First the tragedy, then the farce!

The ignominy of seeing a messiah come in and proclaim to “save” the country has deeply traumatised the nation.

History is replete with instances confirming the indisputable wisdom of the well-known saying that “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. This may explain why Almighty Allah warns in no uncertain terms that sovereignty in the heavens and the earth belongs to Him and to Him all things will return (Surah 24, Ayat 42).

This revelation was proclaimed more than 1,400 years ago, when the rest of the world was still trapped in concepts as abhorrent as the “divine right of kings” and the “mandate of the heavens”. Gradually, and only after centuries of struggle, the insurmountable thirst of humans to be the arbiters and custodians of their own destinies enabled them to extract concessions from their despotic rulers, that eventually evolved into what we now call democratic governance and the rule of law.

Ironically, however, the overwhelming majority of Muslim states have remained prisoners of authoritarian regimes, wherein individuals or families have imposed systems that are a throwback to the discredited medieval concepts. Our own blessed land — though created through expression of the popular will and whose founding fathers were committed democrats — has also been caught in a vicious cycle of dictatorships ousting elected governments, at frequent intervals. The ignominy of seeing a messiah come charging in, proclaiming his resolve to clean the proverbial Augean stables and “save” the country has deeply traumatised the nation and left an indelible scar on its soul.

The enormous fallout of this oft-repeated folly has been to destroy institutions of state, sow seeds of disillusionment in the smaller federating units and create fresh fault lines in the federation. We have been through this experiment four times, with each one a greater disaster than the one before, which is why the departure of the last usurper was greeted with relief and joy.

However, just when it appeared that we had seen the last of the despised dictator, he decided to return to “save Pakistan”! Though people’s memories are proverbially short, no one has forgotten what this country experienced during those eight turbulent years: trashing of the Constitution, brutal imprisonment of an elected prime minister, forcible exile of another, rigged referendum, creation of a fake political party to give a civilian façade to an authoritarian rule, as well as the duplicitous policy of hunting with the Americans and running with the Taliban. But the “icing” on the regime’s achievement was the dismissal, house arrest and physical mishandling of the chief justice, which finally woke up this country’s hitherto sleepy civil society.

When the dictator was finally eased out, the nation renewed its commitment to the ideals of its founding fathers and began the painful task of repair and rehabilitation of the democratic institutions, to re-enter the international community of nations with the dignity and respect that it deserves. This also explains the overwhelming enthusiasm in the populace for the forthcoming elections.

But then, this great general was always known for bluster and braggadocio — camouflaged as bravery and courage — rather than for sagacity and judiciousness. His own biography is a testimony to his strong streak of narcissism and his lifelong self-delusion that he was not only physically irresistible but intellectually overpowering as well. So long as he was merely commanding troops, his fanciful ideas were merely irritants to his colleagues. But when he took command of the finest body of soldiers, his faults were to bring unprecedented disaster and ignominy to the country.

After eight years of strutting the stage proclaiming his virtues, while giving free rein to his vices, we now have the bizarre spectacle of the commando fleeing from the courtroom, while his lawyers protest the living conditions of his own house, where he is currently imprisoned. It appears that his infatuation with his own vanity and craving for admiration have finally led him to enact a farce, after having inflicted a tragedy on this nation.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 24^th, 2013.