Pakistan
A Failed State?

Pakistanis have been taken hostage by two groups of extremists: one is misusing religion as their guiding light; the other is led by General Musharraf and supported by America and its allies, comments Imran Ahmad

  Like the proverbial bull in a china shop, General Pervez Musharraf is destroying every institution that Pakistan has. He has successfully dismantled the Supreme Court of the country. The media have been gagged. A large number of people from the legal fraternity as well as some of the vocal opposition politicians have been put behind bars. This raging bull has a voracious appetite. We all wonder how much more he will ruin before being put to rest.
   Throughout most of November, the people of Pakistan were not exposed to any independent local television channels. BBC, Sky and CNN signals were also blocked, and cable operators were ordered to take these channels off air. The sale of satellite dishes was banned. Journalists were arrested and ruthlessly beaten. Three British journalists from the Daily Telegraph were given orders to leave the country because Musharraf did not like it when they compared him to the Nicaraguan dictator Somoza, about whom President Roosevelt — FDR to his friends — once remarked, ‘He may be a son of a bitch but he is our son of a bitch.’
   In this day and age dictators need to modernize their thoughts and actions. Do they seriously think that they can stop the spread of news by clamping down on the media? Internet, television on the web and, of course, the age-old medium of word-of-mouth are there to quench the thirst for news. The Commando General may not have heard of the nineteenth-century poet-philosopher Kahlil Gibran, who probably had someone like Musharraf in mind when he said, ‘You can muffle the drum, and you can loosen the strings of the lyre, but who shall command the skylark not to sing?’
   With the proclamation of the State of Emergency on 3 November, Musharraf has gone from being President and Army Chief to being the de facto absolute Monarch of Pakistan. He knows that the current-day FDR considers him his own ‘son of a bitch’ as he is still an ally in their ‘war against terror’, while the bitterly divided opposition in his own country has proved to be a circus of the spineless. The only challenges he faces are from lawyers, media persons, and a small segment of civil society.

  Pakistan’s suspension from membership of the Commonwealth of Nations is too little and too late. The European Union and other so-called champions of democracy should stop their lip-service and take action. The ‘enlightened West’ should be more pragmatic in its dealings with Pakistan. We are a country of almost 170 mn people, more than the populations of Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan put together. We possess nuclear power.
   The large majority of Pakistanis are moderate peace-loving Muslims. Unfortunately, they have been taken hostage by two groups of extremists, one that is misusing religion as their guiding light while the other band of extremists is led by General Musharraf and supported by America and its allies. What Musharraf and his neo-con supporters in Washington fail to understand is that by supporting a military despot whose main focus is to justify and secure his own existence, they are creating more enemies for themselves.
   The actions of the American government, i.e. supporting the Musharrafs of this world, only help and expedite the growth of terrorism. They have to realise that terrorism is a bane for both the West as well as the East. The strategy for tackling terrorism and eliminating it from the roots has to be formulated outside the Pentagon. World peace should be the only planned outcome of this strategy, with dialogue as its driving force.
   If the powers that be are the least bit serious about bringing some sanity and peace back to our world, the Bechtels and Halliburtons have to take a back seat and the will of the people has to be respected.
   Religious extremism and intolerance are by-products of an unjust, biased, and dictatorial government. General Musharraf’s government is the major contributor to Pakistan’s current problems. In over 60 years of independence the country never got to see true democracy in practice. Politics and government were always dominated by the military or the feudals. This lethal combination has injected a slow poison in the veins of our young country. Now on its deathbed, Pakistan’s moderate majority is fighting a fast-losing battle against the ‘enlightened’ extremist government as well as the religious extremists.
   There is no quick fix for Pakistan’s malady. The only way to get rid of its suffering is for Musharraf to step down and for a government of National Consensus to be formed. The first and foremost task of this new government should be to set up a truly independent National Reconciliation Commission.

top