President Musharraf is seen by some observers and political opponents as having weakened after having shed his uniform as Chief of Army Staff. This, I believe is a myth. Consider the following:

As far as foreign observors are concerned, I think they make their observations based on the opinions expressed in Pakistan and therefore they cannot be blamed for being off the mark.

But the political opponents of Musharraf consider him to have weakened because he has doffed his army uniform as army chief. They are sadly mistaken because they must recall and not forget that it was the army which ousted Nawaz Sharif from power in 1999 and asked Musharraf to take charge of the country rather than Musharraf conducting the bloodless coup in 1999 and taking over the country. So there is no question of Musharraf having weakened after giving up his post as Army Chief. He had said that he would give up the post when he actually did.

One tends to think that the entire political turmoil in Pakistan is nothing but a storm in a teacup. The reason is that the entire turmoil has been magnified because of the dozens of TV news channels that have been given the license to opoerate by Pervez Musharraf himself and against the advice of some of his colleagues! Musharraf has even allowed the newspaper barons to launch news channels. Prior to Musharraf there were hardly any private channels and none supporting the opposition. This leaves a lingering doubt about the whole thing being a part of Musharraf’s political reform! In any case, these multiple news channels will eventually will give any incumbent government a hard time in future; and given time and experience, they may also expose the corruption in goverment departments and thus provide redress to the people.

Then, one must not forget that Musharraf was not troubled at all during his seven year rule from 1999 to 2007. During these seven years, no political party could launch any movement on the streets although their leaders tended to blow hot and cold on any news channel that would let them .

It was only during the year 2007, an election year, that the whole thing started i.e. towards March 2007 and that too when the President filed a reference against the chief justice. Who knows Musharraf may have set the ball rolling for reform of the judiciary by initiating the move!

Even recently, when the Geo TV news channel was banned for two and a half months for being irresponsible , nobody, no political party nor any outside power could do anything regarding the Electronic Authority’s move aside from making the proper noises.

An obersrvor who has viewed Paskistani politics up-close for long, one can easily predict that the 2008 national and provincial elections in Pakistan will indeed be held and all major political parties will participate in them, no matter what is said in newspapers and TV channels.

The only reality in the country which politicians and the media seem to ignore currently in preference to focussing on frivolous political issues is the threat of terrorism and extremism deteriorating into terrorism that faces Pakistan and endangers the very existence of Pakistan.

The time calls not for indulging in frivolous or less important issues. This is the time for every true Pakistani to come forward and fight the menace of terrorism and extremism. Ends.

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Tags: , Army, Chief, Geo TV, Musharraf, President