FOR those who heard and saw Saddam Hussein striking attitudes and referring to the first Gulf War, the conflict that came as a result of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the ‘Mother of all battles’, the Commando’s referring to the just concluded elections as the ‘Mother of All Elections’ seems to be ill-omened.

Consider: All the time that Saddam was preening and prancing about on the world stage, and wallowing in all of the over the top accolades being showered on possibly the worst trained and led army in the whole wide world including his so-called ‘elite’ Republican Guard, his enemies were assembling a mighty and very deadly army.

In no time at all, the Iraqi army lay in tatters, its soldiers, many of them young recruits who didn’t know the front of their rifles from their backs, dying horrible deaths. To say nothing of the destruction of the country’s infrastructure. Hardly a handle to give the elections, what!

Most of the results should be in by the time you read this. My guess, on the evening of Sunday when I write this, is that those who have repeatedly said that this will be the ‘mother of all rigging’ will have been proved right. Let’s see.

And, there it is! Yet another loud statement from the Commando that ‘certainly’ the King’s Party(s), the PML-Q and the MQM will win a majority in the elections! Rashid Qureshi can go blue in the face trying to tell us that General (retd) Musharraf was misquoted in the Independent on Sunday interview with Jemima Khan, but who will believe him?

Don’t General (retd) Musharraf’s pronouncements really boggle one’s senses folks? While he holds the world record for saying the most ludicrous things at the drop of a hat and on every conceivable subject, in the case of the elections this is not the first time that he has shown his own preference. He has in the recent past said things like (words mine) ‘You vote for me and leave your election to me’ to the MNAs and MPAs of the King’s Party prior to his own so-called ‘election’; ‘The next prime minister will not be from the PPP or PML-N’; ‘The next prime minister will be from the PML-Q’. And before that, ‘I will kick them’, referring to two past prime ministers, Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto.

After his latest pearl, who would have any doubt that all is ready for subverting this ‘election’ in every conceivable way? Seriously though, considering the tight space he has painted himself in, can the Commando even afford a half-way honest election in which many of his friends in the PML-Q will be trounced unceremoniously? Can he even countenance one? Using his very own favourite word, ‘certainly’ not. For do we not know that most of his time in office, particularly the last two years, have been spent in working out ways and means of keeping himself in untrammelled power come hell or high water, fire or brimstone?

Did he not plumb the depths to ensure his survival in office by first so clumsily dismissing My Lord the Chief Justice of Pakistan, which resulted in massive unrest within the judicial community and civil society during which the State used the worst possible repression freely thrashing even respected leaders of important lawyers’ organisations?

And after the Supreme Court threw out the charges against the Chief Justice he, according to himself, carried out an illegal and unconstitutional act by declaring an emergency, and kicked out most of the superior judiciary he felt threatened by. Is he about to undo all of his Herculean efforts by letting his nemeses win? It is no wonder that the very vast majority of the people believe that pre-poll rigging has long hence been a done deal

Let me here refer to Capt S. Afaq Rizvi’s letter (Dawn Feb. 17th) in which he has criticised my so-called pre-science which was not politically ‘savvy’ as to the fact that I said there were half a dozen of assassins there for they were out to kill Benazir that day.

Of course those were my views and they still are! Indeed, how does the good Captain know there were not six killers, or sixteen, out for her blood that day? The cold efficiency with which the hit was carried out speaks volumes for the killers’ training and preparation.

He also misses the critical question that I posed immediately before and after making this assertion: where were the intelligence goons and the hundreds of policemen who infest every single gathering considered to be anti-Establishment or anti-Commando held anywhere in Pakistan?

You could have housewives protesting the shortage of flour in Lyari; poor women protesting high prices or load-shedding in Shiekhupura; senior citizens asking for respect in Islamabad the Beautiful and there they will be in their tens, the Yahoos of the dreaded ‘agencies’ and that most brutal of all police forces, the Punjab Puls. Where were they on the day that Benazir was murdered on what is now known to have been an almost empty road by some one who got to within one or one and half metre of her?

The second point in his letter that I must clarify is that I could simply not be ‘resentful’ towards General (retd) Musharraf in any way whatever for the simple reason that I chose to resign my commission in the rank of major after serving in the Pakistan Army for a mere 11 years.

There is no question then, of my being resentful towards the retired general because I did not become a general. More next week.

I wish my fellow Pakistanis peace.

Bushism of the week: “I can press when there needs to be pressed; I can hold hands when there needs to be — hold hands” — President George W. Bush on how he can contribute to the Middle East peace process; Washington, DC, Jan 4, 2008.

P.S. So then, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry is “the scum of the earth, a third-rate man, a corrupt man” (’An extraordinary encounter with Musharraf’, The Independent on Sunday, Feb 17, 2008)? There he goes again our brave Commando; once again bravely kicking a man who is down.

kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk