Rajeev’s Almanack

Read Also Part 1, Part 2

Pakistan is at a turning point. There might be reason to be cautiously optimistic. The Supreme Court has recently recovered its courage and let former Prime Minister Nawaz Sheriff return. A desperate Musharraf tried to cut a deal with Sherrif’s rival, another former PM Benazir Bhutto, which would allow him another five years in power. Further betraying his insecurity, Mushie tried to impose a state of emergency on the country. A midnight call from his American patrons put an end to that. The threat of martial law looms, however.

If things go well, the Supreme Court will soon rule that Musharraf is ineligible to run again for president. There might well be a true election to the Parliament, with both of the viable candidates contesting for Prime Ministership. The new parliament might elect someone not in uniform as the next President.

But things can also go very wrong. Clearly, Musharraf’s current plan is to put on another rigged election; have his cronies in parliament rubber stamp his continuation as both President and Chief of the Army.

The absurdity of his position is starting to become clear even to the isolated Musharraf. He claims that Nawaz Sheriff signed an agreement to go on exile for ten years. The agreement was apparently written up on the stationery of the Saudi Arabian Ministry of the Interior, the deal being brokered by Saudi Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz. Musharraf seems to be under the impression that this is legally enforceable in Pakistan. Is it not an insult to the sovereignty of Pakistan to even suggest that it is ?

Perhaps he was relying on Mr. Sheriff’s honor to abide by the deal. Only a naive person would think that a politician would stick by a contract signed with a gun pointed to his head. If he thought that some foreign country would enforce such a contract he is an even bigger fool. When the Supreme Court was scared of him he probably could have got them to endorse anything, even something as absurd as this. But now, after he was unable to fire the Chief Justice, the Court has emerged as the only functional institution in the country.

On his website the self-styled President likes to put on testimonials from his subjects. Here is a sample:

My brave leader you did very god job on Lal Masjid. we need you for Pakistan.

Wishing you a very happy birthday. You are the only hope of the country and we are the unknown solders of your army.

Sir, most respectfully i beg to state that I consider u my HERO. A great MAN. Only u can change the future of PAKISTAN. i believe on your statement “SAAB SAA PHALAA PAKISTAN” u belong to army take the right decision and crush the LAL MASJID group. There is great black MARK on the SECURITY OF PAKISTAN try to think GOD BLESS U EVERY TIME I LOVE U my dream is I WANT TO ME U.

Respected Honorable President Musharraf Saheb Assalamo Alaikum 60 th Jasne Azadi Mubarak to you and all Paksitani Khuda Aap ko or Pakistan ko Salamat rakhe (Aamin) We need you always as a president of Pakistan. You are my ideal president of Pakistan. me and my family always with you. Aap ke liye hamesha dua go

AsSalam o Alaikum Sir! Ur Thoughts and Ideas are perfect. Ur decisions are Perfect and just because of your decisions today we are again out of that Bad situation I’m talking about “lal masjid”. Sir now its time to learn the lesson to everyone who is against peace and unity of nations. Sir i can’t use open words but u know better what i want to say. Sir Plz we want to get rid of these politicians….Sir again v v v Congratulation for the success…our all prayers are wid u and when ever u will want sacrifice for Ur self ill be the first one. May my Allah always keep u safe and sound..

Honorable and Dearest Mr. President. First of all we would like to thankful to our Almighty Allah that he has given us a great leader who is leading Pakistan in a very best way.

What does that acolyte mean when he tells his hero “I WANT TO ME U”?. Sounds kinda enthusiastic.

As one would expect of a President elected with a 98% majority, I could find no dissenting voices. Everyone who writes in apparently is thankful to the Almighty Allah that he has given them such a great leader. It looks like the pesky 2% who opposed Mr. Musharraf’s election does not write to him. Or may be they have changed their mind. Dictators eventually start to believe the sycophants. They become vulnerable as soon as they think they are ready for a re-election because the people love them. Mrs. Gandhi went through this phase in 1977.

Dictators also love to use children for their propaganda:

I am a student in class 3. I wanted to ask you that on what time do you sleep in the night as you also have to work hard .You can answer me on my email address.

This one produced a response from the great man himself:

My dearest Ibrahim,

I was very happy to receive your email. Thank you for your concern. Being the President it is my duty to work for Pakistan to make this country a great country. I am working hard only to make Pakistan a strong and secure country so that when hand over the baton to your generation, Pakistan is a better country. My advice to you is to concentrate on your studies so that you can serve your country better when you grow up.

Wish you success,
General Pervez Musharraf

One is reminded of Saddam Hussein’s video for schoolchildren on how to brush teeth. The grammar and writing style of the supposedly eight year old writer is suspiciously better than of the other correspondents. For that matter, also better than the General’s. May be some flak is writing in softball questions to help the General polish up his image?

The same Supreme Court, which recently discovered its backbone, endorsed his farcical single-candidate election back in 2002. Why bother with the pretense of an election if everyone in Pakistan knows it is fraud?Irfan Hussain noted in the Dawn at the time:

Speaking for myself, all the polling booths I saw in Karachi last Tuesday were practically deserted, and I must have driven past at least a score of them on my way to and from work. When I went to vote in the morning, there were half a dozen men in line ahead of me, and none of our thumbs were marked with any kind of ink. Clearly, the sudden MQM boycott in Karachi had been highly effective in keeping voters away. The pattern in the rest of the country was fairly similar. However, the government managed to garner a heavy turnout in state organizations, factories and prisons.

Ah..prisons. Nothing like a captive voting block.

The intended audience for the fraud are not the people of Pakistan, who know exactly what is going on. It is the liberal establishment in the US that needs the fig leaf of an election to cover the naked ambition of a dictator.

Yet, there is reason for hope. Who would have expected a year ago that Chief Justice Chaudhury would have the audacity to stand up to Musharraf? As Stalin once asked about the Pope, how many divisions has he?. Dictators forget that not all power comes from the barrel of a gun.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 at 6:18 pm and is filed under Humor, Pakistan, Politics, Desi, History, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.