zia’s concept of “positive results” (musbat
nataiaj). Newer methods of pre-polls rigging have been set in motion, the
contract to supply thousands of computers that could churn out results according
to the data prepared before hand has been given to the close confidantes of the
Gujrati thugs deeply in cahoots with the General to carry out “mother of all
riggings” in Musharraf’s “mother-of-all elections”.
Notwithstanding Shaheen Sehbai’s forecast of a more
favourable climate for former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in the months ahead,
my submission here is based on independent sources active on ground in Pakistan.
For them—like Ms Bhutto—change of far-reaching socio-economic and political
consequences can only come about when people through free, fair and transparent
elections exercise their vote and establish themselves as the sole arbiters of
power. There is no short cut to it—even via Washington route.
When Pakistan’s military establishment started
exercising the take over of the country from the civilian leaders of the
pre-partition breed, they came up with their idea of the so-called
Nazaria-i-Pakistan—an ideology contrary to the liberal vision of Mr Jinnah, gave
it a religious mould and incorporated in it as its crusaders the bearded Mullahs
rejected by the Muslim electorate in the pre-partitioned sub-continent in their
preference to a westernized, London-educated, cigar/cigarette smoking and wine
drinking Mr Jinnah.
Right from the days of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan who too
was declared a “kafir” by the religious right, Islam was never an issue. Muslims
in India had freedom to pray, had their own personal laws and they were equal
citizens with the Hindus in the religious sense. It was in the political and
more so economic sense that they were deprived communities. Whether it was Syed
Ahmed Khan, Allama Muhammad Iqbal or Mr Jinnah—the main objective before them
was the renaissance of Muslims as a socio-politico-economic force.
Mr Jinnah minced no words in declaring :
-
That
he would not have a Pakistan in which man would not exploit man (it did not
exclude women); in which poor will become poorer and rich richer;
-
That
in his Pakistan religion shall not have anything to do with the business of
the state, that is, it shall not be a theocratic state.
-
That
in his Pakistan all its citizens shall be equal irrespective of their caste,
creed or colour. They shall cease to be Muslims, Christians, Hindus etc., in
the political sense and as equal citizens, they shall be free to go to their
mosques, temples and churches etc.
-
That
in his Pakistan there shall be equality of opportunity, that it shall be an
egalitarian state based on the socio-economic justice of Islam and Islamic
socialism.
-
That
in his Pakistan sovereignty shall belong to the people, that its armed
forces and civil servants shall remain subservient to the commands of an
elected government;
-
That
the right to change the government shall remain with the people.
Pakistan today is definitely under threat of an
imminent demise as the General puts it. He does not say that it has come to this
stage because its military establishment gave the religious cover to the secular
ideology of Mr Jinnah’s Pakistan and exploited the so-called Nazaria-i-Pakistan
to perpetuate itself in power through Mullah-Military alliance to waylay
Pakistan’s march onto the road to secular democracy. The greatest disservice
that the military establishment has done to Pakistan—for me it is worst than its
shameless surrender to India in 1971 at Dhaka—was to distort Pakistan’s secular
and liberal ideology and replace it with the Nazaria-e-Pakistan.
This deliberate ideological distortion has fractured
the unity among the people, deprived Pakistan of its avowed secular raison
d’etre and converted Pakistan into an epicentre of global Jihadi terrorism. The
military burial of its Jinnahite secular raison d’etre has brought Pakistan to
the point in many capitals of the world where geo-strategic decisions are taken
to the conclusion that since Pakistan-- as projected by its military
establishment and Mullahs—is a religious state based on Islam as its
ideology—will have to be written off in order to save the world from Jihadi
terrorism paving ground for a Third World War.
Notwithstanding his call for “mother-of-all
elections” and the misconstrued euphoria about the truncated Women’s Protection
Bill, the conclusive fact is that such half-hearted measures cannot save
Pakistani women from becoming a victim in the prevailing culture of rape or for
that matter “mother-of-all elections” can avoid Pakistan’s inevitable demise.
The medicine needed to cure the patient is going back to Pakistan’s secular
ideology, a quiet burial to the so-called Nazaria-business, total disengagement
of the military from politics, dismantling the political role of the
intelligence agencies, free, fair and transparent election, genuine transfer of
power to the elected representatives of the people and establishment of the rule
of law. Merely rhetorical show of concern on the threat of demise of the country
or calling the 2007 polls “mother-of-all elections” are nothing but empty
vessels making the meaningless noise. (Pakistan Weekly Nov 30, 2006)
