An unimpressive rally

No matter how much Musharraf might think otherwise, his political party is devoid of both ideas and supporters.

For the umpteenth time since he was forced out of power and had to flee the country, Pervez Musharraf vowed that he would be back, this time within the month. Given that he would likely be arrested and put on trial for a host of alleged crimes, from the killing of Akbar Bugti to the Lal Masjid operation, his words should be taken with a very large helping of salt. Even though he is safely ensconsed in London and Dubai, Mr Musharraf decided to hold a rally in Karachi in response to the mega-rallies Imran Khan has been organising throughout the country. The turnout was anaemic, with between six and ten thousand people in attendance, quite a few of whom had left before the former president’s live video speech, leading many to speculate that the All Pakistan Muslim League had perhaps rented much of the crowd.

What Musharraf had to say wasn’t any more inspiring. Taking inspiration from Imran Khan’s tsunami, he described his rally as an “earthquake”, perhaps not the wisest word choice by a person whose government was so roundly criticised for its handling of the 2005 earthquake. In fact, the only point of Musharraf’s rally seemed to be taking shots at Imran Khan. He even co-opted the PTI chief’s use of cricket metaphors, saying that he had already scored a century in politics while others hadn’t even had a chance to bat yet.

But Musharraf spent much of his speech defending the indefensible: his record as dictator. The man, in whose regime Akbar Bugti was killed, claimed to have done more for the province than anyone else. The ruler who made peace deals with the Taliban which failed before the ink on them had dried and was unable to control extremism, somehow managed to place the blame for that on the current set-up. The president who encouraged the import of luxury consumer goods now blamed the PPP government for being in the clutches of the IMF after being the one who spent more than we could afford. It seems Musharraf is not content at the opportunity he has got to live out his retirement in peaceful obscurity rather than in a jail cell. But as today’s rally showed, no matter how much he might think otherwise, his political party is devoid of both ideas and supporters.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 10^th, 2012.