Who is advising the President General? And who is advising those advising him? Whoever, and whatever be the advice, and whatever may happen, Pervez Musharraf must realize that the ultimate responsibility is his.
Firstly he was advised by his so-called advisers to hold a referendum which ostensibly would lend him legitimacy, solidity and strength for whatever be his future plans for our country.
Secondly he was advised by his clueless advisers to tour the country at large, to speak to the people, and it was proposed that he start his exercise at the Minar-i-Pakistan at Lahore and finish it off at the Mazar-i-Quaid-e-Azam at Karachi. To the horror of those who wish the man well and support him, on the stage at the Minar at Lahore the general lowered himself and allowed himself to be introduced to the people by comedian-convict Tariq Aziz. We must hope that he will keep such characters far away from his stage at the Karachi Mazar.
Each leader of this country has so far used it and its meagre assets as his private fiefdom and possessions to do with as he or she has wished. The last political meeting of significance at Mr Jinnah's Mazar was held by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and in the ensuing melee three people were killed. This time round the hulla-gulla is to take place outside the grilled inner Mazar area and the crowd is to be accommodated in an area notified as the 'south peripheral area', measuring some 31 acres, wherein stand the trees planted and donated by the citizens of Karachi who participated in the Tree Mazar scheme which was launched to save the area from being commercialized and from the construction of shopping malls during the eras of the Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif democratic governments. Musharaf's military government has also planted trees in this area, and as of now some 3,000 trees have been nurtured and stand there growing. There is an open area which has not yet been developed and into this the city government has planned to herd some 200,000 people. The general and his men must take good care to ensure that the trees (in short supply in this city) which have been planted and nurtured and are growing are neither damaged nor destroyed.
The Quaid-i-Azam Mazar managment board which manages the affairs of the Mazar and its peripheral areas have ruled that no plaques of any sort are to be engraved and affixed anywhere therein. Two plaques, one commemorating Nawaz Sharif's public meeting and the other commemorating something which the erstwhile head of state Rafiq Ahmad Tarar had done, have since been removed by the Board. But an engraved plaque now stands in the area commemorating General Musharraf's ceremony held last year on Christmas Day. One must hope that this is also removed when he finally departs the national scene.
The general was schooled at St Patrick's in Karachi, a school run by good Christian priests, where he was presumably taught 'not to take the name of the Lord God in vain', something which many in this country are unthinkingly or ultra-piously prone to doing. One prime example came in a declaration made this week by dismissed president of the republic Rafiq Ahmad Tarar.
In 1997, when Nawaz Sharif decided he wished to 'sort out' the judiciary, and in particular the then chief justice of Pakistan, Sajjad Ali Shah, who was hearing the contempt of court cases filed against prime minister Sharif, Senator R A Tarar and a briefcase were flown to Quetta to confer with the present Chief Election Commissioner, Justice Irshad Hussain Khan, who was then the senior judge of the Supreme Court, Quetta Bench. Tarar and the briefcase were transported in a special flight which landed at night. The runway lights had to be unusually and specially switched on. The FIA men on duty were instructed not to record the arrival of Tarar and his plane. They followed their instructions to the letter, and the story is told that they recorded in their log: 'On instructions from Islamabad, Senator Tarar's arrival at Quetta is not to be recorded.' The senator elevated to president by a duly grateful Nawaz Sharif was much later removed by Musharraf from the presidential position from which he should have walked out on the day Nawaz Sharif fell.
In The Nation of April 25 Tarar has been quoted as having said in an interview conducted with that newspaper: "It is to inform that after October 1999 takeover I have been stressed to continue my office of president on the plea that my stay in that office was necessary for the protection of the federation as well as continuation of system as I was an elected president with heavy majority from all the federating units and the parliament. I was also stressed that my stay in the office was necessary to satisfy the western world as it provides a democratic flavour. During that crucial time I have always been pondering over the issue and praying to Allah Almighty for guidance. And finally I crushed my ego and continued the office of president only for the best interests of the country."
Are we to believe that it was the Good Lord who guided Tarar? There is no limit to the hypocrisy to which the majority of those who get to the top are capable of descending.
President Field Marshal Ayub Khan was probably what one would term a 'normal', or a reasonable, man. A tale was told in the press during his days about a poor man of Pakistan, a weaver of cloth, who prayed to God asking, 'Where are you so that I may serve you?' God apparently replied, 'You do not have to look for me. My son is in nearby Rawalpindi. Go and meet him.' So the weaver, in all humility, wove some cloth and of it he made a 'chogha' for Ayub which he took to Rawalpindi and presented to him. We well remember seeing on the front pages of the press photographs of Ayub Khan wearing that same 'chogha', woven exactly to measure, with even its sleeves of a perfect length.
General Musharraf is now in Karachi meeting people and addressing a public gathering. On his drive in from the airport he must have observed on the cloth streamers that cover almost every inch of the Sharae Faisal the countless reproductions of his portrait and read the written messages. We must hope that he realizes that this display of affection is not spontaneous. And we must also hope that he regrets what his totally unnecessary exercise has cost this impoverished country.