Spotlight on Musharraf

People who mould opinion in Pakistan appear to have both tunnel vision as well as a short memory. How else can one explain this sudden yearning to bring back a head of state who became so unpopular towards the end of his 11-year rule that he was in danger of being impeached had he not tendered his resignation?

Like all dictators who have a special gift for patronising enthusiasm, Mr Musharraf started well and had tremendous public support. And then, with the passage of time, the disease that afflicts all heads of state set in and he ended up a quivering bag of naked solipsistic self-pity. Enoch Powell said all political lives end in failure, and this is certainly true of Pakistan where heads of state have to govern over a lawless society, a fragmented, raggedy bag of competing orthodoxies and the most misogynistic and testosterone -fuelled place in the world.

While Mr Musharraf did manage to push through a couple of half-baked laws which offered some kind of protection to women, on the whole his policies did more damage than good. His first bolt against good governance was the destruction of the civil service. Replacing highly-trained deputy commissioners with politically motivated nazims destroyed an institution that had enabled the British to successfully administer the sub-continent for over 200 years.

Enacting the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) permitted a large number of certified cons to return to their country for fresh pickings, and made a mockery of the penal code. And taking up cudgels with the chief justice of the Supreme Court on the ill-conceived advice of his prime minister defied all norms of civilised behaviour and eventually led to his ouster.

Nevertheless, Mr Musharraf’s image is lurking in the shadows. Recently, a couple of TV channels have given him an inordinate amount of viewing time and there has also been a flutter of letters in the press eulogising his reign. Most heads of state who have been displaced are touched with sadness and filled with self-pity. Mr Musharraf did not sound resentful though he did express a certain amount of regret.

In his television broadcasts, saturated with instant punditry, he admitted that he had made mistakes especially with regard to the NRO and dwelt on the bad governance and extravagance of the present government, cheerfully forgetting to mention his own world tours at great public expense with 80 hangers-on, in exotic places like Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro, with whom Pakistan has a negligible amount of trade.

The question now agitating the minds of political commentators is whether there is a likelihood of a change in the political pecking order. If the former president makes a comeback, in what capacity will he do so? Though the Pir of Pagara, who recently joined forces with the Chaudhry brothers, said there was a place for Mr Musharraf in their faction of the Muslim League, when he returns just before the 2013 national election, it is not at all clear if the former president would be expected to head the party or sit as a backbencher.

The cynics in the ruling party believe there is a sinister plot afoot to reinstate him through a coup with the help of a foreign power. That is not likely to happen and the present government is expected to complete its term.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 14^th, 2010.