DAZED and exhausted, denied and more than a bit surprised, Pakistanis have just been through one of the most exciting phases in their history, lasting a full few hours, last Tuesday.

In the end, the day failed to live up to its billing. The aircraft that had supposedly arrived to fly retired Gen Pervez Musharraf away to safety remained unfilled. But while the surrender against the West Indies in Dhaka was total it did not pass without providing a few new angles to the forever running and essential Pakistani debate about who is a national traitor and what betrayal hurts us more at a given time. Could we have fared better had Saqlain Mushtaq, the inventor of modern spin, not delivered our cricketing secrets to West Indies as their consultant?

By the end of it, more people might have been interested in investigating the cricketing betrayals than investigating Musharraf, but for a long time before fizzling out, the two developing stories had the same pattern or at least the same intensity about them. The excitement peaked about the same time and just when some of us thought that Gen Musharraf was all packed to leave, Pakistan appeared, momentarily, to establish its writ in Dhaka.

The two twists afterwards coincided: just as Bravo unleashed his reign of terror on his hapless Pakistani opponents inside the stadium, the leadership in Islamabad wrote their own chapter in bravado by denying passage to Musharraf. A cause to celebrate, but not compensation enough.

Come to think of it Gen Musharraf did not do all that badly on the day pitted for attention as he was up against something as big as cricket. In fact, with all those news flashes to his credit, at times he did manage to get the gaze turned off the game.

The script writers had everything meticulously planned. The scenarios heard around the living rooms included one where Gen Musharraf was to fly off — unnoticed in the din of celebrations — just when the Pakistan cricket team was to defeat the West Indies in the big T-20 game.

The escape scenario had its ‘reasons’. So many of us were so sure that the big boys here, there and elsewhere had decided to let Musharraf go and all that was needed now was a befitting event that could camouflage the commando escape. And there can never be a cover more proper than the joyous outpouring of emotion generated by a big cricket victory.

With or without such imaginative schemes in mind, Pakistanis were expecting two bits of big news by late evening on Tuesday, April 1. They were generally confident of victory in Dhaka and by and large they were resigned to the inevitability of Gen Musharraf flying away, maybe never to return. It didn’t pan out this way and since then a grand operation in accountability has been ordered at the Pakistan Cricket Board. It has the same intensity about it and even more of a public focus on it than the case of Gen Musharraf.

In the run-up, throughout the day, rumours about Gen Musharraf’s ‘impending’ escape wouldn’t stop, and these went around weaving webs so thick that it made clear thinking almost impossible. He might still manage to go, but some positives leads were noted during the day which merit being pursued to the benefit of the system.

Some ‘discussion’ was shown to have taken place and some rules, it appeared, were reinforced. There was news about the prime minister calling consultative meetings, calling them off and then calling the advisers all over again. He met his party men in Islamabad, the ‘sources’ revealed, and the disclosed reliable accounts emanating from these sessions created the healthy impression that these were democratic discussions bringing together various opinions.

Everyone present at these PML-N meetings chaired by the prime minister, it was conveyed to us on good authority, had a frank say. Not just that, the remarks were more or less representative of the various opinion patterns visible in the country by and large, giving the prime minister a picture of the public mood.

It was rightly pointed out that the decision to let Gen Pervez Musharraf go could have some really bad effects on the politics of the ruling party. There were those who saw it as more than a case against one individual. They argued that Musharraf’s accountability was essential to democratic process in Pakistan and necessary for deterring coups in future.

Whereas the day had begun with forecasts which promised Musharraf’s departure, the PML-N members managed to convey the rare impression that they were not pandering to some pre-agreed line. Through a series of relays from the venue of the meeting, an impression was successfully created that the group was not just going through a ritualistic exercise. They were shown to have been actually in discussion, the sign of a strengthening democracy.

There was of course the alternative, actually the first, dominating account, which sought to reduce all this activity in the name of democracy into a façade, or a sideshow. The version which says Gen Musharraf will finally find — or will be shown — a way out still runs powerful. This version could well be closer to reality but it did feel good to be putting your faith in the signs of resistance by those shown to be in power. Not all that bad a day, Tuesday, April 1.

The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.