The return of Musharraf

The army wants nothing to do with Musharraf, his followers have lost hope-so who and what exactly is he returning for?

Some Hollywood sequels hold the promise of becoming big ticket numbers, especially if their heroes are of world-saving ilk.

The Dark Knight, Terminator 2 and even Die Hard 2 are examples of movies whose characters struck such a chord with the audience that people couldn’t wait for them to return to fight the big, bad villains.

Pakistan is not short of characters, and not necessarily fictitious ones, who are chomping at the bit to make a comeback. Their desire to return to the spotlight is, however, not necessarily a reflection of audience demand.Their promos and trailers have been running forever and the release date keeps getting pushed back.

A case in point is the return of the general — former president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf.

Ever since his departure in 2008, Musharraf has been making announcements of returning to Pakistan. The most recent one was made on March 1 when he said he would catch a flight within a week after the interim government took control.

Whether or not he sticks to his plan this time, Musharraf has to take into consideration whether the audience still wants to hear his confident speeches and give him another shot at saving Pakistan.

The first Musharraf episode may have started with some avid fans and hopes for a happy ending, but somewhere in the middle, by suspending the chief justice of Pakistan, ordering the Lal Masjid Operation and imposing emergency rule in 2007, the end of his presidency was an anticlimax.

Now, the army — original producers of General (retd) Musharraf — appears to want nothing to do with him, and his followers are not sure if he can undo the destruction left in his wake.

So who again is Musharraf hoping to make a comeback for?

The question the general needs to ask himself is this:

How much value can a comeback hold if the audience has no interest in wasting their time with a sequel?

Read more by Zahrah here.