WHISK

An anchor was recently shocked on his show when a college student called up and threatened to immolate himself if Musharraf was removed from power. At the final of the Asia Cricket tournament in Karachi, when the camera panned to Musharraf seated among the audience, a roar of approval rose from the crowd as they stood in applause – a far cry from the response received by Gillani when he attended a match in Faisalabad recently. At a dinner in Karachi, hosted by the city’s business community, Musharraf was the guest of honor. People are finally crawling out of the woodwork to give support back to a man who has done more for this country than any of our ‘democratically’ elected leaders.

I’ve said many times that the Pakistani nation is cursed with short memories, and have always swung like the proverbial sheep to support whoever is not in power. Which is why Nawaz, who was sentenced to a 21-year ban on holding office by the newly-appointed Chief Justice (that’s right, by none other than Iftikhar Chaudhry himself), was able to come back into the country and declare himself a hero. Just 8 years ago (which doesn’t even qualify as a generation ago), BBC was reporting that ‘Major political parties and newspapers in Pakistan have reacted angrily to news that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has gone into exile in Saudi Arabia after being freed from prison.’ They described public reaction as hostile, backed by the media of the day. Noone remembers, nor asks him to account for the millions he raised with his ‘Qarz Utaro, Mulk Sawaro’ scheme, which was meant to go towards paying the national debt. I know of organizations that took a percentage of their employee checks and deposited them straight into the scheme. Poor people contributed Rs. 5, Rs. 10, whatever they could afford – even if every person in the country contributed no more than Rs. 1 apiece, that makes Rs. 160 million. Where did the money go? Straight into the ‘Amir-ul-Momineen’s’ pockets?

Few people remember the reason BB went into exile – not to flee the coup, but rather to avoid a 5-year prison sentence, a £5 million fine, and a ban on holding public office, awarded in April 1999. Along with Mr. Ten Percent, her 8 years abroad were lavishly spent, which included the purchase of a necklace worth a whopping £117,000, later confiscated by the Swiss courts. I’m sure she felt the pain of the poor people of Pakistan while making that particular purchase. She preferred not to pay the fine, and in lieu, Nawaz Sharif’s government auctioned various holdings known to belong to her, including the £4 million Surrey estate. Just as her father once threatened to break the legs of politicians that dared to step into Mujeeb-ur-Rehman’s parliament (the rightful winner of the 1973 elections), Zardari terrorized businesses throughout the country to ensure his commission. He was also convicted of corruption under Nawaz’s government, and while he did spend much of his time in jail, ‘prison’ is a loose term applied to his living conditions, which included servants, air conditioners and cable TV. To those detractors against the corruption charge brought against the couple, please read the Special Report by the NYTimes in 1998.

All in all, when Musharraf stepped into the fray, he was welcomed, cheered and embraced with relief. As one man stepping into a system deeply entrenched in corrupt practices, he did nevertheless, manage to bring many reforms and relief to the country. From the devolution of power, which brought Mustafa Kamal into the scene (clearly the system works – all it needs is honest people to run it), to the reforms in the notoriously misused Hudood Ordinance, to the media explosion and Press Freedom, to the complete turnaround of our economy, the last time we saw such progress was during Ayub khan’s “Decade of Progress” in the sixties.

Close examination of his actions against Chaudhry on March 9, which was the major reason for his downfall, will show that there was nothing unconstitutional about it. He received a reference against the CJ, and passed it on to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), as detailed in our Constitution. Chaudhry, however, chose instead to be judged by his peers on the SC bench. This is where the ‘Lawyer’s Movement’ loses credibility – how do you support him as CJ when a) he took oath under a PCO in 1999, and b) he refuses to be held accountable for his own actions? He himself made a farce of the Constitution by objecting to the composition of the SJC bench. It’s not really his place to decide who will judge him. Yet he has managed to attain the status of ‘saviour’ among lawyers, who presumably, are educated people.

Our media, closely involved in Chaudhry’s rise to fame, have also endorsed the many statements of ‘pressure’ to remove Musharraf as President. The Sharif’s insist, since they have the pulse of the people, that their dual mandate included his removal from his seat. I have a question: where are the results of this poll that asks for his removal? How many people, from what area, what income bracket, what age, what political affiliation were part of this poll? What credible source exists in this country that can be said to speak for the people, and not for the few elite who rule? Not our media, they’ve shown themselves to be openly biased.

Within the small circle I move in, consensus remains that Musharraf must remain; I make it a point now to speak to the everyone I come into contact with - shopkeepers, stalls, drivers, ordinary people on the street, and die-hard PPP or PML-N fans are a distinct minority. So I want to know, again, where is the pressure really coming from, if not from the ruling elite that are shaking in their socks over the possibility of 58-2B removing them from their high horses?

We have very short, selective memories, and its time our Media played their role in reminding the nation that the Sharifs and the Bhuttos, the Zardaris and the Chaudhrys are a scourge, not a boon, that Musharraf was not really a dictator (think Polpot, Mugabe, even Zia-ul-Haq for real definitions of ‘dictator’); that the first political party to take up arms was not MQM, but Jamaat-e-islaami (Qazi Hussain), that Lal Masjid was not a peaceful protest (kidnapping, terror, armed conflict); that Shahbaz Sharif was behind numerous extra-judicial killings, that democracy does not mean prosperity for party followers, but for the entire country, and that democracy means that even the woman who comes to clean my house is eligible to lead, as long as she shows leadership qualities; that our religion has no compulsion and tolerance is one of the cornerstones of Islam, that journalists cannot allow political affiliations to color their views, and that really, we need Musharraf back at the helm.

Get real, please.