General Musharraf prepared well-chalked out plan to sustain himself in power which is moving smoothly towards its successful eventuality. Chief Justice reinstated on the 20th of July and two other potential threats to his authority – Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif – formed ARD to dislodge him from his office. It was a precarious situation for him where he was caught in a no man’s land. Things were looking rosy for democratic powers in the country. Lawyers’ movement showed that it would be hunky-dory for Pakistan if that mood persists for any length of time. But as always, establishment came up with the plan that so far has solved most of the problems of Mr. President.
In my opinion, there are two acts of this drama. It all started when General went to Abu Dhabi suddenly and the nation heard that Pakistan Peoples Party’s Chairperson was having a dialogue with the insignia of military rule in Pakistan just to bargain few personal interests and some power sharing formula. It shell-shocked Pakistani people. Benazir Bhutto persistently said that this dialogue would not affect her overall standing in political arena but independent polls indicate that her popularity is coming down as rapidly as prices are going up in Pakistan. She was so excited about the whole deal package that she made herself isolated. Mian Nawaz Sharif publicly said that it was the breach of ARD to enter into any kind of dialogue with Army ruler and then he decided to form APDM with support of MMA and other smaller parties. But Benazir carried her march towards the attractive deal. She pinned all her hopes with the deal and few days back she came up empty-handed after proclaiming that PML-Q sabotaged her progress towards a deal which could have changed Pakistan’s future. And now after proving herself as the part of Musharraf’s boat she has created a situation for herself where majority of Pakistanis think PPP as pro-Musharraf than anti-Musharraf. This sentiment tarnished Benazir Bhutto to an extent that she may not get an overwhelming majority to form a government without coalition. So first part of the plan was to welcome Benazir in a dialogue and then leave her at the juncture where her popularity crashed and she remains helpless without much support of PML-Q to form any kind of government or sit in opposition. Plan-A accomplished successfully!
Now let us move towards second plan. When Mian Saheb shook hands with Benazir Bhutto to topple Musharraf government, he became another potential threat. Musharraf brought MMA his old allies into the play to strengthen his stay in power to execute his plan-B which he prepared for Nawaz Sharif. MMA and other smaller parties told Sharif family that you become a non-entity in ARD in presence of Benazir Bhutto and you are still a power in Pakistan politics to tackle Musharraf challenge alone right at the time when Musharraf opened a dialogue with Benazir in Abu Dhabi. They also assured him that petition against his exile in Supreme Court would be enough to get him back to his motherland. Timing was perfect. Mian Saheb felt cheated. Prevailing mood of SC and assurances of several parties made him over-confident to confront army ruler from the platform of APDM and he filed a petition against his exile. As expected, SC ordered in his favor. He was then left with no option except getting back to Pakistan. He booked a flight, tied his seat belt and landed at Islamabad Airport with the convoy.
Government already brought Saudi Arabia to help itself. Mian Saheb was exiled again with strict orders of not releasing any political statements against any political issues of Pakistan. So Nawaz Sharif episode is over now at least for three years.
Now General Musharraf is back on his foot. He has no one to challenge his stay in the power except MMA (secretively), MQM, and PML-Q (openly) and all of them are on his own side.
In midst of all of this, one real hope is Supreme Court which is also under immense pressure after few horrible incidents in Karachi court and with lawyers all over the country.
Photo Credits: Photos for this post are taken from the daily Dawn.
What a brilliant plan, well done Musharraf and the establishment. Pakistanis should enjoy the drama and then talk about it endlessly, as they always do.
Thanks Usman, I would rank the Political parties as:
PML-Q for their best Sikhashahi, excellent lies, murder cases of dafa 302, fools paradise, a disastrous & corrupt political scenario, return to colonialism.
PPP =Moral, financial & political bankruptsy, millions stolen from the nation, never had democracy within the party, ambitions to make Pakistan USA’s 51st State. Experties in all kinds of corruptions. But some able members will wakeup
very soon and through the feudal’s lot OUT.
MQM = “corrupt ” defective bridges, fraudulantly acclaimed constructions, mass production of trained thugs and murderers, organised Loadsheding Mafia in Karachi,(48 % of KESC are full member of MQM ) the remainings are forced sympathisers. Lead by a mad, sick victim of a peculier pathology.
PML-N =Naive, nervousness resulting mishandling of many situations,victim of jealousy, being authentic rich, having businessman’s calculations, but have atleast some morals culture and traditions, very patriotic, perhaps missing bit of
boldness and courage, but far far better than others.
Excellent work Ahsan.
I support current government, no matter how its been formed and whose orders it is following, I have seen alot of boom in media, technology, services, economics and jobs in pakistan and people who are governing at the moment understands current issues, Any new government will find itself lost and put pakistan 2 years back as non of the other (PML-N, PPP) parties have any agendas or development policies or keep themself upto date with stats and current issue.
Our major parties need to form economic, social, internal and external wings who study, survey and analyse current developments in the country and have their own policies for future, Only then i can see democracy succeeding in pakistan. In such fashion they can contribute when they are in opposition instead of pulling the ruling party’s legs.
According to my judgement, I will rank political parties
1.PML-Q (for their good governence in last few years)
2.PPP (they still have few good politicians, i dnt want benazir to become prime minister once again and disgrace pakistan. For that reason i support Mushraf’s ammendments and like him to stay for another term.)
3.MQM (for their efforts to empower middle class people)
4.PML-N (They should really kick nawaz family out of the party if they want to survive, have better policies and change their pro-business attitude as in their terms we have seen alot of business monopolies and factories dieing out)
Need of hour: Musharaf + { (PML-Q + MQM) OR (PPP) }
I agree that it is better to talk about cricket where, unlike Pakistani politics, the rules are the same for everyone.
“A Pakistani says:
Mushy Rocks and will keep on rocking!!!
Best of Luck Mush. ”
He sure is trying to rock Pakistan’s boat. But there have been many before him who tried to do that and ended with egg on their face. Inshallah, his fate will not be much different.
BTW, even if he wins this election using his strong arm tactics, it will be just a pyrrhic victory. Lets not forget that Z. A Bhutto also got himself a landslide victory in 1977 elections by similar means but in the end it did not matter because the whole nation refused to accept that fraud and the rest is history.