The bane of the people in Pakistan has been that democracy has not been allowed to flourish. Generally it is believed that military rulers have been responsible for this fault but the truth is that it has been the failure or rather the corruption of politicians which has forced the military rulers to grab power. It is a matter of record that the military rulers have taken over the reins of power only when the civilian rulers have proven inept and when the military rulers have been beseeched by the press and the people to come in.

Similar has been the case in Musharraf’s case but with an interesting twist. While other military rulers in the past, after being beseeched by the press and the people, have come in themselves, Musharraf, apparently, was called in by the army, which deposed Nawaz Sharif, to take over.Musharraf responded by taking over the helm of affairs and by transforming Pakistan from an almost failed state to emerge as a very, strong, viable state. This is not empty praise. Most economic indicators of the country are testimony to this fact.After ensuring Pakistan’s viability as a state and ensuring economic well being for the country, Musharraf turned his hand to reforming the political scene in the country.He has introduced local government system in the country which could not be inducted by any so-called ‘democratic’ civilian government; in fact, the Peoples Party gave up on this system after it was opposed by its own legislators [for reasons of their own] and by now two such elections of local government have successfully taken place.

Musharraf conducted elections in the year 2002 and the national and four provincial assemblies that came into being as a result of these elections successfully completed their tenure of five years and were duly dissolved thereafter.After the dissolutions of the assemblies, one of which was headed by an opposition group in the NWFP, he brought in a caretaker government. A sitting government in Pakistan as never brought in a caretaker government under which national and provincial elections have been held; but Musharraf has done it in order to eliminate the baseless charge of partial elections.Musharraf has also asked the Election Commission to reform its election process to make the elections absolutely transparent.During all this while i.e. about eight years of his rule, Musharraf has displayed a tolerance which has never been seen on the Pakistani political scene whether by a military man or a civilian who was in power. Then, Musharraf defied himself by letting Benazir and Nawaz return to Pakistan by issuing a Reconciliation Ordinance although he is on

record as saying earlier that the two would not be allowed to participate in Pakistani elections. This reconciliation ordinance removes all cases, purported to have been created on political basis, whether they were on Benazir or Nawaz or Shahbaz or any other individual or party. Mind you, all these cases had been created during Benazir’s previous rule or Nawaz’ and none was created during Musharraf’s tenure.However, although this Ordinance that Musharraf had issued allowed Benazir and Nawaz to return to Pakistan they continued to criticize Musharraf even if their criticism was somewhat lopsided and illogical.But Musharraf has patiently persevered with all this. Till Benazir was killed and her husband took up the cudgels to criticize Musharraf unduly.

The behavior of the political opposition during this year has been very, very, disappointing. Instead of thanking Musharraf for all he has done for Pakistan, and instead of strengthening his hands for Pakistan’s onward march towards good democracy and not the sort of sham democracy that was witnessed during the two rules each of Benazir and Nawaz in the past, they arestill up to their old tactics which makes one feel that all they are after is power and not democracy and welfare of Pakistanis as they profess.

In any case, how can anyone believe that the Peoples Party and the Nawaz League each of which used its two stints in power to rob the people and the country instead of providing redress to them, can ever truly serve the country?

The western powers who in all reality do not want to see Pakistan, an Islamic country, as a strong and healthy entity, although they might have had to align with it temporarily to serve their own interests, add to the plight of Musharraf with their undue interference in Pakistan’s affairs although Pakistan is in the forefront of the war on Terrorism.

Considering all this, it will be a sad day if ever Musharraf was ousted from power in Pakistan. Actually, it will be a sad reflection on the army which would have let such a staunch and honest Pakistani succumb to pressures. End.

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Tags: Musharraf, Pakistan, politicians, Sharif