Not the Commando’s day

General Pervez Musharraf aka The Commando has always, and more often than not, opened his mouth rather wide. This despite advice to the contrary by friends like yours truly to keep it shut as far as possible, and if you have to open it, to talk sense.

True to form, after yet another night in 17-Star luxury in his mansion aka ‘farmhouse’ in the upscale neighbourhood of Chak Shehzad, he called a press conference comprised mainly of foreign reporters and also gave an exclusive interview to Express News.

The gist of the interview to the foreign media according to this newspaper of December 31, 2013 goes something like this: “‘I would say the whole army is upset. Certainly, they wouldn’t like anything happening to their ex-Army Chief,’ he had claimed adding, however, that the army was not his last hope.

“‘Though the army chief has the final word but the top brass always goes through due consultations before an important decision is taken. Let’s see what the COAS does in this case,’ Musharraf had said’.”

Before we go any further discussing this attempt to subvert the many steps that the army high command has taken over the past few years, specially in the recent past, to cleanse itself of the stigma of interfering in matters civil, let us note that the two associations of retired servicemen and women, mainly from the army, have outrightly rejected Musharraf’s claims. Kudos to you ladies and gentlemen.

According to the press, PESS (Pakistan Ex-Servicemen Society) president, Lt General Hamid Gul and PESA (Pakistan Ex-Servicemen Association) president, Lt General Ali Kuli Khan have taken “exception to General Musharraf’s statement (in which) he seemed to be trying to implicate the army as abettor of the alleged offence which was in violation of Article 6 of the Constitution. The members of PESS and PESA considered declaration of emergency and sacking of judges as General Musharraf’s personal acts the statement said.”

It goes on: “General Musharraf’s claim that the action was taken by the cabinet also makes reference to the army irrelevant. The ex-servicemen were of the view that the best course for him would be to follow the law and let judiciary decide the case on merit.” Kudos again, Ladies and Gentlemen.

But now to the seriousness of the former president’s fulminations. That of saying 1) the “whole army” was upset (at the placing of treason charges at his door) and that the “whole army would not like anything happening to their ex-Army Chief” and 2) virtually suggesting to the “top brass” (his words, not mine) to put pressure on the new army chief to act in his (the Commando’s) behalf.

I am appalled as a former soldier that the Commando, not that I expected anything thoughtful coming from him (don’t believe me, read his ‘book’ In the Line of Fire: stand up Humayun Gauhar), should have said such things. Official cognisance must be taken of this if you ask me. He could be charged, at the very least, under Section 55 of the MPML.

This is what I had written when news came in that Musharraf had been taken ill on way to the court to be charged for his crime. I pray that there is not much wrong with him and that he recovers his health very quickly. If, however, this is another of the quite brilliant Ahmad Raza Kasuri’s stratagems to string out the matter, it will redound to Musharraf’s complete disadvantage. However, I wish him good health from the bottom of my heart.

So then, as reported in Dawn of January 1, 2014 by a friend of long-standing whose triplets were the talk of official D.C., even Hillary Clinton asking how they were whenever she met him (!), Anwar Iqbal: our new ambassador to the United States the good Jalil Abbas has said upon arrival at his post that “the withdrawal of all American troops from Afghanistan is not desirable”.

And what have we ‘traitors’ been saying for years? In the press and on television talk shows to the chagrin of the ‘boys’ and of their hand-maidens in the hard-right vernacular press and TV channels? Exactly this. That the militants of all colour: Afghan, TTP, Uzbek, Tajik, Uighur Chinese, Chechen, Somali, Egyptian, British, German, Punjabi you name ‘em. will be turned on Pakistan once the US/Nato exit Afghanistan. So there, sirs...

A short felicitation to the prime minister: great to see you call the K-P government’s bluff of demanding the handing over of Pesco to it, and even better to see it squirming as the enormity of the task hits it in stages. It wants control of the production of electricity in its province too,does it? By the way, Pesco stands for Peshawar Electric Supply Company. It does NOT produce electricity, but merely distributes it and realises the bills from the consumers. Surely, this is a fact known to the K-P government and is just a red-herring, no?

Let us now see it realise electricity bills from Fata!

Published in The Express Tribune, January 4^th, 2014.

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