Pakistan: Who gets what?

I have usually seen Pervez Musharraf's name crop up when the person writing or talking about him is in a rather belligerent mood and is groping for someone to thoroughly bash. I have a strong feeling that this is the same sort of Musharraf-bashing that many of our leading columnists, some of them retired army officers, used to indulge in even when he was COAS and president of the country. Retired armed forces officers of all hues and shades indulge in similar activity when they get a chance. Perhaps they are all trying to settle old scores.

I am quite amused to see that along with Pervez Musharraf, his spirit has also been in the news these days. Mian Nawaz Sharif is of the considered view that Musharraf's spirit has entered Asif Ali Zardari's body, on which assertion the retired general seems to be pretty amused and has commented that those who are saying such things should be careful about his spirit entering their bodies as well!

It is said that Musharraf infused strong vibrancy in the otherwise dead Pakistani media by giving them liberties that went beyond their wildest imagination. The very media that Musharraf made sure was freed of the fetters that previous 'democratic' governments had shackled it in, left no stone unturned in paying the man back for his virtues and mistakes with unrestrained criticism even when he was in power, whether in uniform or out of it. Ever since Musharraf left the scene, one has witnessed TV anchors and their guests climbing over each other in using the most offensive language when they talk about him, while the print media either black him out completely or relegate him to single-column, back page or double column, page 3. 

I was saddened the other day to see anti-Musharraf bias making itself manifest in a particular TV show where the anchor, a well-known journalist from the Urdu press, presents a selection of stories from the day's newspapers. In the course of picking up the newspapers, placing them strategically before the camera for good visibility and reading out their contents, his hand stopped many times and then moved on from a clipping titled 'A General point', written by the Indian journalist Karan Thapar and carried by the previous Sunday's Daily Times. The article was in praise of General Musharraf and was penned in the background of his recent trip to India to address the India Today Conclave. Thus wrote Thapar:  

“Last Saturday, as he held the India Today Conclave spellbound for over two and a half hours, my mind jumped to our own politicians and I couldn't help compare Musharraf to them. Would Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi or LK Advani and Prakash Karat willingly submit themselves to such hostile questioning from an Indian audience and emerge unscathed? The audience - the lions' den - he faced was not his compatriots but Indians, who could be more accurately described as his enemies.”

In the earlier part of the same piece, Thapar had written: “I have to admit, I've never come across someone like Pervez Musharraf. This is not necessarily a compliment. It's simply a statement of fact. But think about it - he's a former dictator who revels in free speech much like a dedicated democrat; he's a general who is, amazingly enough, also a gripping orator; he's a stern disciplinarian but he has a winning sense of humor; he projects a tough commando exterior but his clothes reveal a sharp sense of sartorial elegance. Indeed, he's a man of so many apparent paradoxes, he's impossible to define.”

Obviously, such praise from an Indian journalist was perhaps too much to stomach for our TV anchorperson, so he eventually picked up the clipping, simply read the headline and, without any further comment about what was said in the story, moved on to the next piece. 

But talking of Pervez Musharraf's recent India trip, it must be said that since he was there just a few months after the Mumbai attacks and had to face all the rancor that the attacks had left in their wake, it was certainly quite a brave journey to undertake. Musharraf certainly rose to the occasion in his customary fashion. Having had a chance to meet him socially on a few occasions before he undertook the trip, I even thought he was quite eager to go and fling himself into what Thapar was to later describe as 'the lions' den'.

I was not present at the Conclave but what one learns from reports, Pervez Musharraf stressed in his presentation that while both India and Pakistan had engaged in unfortunate activities in the past to harm each other, they needed to move forward now and stop dwelling in the past and accusing each other of misdeeds. He also strongly argued that the Pakistan Army and the I.S.I. were not playing any “double game” and were fully committed to fighting terrorism and extremism.

Musharraf stressed the point again in his interview with Arun Poorie, when he said the war hysteria must be stopped. 

“Just a day into the investigations, the Pakistani army and the ISI was blamed for it,” he said, “I am for a considered and mature response to these issues.” At the Conclave, Musharraf also discussed Indian involvement in terrorist activities in Afghanistan against Pakistan and their support for known terrorist individuals. 

In the tough question-answer session that followed, the former Pakistani president asserted that there was far more hostility towards Pakistan in India, even war hysteria, than there is hostility towards India in Pakistan.  

The overall impact of Musharraf's India visit, I am told, was that he came across as a brave defendant of the nation amidst an ocean of hostility. Unlike many other Pakistani personalities who love to make a statement or two against their country while in India, Musharraf uttered not a word against Pakistan. Instead, he defended the nation with all his might and in quite an unapologetic manner. 

Addressing a crowded press conference in Karachi just after he landed back from India, the general was quite upbeat about his India trip and seemed visibly satisfied that he had represented Pakistan in hostile territory with considerable success. At the back of his mind somewhere, there must have been a lurking wish to have been in the driving seat, particularly at this difficult juncture when the country is surrounded by so many problems. Sure enough, when a media person popped the question, he said he would be interested, in becoming an effective president if an offer was made but he followed this with the remark that as of now he had no plans to join politics.  

Time has moved on since Musharraf left the scene and even Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, is back in his job. But have things really changed? I am reminded of a lunch meeting that I had in New York in August 2007, with Caren Zissis, a Senior Associate at the Council on Foreign Relations. She was discussing Pakistan's political future with me in my capacity as founder of the Moderates. At one point, she asked me how long it would take for a democratic process to take root in Pakistan and my reply was: “Even if opposition leaders can form an alliance to oust Musharraf, as soon as he is out, they will be divided on who gets what.”

So, who gets what? 

Syed Jawaid Iqbal is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of SouthAsia Online.

Syed Jawaid Iqbal is the Editor-in-Chief of Southasia Magazine. He is also the Founding Chairman of Moderates - a private sector think tank committed to strengthening tolerance, interfaith, harmony and democracy.

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