At first there is the denial, then acceptance and then there is the outright demand for a crown... at least the Musharraf and the Pakistani saga seems to be fast heading in that direction. We have our ever loved dictator who of late seems to have taken 'general Zia' lessons and for those of you who can recall the past, Zia took command over the entire country with the same words, it is all for the good and benefit of Pakistan. The same thing here but those words will just no longer sail. The sad truth is that India and some of the other like minded countries with their respective think- tanks had already informed the west that all trends show that Musharraf will follow in Zia's footsteps and asked the west to take action to see that it does not happen.
But the west ignored India and ASEAN's warning and now it is too late. Even a school kid can tell you that Musharraf is playing the Americans for all they are worth and they just cannot bring themselves to the reality that Musharraf has indeed become a dictator at last. With the last vestiges of democracy stripped away from Pakistan with the dissolution of the Pakistani assembly on the 15th of November, the general has indeed stretched his hand all over the Pakistani plains. With Bhutto fast becoming the face of the opposition, will the Americans step in to make sense of the whole picture? Will they be able to rein in the rogue general who has made a dish out of the constitution of Pakistan? The common opinion is that even they cannot do much right now.
But Musharraf as much as he may like to think that he has absolute authority must realise by now that the people of Pakistan as well as the rest of the world will not be patient with him for long. The emergency has to go but Musharraf is biding his time to make sure that who ever comes to office does not prosecute him or hold him guilty for this emergency, in short Musharraf would preferably want a carte blanche'.
The Musharraf reign seems to get more bizarre by the day, he bought 2 television channels on air only to take two other ones off air, and he also managed to make the United kingdom government shut down Geo tv as well. Now we have this interview with the BBC which Musharraf gave on Saturday, in which he had indicated that he will probably have a very large say in who will get elected in the so called elections, that his emergency will in all probability get extended far beyond the elections, that he has nuclear weapons and may resort to nuclear blackmail should the need arise and last but not least, he knows what is good for everyone so they should stop objecting to his reign!
Need I say more?
Tags:Pakistan,Musharraf,India,Bhutto,election,emergency,