Pakistan: MY GENERAL MUSHARRAF

Samson Simon Sharaf

In Pakistan, politicians and dictators are created by opportunity. The manipulative system is loaded against fair play. Despite his goods and wrongs, the legacy  of General Pervez Musharraf is replicated in today’s Pakistan; how the best intentions and performance of the head of state can be demonised. It is a pity that no lessons were learnt from his case study and therefore Pakistan will endure the same suffering in future.

Truth unconscientiously is the first casualty in war. The fog of war, lack of accurate information, limitations of judgement, fear and cognitive constructs work to eclipse reality. The planning for the most dangerous, most likely and unforeseen is factorised on an intangible template made to look tangible. This is where soldier politicians despite early blooming ultimately fail because they tend to see the environment as a battle field and not an intrigue ridden maze of possibilities. This is the limitation of fierce combaters be they soldiers or sportsmen.

Rulers surrounded by impregnable walls of exclusivity regress, turning a well-meaning dreamer and reformer into a failure. This has happened in past and likely to replay in future.

This is my story about the rise and fall of General (Retired) Syed Pervaiz Musharraf who became the President of Pakistan and despite all yearnings cannot return to his homeland he loves. I pray lessons are learnt from this legacy.

As a GOC in Okara he was a role model in training, administration, and welfare or extracurricular. In the evenings, the Midas Couple was a common sight, sitting at the bedside of patients keeping hospital staff on toes. When my course mate Lt. Col Zia died of cardiac arrest, the couple sat the night outside the CCU and wept profoundly when his death was. His presence brought a big developmental and social change in the deserted garrison. He played sports with youngsters, took care of their professional development and was always a mentor.

He was a commander and leader who lived in hearts and minds of his men. He has not lost this adoration as he lays bed ridden in a condition only a heavenly miracle can reverse.

I feel sad as one who adores him despite a critic of his politics. In his greatness and forgiving nature, he always embraced me as a younger brother. I recall my last conversation with him few years ago. He was kind and loving as ever with no grudges and admitted he did not pay heed.

General Musharraf’s biggest fault was his trusting nature and inability to see beyond black and white. This aura was not his creation but of sycophants around him. Despite judicial legitimacies and constitutional indemnities, he lost the plots once he divorced himself from his original constituency. Positive socio-economic indicators in initial years notwithstanding, he submitted to short term expediencies with long term ramifications. The select loyalists were replaced by a group of evergreen advisors and courtiers who helped create grandiose narcissism in splendid isolation. Built around an autocratic self and absence of inclusiveness, this evolution ultimately overtook legal, democratic, moral or interpersonal commitments and, hence, the delusional impetus of indispensability. He became a contrast in indispensability and vulnerability. Right now a slightly modified saga is being replayed in Pakistan.

In many aspects, General Musharraf’s coup was popular. Some of his fiercest critics could not hide their glee. Many politicians who were not from the traditional stock came out openly in his support. Even Benazir Bhutto tacitly endorsed the coup against PMLN that left no space for others. As airwaves swept, his popularity grew with his short lived Jinnah’s mantle.

The rising public approval took its first brunt with an ill-conceived referendum. His omnipotent nightmares of legitimacy were addressed by the Supreme Court. Rather than become a true reformist, create his own following, groom new leaders, he collected a rag tag of wheeler dealers to forge his political constituency. When the time of reckoning came, they all flew away.

As a young officer who looked up to him, it pains me to see him wasted away into an oblivion he never deserved. His failure meant the shattering of dreams that were not just mine but of most Pakistanis. As he fights his last battle, his love, passion and dreams for Pakistan are still full of elixir and vigour he always had.

Musharraf’s edifice was built like a house of sand. His advisors were small men unworthy of trust.  His media czars never had the motivation of creating a sustainable perception. His ISPR spokesman stuttered and lacked wisdom. Fake personal loyalties replaced professionalism. Old time pals of yore resurfaced. There were other circles of advisors that revolved around his social contacts, bridge parties and admirers. Loyalists were side lined. His best horses never had the steam to run the course. They were stereotypes who had nothing new to offer.

Between 1999 and 2002, Pakistan witnessed an economic revival much like the last three years of Imran Khan. But there were Trojans at work.

Pakistan Steel Mill took off and after recovering losses began remitting profits. This achievement was eclipsed by his cabinet that floated an LOI signed by JKT for its privatisation. To make a fortune, it was imperative it sunk and so it began by 2007.

IPPs with tax exemptions had recovered investments and begun remitting profits and outsourcing costs abroad. New energy manipulators arrived to make Pakistan captive to high fuel based energy costs.

To ensure economic captivity, the supply of petrol, oil and lubricants had to be cartelised. PSO was reorganised to create a floating threat of a circular serpent that could devour the entire national wealth. This was the drain plug.

Small time entrepreneurs were diverted to consumer led cheap imports.  Consumerism with its euphemism of trickle down was the easiest method to gobble unsterilised foreign exchange. In the windfall thus created, remittances were grabbed back through rising import bills and consumer loans. At a time when rupee needed appreciation, it was devalued.

By 2007, when President Musharraf was pre occupied with the judiciary and elections, the bubble was ready to be deflated. The rising inflation, resurgence of sugar and wheat cartels, energy crises and power failures created an anti-Musharraf sentiment. The downfall was hurried by the Judicial Movement.

After the rejection of his NRO by Benazir Bhutto, a new one was negotiated outside his auspices. He quickly made peace with Benazir Bhutto but ultimately both had to go.

I knew him enough to be candid and point his mistakes point blank. He took it on the chin and sometimes graciously conceded. Others, he was stubborn like a rock. In a noting on 13 October 1999, I warned him to beware of Fly by Night Reformers as they would lead him off course. He was obsessed with devolution. As a staff officer, I had to remind him through presentations that devolution and local self government were two different dynamics; something he kept adrift. Finally he bowed before political forces he had set out to reform.

As a one-time subordinate, I stood on the shores watching the helpless derelict ship of Pakistan drift way. Gone were days when I could barge into the President’s office. Despite urgency, concentric circles of insulation around him could not be penetrated. And so in 2008, he left to return five years later.

The climax to the return of General (Retired) Pervez Musharraf after a self-imposed exile of five years had been slowly building. He was returning to Pakistan with the make belief of having been a reformist who had bolstered economic prosperity of his country only to see it crumble during his exile.

In the overseas learning circuits, he delivered lectures with emotions and convictions. He silenced many Indian anchors and analysts. His motivational arguments were followed by standing ovations. He once again got convinced that he was the helmsman Pakistan desperately needed to steer out of troubled waters. Along the way, his small but devoted group of admirers, television channels of every description and the appreciative international audience played their role in convincing him that the nation awaited him.

His frustrations and the strong emotions emboldened the cognition of a hero’s return. However, this pomp was not to be and he continues to face the indignity before courts and the media. The hyperactive judiciary, an elastic democracy and the media bent on dominating airwaves would ensure that they would make breaking news of his every move and critics of the military would spare no moment to disgrace the institution busy in fighting its lonely war.

Facing police investigations and hostile courts, his dream of being indispensable to a vulnerable country he loved faded quickly. I can guess this must have been his thoughts when he diverted to AFIC Rawalpindi Cantonment on way to the court. Sick, he was finally going home, to fly into another exile.

Given the method of politics in Pakistan, I would still rate him amongst those few islands of good intentions and prosperity. In Islamabad, national interests of Pakistan do not matter. It is how a select coterie perceives its game plan. This is the same impulse that General Aslam Beg and General Jehanghir Karamat avoided but General Musharraf fell for. Megalomania and courtiers are the biggest curse of Pakistan.

Now that Pakistan once again grapples with its home grown political crises and instability, My General Mushharaf offers a case study of how it should not be. As the water passes under the bridge, it cannot be returned. But new tides can be created.