Amid much fanfare, former military dictator General (retired) Pervez Musharraf
has launched a party and is adamant to return to Pakistan after a self-imposed exile. But returning home for Musharraf, it seems, is fraught with danger."There are several Muslim Leagues already working in Pakistan," eminent scholar and Pakistan’s top defence analyst Dr. Hasan Askari Rizvi told TSI. "A new one by Gen. Musharraf will have to prove its worth in the political domain. Only then one would say that it is better than others. At the moment it is just one of the groups," he explained.
However, political analysts are sceptical if Musharraf, who once vied to become Pakistan’s Kamal Ataturk, can come back home in very near future. "He is not expected to return to Pakistan soon because he might have to face court cases. But if he stays outside, his party will have little chance of gaining some ground," said Rizvi.
Musharraf must think twice before coming home. Firstly, Pakistan Muslim League (N) leader and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif whose elected government was toppled by Musharraf in 1999, can move a petition in a court of law under Article 6 of the Constitution of Pakistan under which he can be tried for treason.
Nawaz Sharif was packed and sent to Saudi Arabia under a dubious agreement and he remained in exile for quite a long time and was only allowed to return home in 2007 when Musharraf’s popularity graph was ebbing and apparently there was also resentment in senior army officers.
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Benazir Bhutto was also allowed to return home under the infamous National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO). The ordinance was drafted in such a way that cases pending against Benazir Bhutto, her husband Asif Ali Zardari and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif were withdrawn and a tacit agreement was made that would enable Musharraf to continue to be the president of Pakistan. Benazir's assassination though greatly changed the political equations in Pakistan.
Secondly, Musharraf can also be tried for the killing of Baloch leader and former governor of Balochistan, Nawab Akbar Bugti. A case is pending in Balochistan High Court in which Musharraf has been accused of murdering Bugti. Musharraf, it may be recalled, openly threatened Bugti that he could be killed.
The manner in which the elderly Nawab Bugti was killed in 2006 not only evoked sharp reaction in Balochistan but in the entire Pakistan. Even Bugti’s dead body was not handed over to his heirs for the last rites. Instead it was put in a wooden box that was locked. Since then there have been riots off and on in Balochistan and even in Lyari in Karachi where Baloch people are concentrated, especially on the occasions when his death anniversary is observed. Recently when Bugti’s death anniversary was observed, Quetta, the provincial headquarters of Balochistan, was paralysed and Baloch and Pushtoon people, otherwise far apart, unanimously observed a strike. Other parts of Balochistan also observed a strike. The alienation in Balochistan which has been under subjugation since 1948 when it was annexed, is total.
Similarly, there is resentment in the people of Pakistan the way Lal Masjid operation was handled. Musharraf is also resented the way he handled the "war on terror" since the military operation in the troubled Pushtoon Khuwa province, bordering Afghanistan and Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) has resulted in significant collateral damage and hundreds of innocent people, including women and children, have been killed.
Musharraf had the gall to state in his book that Pakistani soldiers were paid $ 5,000 for killing a Taliban as if Pakistani Army was a band of mercenary fighters.
The Musharraf government has also been accused of fudging economic data year after year. While the so-called economic assistance continued to flow from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), their advice to withdraw subsidies was ignored during the nine year rule of Musharraf, purely in order to keep his popularity graph up. As a result, the democratic government of Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani is facing the music because the prices of essential commodities have skyrocketed all of a sudden. No wonder a seeting anger can be guaged not only among the working classes but even in middle classes since they are finding it increasingly difficult to make both ends meet.
Similarly, the way the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Chaudhry Mohammad Ifhtikhar, was summoned and mistreated by Musharraf not only slighted the lawyers and the judges, but also the common people of the country who still had faith in the judiciary and looked up to it as an independent institution.
The Kargil misadventure and handling of Agra Summit amply demonstrated the egotism of an army General. Instead of protecting the soldiers, the General made a strategy full of faults. As a result, there was large number of casualties.
But Musharraf had plus points too. He played a vital role in the empowerment of women, tried to liberalise Pakistan society and undo the colossal damage that has been done to the social fabric of Pakistan society by the fundamentalist Gen. Ziaul Haq. Substantial funds were allocated for higher education and music and arts were promoted. Similarly, development funds were allocated for the backward areas such as the desert area of Tharparkar and a comprehensive road network was made connecting the otherwise isolated desert economy to the urban economy.
"Musharraf’s era has a mixed track record. It did make progress in the economic domain but like any military regime, it faltered because of its desire to hold on to power," said Rizvi.
One very significant development during the Musharraf era was that youth from the Hindu and Sikh community were inducted in the armed forces of Pakistan. This never happened before.
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