Evryone’s in with a chance

Evryone’s in with a chance

Musharraf has little support but in today’s Pakistan, there are no clear winners or losers.

Musharraf faces a raft of legal cases and a Supreme Court that despises Him. Supporters who showed up at the airport to greet him just barely our numbered the journalists at the scene. The obvious answers that in a polity as unpredictable and in as much chaos as Pakistan’s, everyone has a chance of winning. And everyone has an even greater chance of holding the balance of power in the national assembly, no matter how few seats one wins.

What is more interesting is that Musharraf’s return is, merely the latest example of a dark horse trying to make a run at the national sweepstakes. The former cricketer, Imran Khan, rode high on curiously flush coffers but as been fading since. The mass protests by the religious-cum-political leader Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri muddied the political waters for a while. The dominant theory is that the military has been encouraging as many candidates to enter the fray as possible because of their concerns that the two main democratic parties, Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and Asif Ali Zardari’s Pakistan People Party, seem likely to divide the spoils between them. This is not a surprise.

However, the Pakistani military has never been as weak politically as it is today. The presidency, the judiciary, public opinion and the two largest parties are all outside the sway of the men in khaki. If the army, as is suspected, is at least passively behind Imran Khan’s brief surge in the polls and the return of Musharraf then these are all signs of desperation. Unable to divide and conquer the two main parties, Rawalpindi is reverting to salami tactics-trying to slice the electorate into as many thin slices as possible. This would lead to a fragmented assembly and, by default; power would gravitate back into the military’s hands.

Pakistan-Musharraf India

Musharraf returned to Pak after 4 years of self imposed exile, has not brought in any cheers.  During these 4 years he did not visit Pak-but he remained a high profile guest for various conclaves in India. He did impact and made absurd comments. During the last HT conclave in (Mar 2012) he justified Kargil intrusion. And even now (in Pak) he stated he is proud of invading Kargil. Musharraf should be compared and kept in the class of Hafeez Saeed. Hafeez Saeed by his planning took the lives of 166 people (in 26/11 attack 2008) where as Musharraf for taking 560 lives in his planned invasion in Kargil. Our media entertained him and applauded by and large “No Pakistan” leader can be trusted for their utterances and least Musharraf.

Among Indian leaders Musharraf can be easily compared with Mulayam. He (Mulayam Singh) is always changing his statements-morning to evening. Utterances are deceptive and mostly to be ignored. Rightly stated by RLD president Ajit Singh. 

Allah to save Pakistan and May God help India.