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Musharraf to land in Karachi between Jan 27, 30

08 Jan

All Pakistan Muslim League chief General (retd) Pervez Musharraf on Sunday announced that he will be returning to the country any day between January 27 and January 30, ending his almost four-year-long self-imposed exile in London.

Musharraf made this statement while addressing a public gathering adjacent to the Quaid-e-Azam’s mausoleum in Karachi through a video link from Dubai.

The soldier-turned political leader said in his video address that Karachi was dear to him and that he was coming back to the country for the sake of the people since he knew how to bring the country back on the track of development and prosperity.

APML and national flags could be seen at the rally as the former army chief spoke to his supporters, who seemed much fewer in number than those who showed up at the PTI rally at the same venue last month. The retired general claimed he would face all the ‘fake’ cases in the courts against him.

Musharraf stated that the country was in a critical situation, facing an economic disaster, and skyrocketing inflation and an acute energy and gas crises were acting as catalysts.

The general said he would steer the country out of such crises. “I know how to get this country back on the wheels of prosperity and development as I’ve ruled it,” he stated.

Following a new trend in national politics, Musharraf, too, compared the crowd gathered to listen to him to a natural disaster, terming it a mammoth public meeting and saying that it was not a tsunami but an ‘earthquake’ of the people who wanted a change in the country.

Musharraf reminded the crowd and those who were listening at home how he had made the city what it is, naming development projects which were the result of his efforts, such as the Lyari Expressway, the Northern Bypass, the bridges, the Bagh-e-Ibn-e-Qasim, etc.

The former dictator applauded the work done by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, lauding former Karachi Nazim Mustafa Kamal and Governor Sindh Dr Ishratul Ibad for their services.

The APML chief repeatedly emphasized the importance of Karachi as a city, saying that it was the engine of development for Pakistan, and adding that everyone whose forefathers sacrificed their lives in the fight for independence owns this city. He also mentioned how he developed the Quaid’s mausoleum and gave it three extra gates.

Amongst those who participated in his gathering were a large number of Bengalis. Musharraf said he supported the idea of giving the Bengalis permanent citizenship since they were living here for over 40 years now. He said these people have suffered both in 1947 and 1971, and it was high time that Pakistan and Bangladesh sat together and resolved the issue of their identity.

Slamming political parties favouring extremism, Musharraf said he was against religious extremism. He condemned the suicide attacks on shrines. Referring to the creation of new provinces, Musharraf said he supported the idea and that it should be resolved through mutual consultation.

Pervez Musharraf said he will be contesting the next general elections from Chitral. He stated that it was his government that started work on the Lowari Tunnel so that the people of Chitral could come to other parts of Pakistan without any hassles, adding that before this the people had to go to Afghanistan to enter Pakistan, and needed visas to enter their own country. He also mentioned his services in the aftermath of the Kashmir earthquake.

Referring to the situation in Balochistan, Musharraf said he is still against those people who are involved in the burning the flag of Pakistan and will remain resolute on his stance.

He said under his rule, Balochistan made huge progress. He also said he loved the people of Balochistan and respected them. He said conspiracies were being hatched against him in connection with Balochistan but he was not afraid.

“I will be back to Pakistan between January 27 and 30,” the former president said while addressing a public gathering near Mazar-e-Quaid via telephone from Dubai.

He said his first stop to Pakistan would be Karachi.

“I will come to Pakistan,” he said, adding attempts were being made to scare him off but he was not the kind who could be terrified.

Source: www.thenews.com.pk  January 08, 2012

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Pervez Musharraf to announce date for return to Pakistan

08 Jan

Mr Musharraf will announce his intention to return from London where has been living in exile despite facing arrest on treason charges.

“His return will be announced by video link at a rally in Karachi on Sunday,” a source close to the former president told the Daily Telegraph.

He is planning to fly back to Pakistan by the end of January, plunging himself into a political crisis amid reports of an early general election and rumours the military is on the brink of mounting a coup.

The government and army are at loggerhead trading allegations over a memo allegedly sent to US military chiefs by senior officials asking for support to reduce military influence.

Yusuf Gilani, the country’s prime minister, has said publicly Pakistan’s generals are behaving as though they were a “state within a state”.

As rumours of a coup gathered speed, Asif Zardari, the country’s president, has been forced to fly back to Pakistan from Dubai where he was receiving treatment for “stroke-like symptoms”.

General Ashfaq Kayani, the head of the Pakistan army, rejected coup claims, insisting the army would “continue to support the democratic process”.

However the military distrusts both Mr Zardari and the rival Pakistan Muslim League-N, headed by Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister deposed by Mr Musharraf.

Political analysts believe the army command want to back an outside campaign in the elections but it is unclear if Mr Musharraf fits the bill.

While there has been some support to “bring back the general,” Mr Musharraf was deeply unpopular by the time he was forced out of power four years ago.

In order to stage a return he would need political support from Middle Eastern countries to help persuade the government to drop the charges against him.

However, there have been reports that the army is backing Imran Khan, the former Pakistan cricket captain who leads Tehreek-e-Insaf [the Movement for Justice] and has staged a series of popular rallies.

Mr Khan is a former supporter of Mr Musharraf who has since become one of his fiercest critics.

Ahmed Rashid, a political commentator, said the country was facing a “multi-faceted crisis”, particularly with the economy, but he doubted Mr Musharraf could make a comeback.

“I don’t think he has enough people supporting him and he would probably be arrested,” he said.

Mr Musharraf launched his own political party, the All Pakistan Muslim League, in London in June 2010 and told the Daily Telegraph last year: “Pakistan is suffering. The people are extremely alive now that something has to be done in Pakistan. The youth is alive, the educated middle class is alive, they are in a state of shock and dismay over the governance in Pakistan.”

He promised a party that was “capable, viable, honest and deliverable internationally.” “I am a person who believes if I try and if I’m failing, I will quit,” he added. “I have no qualms and no ego. I have governed Pakistan for nine years, very successfully and I have no further ambitions, personal ambitions, my ambition is Pakistan.” But it is unlikely that Mr Musharraf would be able to claim victory on his own and he admitted: “I am trying to create an entity which can be the third political alternative, whether alone or in coalition with some other like-minded parties.”

Mr Zardari took over from Mr Musharraf as the country’s first elected leader in nine years following the assassination of his wife, Benazir Bhutto in December 2007.

However his party, the Pakistan People’s Party, has become increasingly unpopular as Pakistan faces a economic depression and copes with one crisis after another.

The next government is likely to be decided by smaller parties and Mr Musharraf could play a crucial role in that decision.

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APML meeting in Karachi

08 Jan

Today, APML is going to have its meeting in Karachi to show its poularity in Public and the special feature of this meeting is that

Mresident of APMPL, Mr. Musharraf will address this meeting on phone and will declare when he is coming to Pakistan.

Visit the meeting and listen to him, but do not forget to comment on his speech and meeting on this website.

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Musharraf: a workable option

07 Jan

Senior journalist Najam Sethi suggested to Gen (R) Pervez Musharraf during their meeting in Dubai recently that he should take on the role of an elder statesman and not think of returning to Pakistan at this juncture. And that it would be more appropriate for him to serve the country from the outside by continuing with his lecture tours and supporting the cause of a prosperous and progressive Pakistan at international forums. The general’s response, as reported by Sethi, was a vehement ‘No’ because he is convinced that this is the time when he should return to the country, bravely face the court cases and, after being honourably absolved, play his due role in liberating the people from the claws of corruption and the total misgovernance that they are trapped in today.

But, if given the opportunity, will it be possible for Pervez Musharraf to turn things around in the present circumstances – particularly with the baggage of ‘mistakes’ that mar his last days in power? After all, it is the fruits of the NRO deal that Musharraf signed with the late Benazir Bhutto that the nation is reaping today in the form of the present regime and its utterly corrupt policies that have taken the country back many decades. The years when Musharraf oversaw the state of affairs in Pakistan was a time of hope and progress. He was then fully in control and had all the opportunity to put to work his future vision for Pakistan.

When Pervez Musharraf took over in October 1999, Pakistan was at the brink of economic bankruptcy, faced isolation on the international front and was being referred to as a ‘failed state’. During his years in power, the country pursued consistent and favourable policies of liberalisation, deregulation and privatisation. His government put in place a well-set programme of economic recovery and institutional reforms and established priorities for good governance.

He liberated the media by allowing total freedom to print and TV, empowered the minorities through a joint electorate as well as reserved seats and reduced voter age from 21 to 18 years. On the economic front, his government pursued a two-pronged strategy of ensuring macro-economic stability and introducing structural reforms for self-sustainable growth. As a result, the economy expanded at an average rate of 7 percent per annum and even touched 9 percent in 2004-05.

What Musharraf did for women empowerment in a closed, male-dominated society like Pakistan’s, is simply incomparable. His policies in this regard were based on a definite vision and defined goals that had been formulated through a laborious and detailed consultative process.

In the interest of regional peace and security, Musharraf took steps to build tension-free relations with India and brought Kashmir into focus as being at the heart of the tensions between Pakistan and India. He boldly initiated a peace process which introduced confidence building measures and worked proactively towards resolution of disputes. As a result, relations between India and Pakistan saw considerable thawing in those days.

Though a military general, Musharraf initiated more ground-breaking changes in the Pakistani national set-up than any democratic ruler. And he led from the front because he has always been above corruption and no one, not even his diehard enemies, can accuse him or his family of corruption. He has amply demonstrated that he has all the qualities of a statesman and a clear vision for Pakistan’s future, based on an approach of moderation which has been appreciated both within the country and abroad.

It would, therefore, be in the greater interest of Pakistan’s secure and prosperous future if Pervez Musharraf were to return to Pakistan and pick up the pieces from where he left. He should first clear his name through the due process of law and then enter the political mainstream through the democratic route to serve as a ‘third option’ by ensuring that his APML works closely with the PTI, MQM, ANP and other moderate forces.

It must be said in all fairness that in these times of turmoil in Pakistan, when there are hardly any leaders with unblemished records, the country needs visionaries like Pervez Musharraf and Imran Khan. Imran represents the new wave of change and renewal that would enable Pakistan to climb out of its dark pit of hopelessness and move forward. The former cricketer may not have experience of governance but he comes to the fore with a clean record and is a man with all the potential to drive the nation’s aspirations in a positive direction.

Musharraf, on the other hand, has already proved that he can steer the nation towards progress and growth. However, while he was in charge of affairs, he also committed a number of mistakes – slip-ups that he has openly admitted to and has vowed not to repeat again. It is said that mistakes are nothing but the tuition fee paid to the school of experience. It seems the former president has already paid a high price on that count.

Both Musharraf and Imran are the sort of leaders who would be acceptable to the west as affairs in the region are not in the latter’s control anymore. How integral Musharraf policies were to peace, stability and prosperity on Pakistan’s western borders has now been realised by the White House and the US. State Department. After sacrificing so much in terms of time, resources and human life, they have now welcomed a move on the part of the Taliban to open a political office in Qatar, saying that this would provide an opportunity for negotiations with the very insurgents with whom Washington has been fighting for more than a decade. It is unfortunate that Pakistan has had to bear the main brunt of this bloody conflict all through this.

In his time and even subsequently, Musharraf has persistently advocated dialogue with the Taliban but, in his days of power, he was accused of playing a ‘double game’. Time has proven that his approach was based on a true realisation of ground facts. It also needs to be remembered that a key point in Musharraf’s vision of transforming Pakistan into a hub of economic activity with linkages to Central Asia, the Middle East and South Asia was that this could not be realised without a stable Afghanistan.

Those currently in power in Pakistan have left a gaping hole in governance and the people have been driven to the wall. There could be no better opportunity than this for Musharraf to launch himself into the political arena despite all the hurdles in his path and the hazards posed to his personal security. His arrival in Pakistan would provide him with a ready platform to silence all those who believe that his return would further add to the political turmoil that Pakistan is confronted with today.

The way developments are playing out at present, the nation must find a workable solution both for the near and long term. In these circumstances, Imran Khan could serve as the ideal choice to run the affairs of the state at the executive level tempered by Musharraf’s eight years of creditable performance and his vast knowledge and experience on the military front, given Pakistan’s critical internal as well as geo-political situation. He could then rightly serve as the polished and well-groomed elder statesman that Pakistan so desperately needs.

The writer Syed Jawaid Iqbal, , is chairman, Moderates, a think tank strengthening tolerance, inter-faith harmony and democracy. Email: chairman@moderates.com.pk  source: www.thenews.com.pk  January 07, 2012

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Can Pervez Musharraf help soothe US-Pakistan relations?

19 Nov

What do you call a man who has been a general, a president and is now the kind of “ordinary” citizen who has an outstanding warrant for his arrest, aspires to lead his country once more and has three barrel-chested heavies keeping an eye on him?

The smart answer might simply be ‘whatever he wants’.

For a man with such a high-profile and controversial past, Pervez Musharraf can be thoroughly disarming, even as his entourage deferentially address him as “Mr President”.

The man who ruled Pakistan for nine turbulent years from 2001 is many things to many people (take your pick from “dictator” to “saviour”).

Boring is certainly not one of them.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

Amrullah Saleh I have never liked and therefore he has no right to present anything to me”

Pervez MusharrafFormer President of Pakistan

Mr Musharraf is on a charm offensive, and a potentially lucrative one at that.

Shuttling between the States and his homes in London and Dubai, he has appeared on chat shows, given speeches and taken questions from students, academics, politicians and journalists.

His stated mission is to try and ease the furrowed brow of US-Pakistan relations, which he told me are “at the lowest ebb”.

He says there has been a total breakdown of trust and confidence between the two countries.

What he finds “most surprising” is the distrust that now exists between the CIA and ISI, the two country’s respective intelligence agencies.

“There is a lot of dismay and a lot of concern all over in Pakistan and all over the Pakistani diaspora here,” he says.

‘Rogue elements’

In reality, it is a relationship that has been in slow decline since 2001 when Mr Musharraf was faced with former US President George W Bush’s bleak choice that Pakistan was either “with us or against us in the fight against terror”.

This was not to be a simple case of cheerleading from the sidelines.

Mr Bush made it clear that “a coalition partner must do more than just express sympathy, a coalition partner must perform”.

For some, Pakistan has excelled as much as it has sacrificed; losing thousands of lives in a battle against militancy, providing indispensable help with the capture and killing of key al-Qaeda operatives.

That is not the view in Washington, where suspicion that people in the government and armed forces may have been “double-dealing” has grown into shrill accusations.

Mr Musharraf clearly regards himself as the peacemaker.

He concedes that there may have been “incidents” at a tactical level and some “rogue elements” but warns that this should not be mistaken for wholesale or strategic collusion.

“It is not a policy that Pakistan is following or that ISI is following to assist the Taliban or pump them into Afghanistan.”

‘Getting emotional’

The former leader of Pakistan plays the dispassionate broker very well.

But it would be a mistake to ignore questions about his role throughout much of the period.

In a new BBC documentary entitled Secret Pakistan the former head of Afghan intelligence claims he handed evidence of Osama Bin Laden’s whereabouts to Mr Musharraf in 2006.

He alleges that the head of al-Qaeda was living in Manshera, Pakistan, at the time, just 20km (12 miles) from where he was eventually found and killed earlier this year.

This is when Mr Musharraf’s camouflage starts to slip.

The substance of the claim he handles like a politician (it was actually a case of mistaken identity involving the CIA, he says).

But he bristles with anger at the mention of Amrullah Saleh’s name, clearly angered by what he feels is impertinence on the part of a “lowly” Afghan intelligence chief.

This is when you get a glimpse of the man who seized power in a coup in 1999.

“Amrullah Saleh I have never liked and therefore he has no right to present anything to me.”

Mr Musharraf later apologises for “getting emotional” but as he prepares to launch a political campaign in Pakistan it shows how much work remains to prove his democratic credentials.

It is difficult to know what kind of support he really commands at home.

He is quick to boast that he has more Facebook friends than others (nearly half a million at the last count) but the question is: how many are voting Pakistanis, as opposed to the wealthy ex-pats who are funding his current tour of the US?

Anecdotally, there is little evidence he has the support needed to mount a serious campaign for office.

And there is the not inconsiderable issue of an outstanding warrant for his arrest.

Charming yes, capable undoubtedly. But with a history as cloudy as it is controversial, Mr Musharraf is probably destined to remain a figure of Pakistan’s past rather than its future.

 

Source: http://www.in.com/news/current-affairs/fullstory-can-pervez-musharraf-help-soothe-uspakistan-relations-21350133-in-1.html

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Musharraf in America

31 Jul

LONG before the start of Pervez Musharraf’s July 21 Woodrow Wilson Centre address, the auditorium had already filled to capacity. With crowds continuing to surge, swarms of people were diverted to three overflow rooms.

By the time Musharraf stepped to the podium, 400 people were on hand — many of them jostling outside the doorways of packed overflow rooms, straining to catch a glimpse of him on video feeds. Still others, muttering angrily, were turned away due to lack of space. Many Pakistanis may loathe their former president, dismissing him as a political has-been reduced to a life of self-imposed exile in London and Dubai. Yet in the United States, where Musharraf recently participated in a speaking tour, he is regarded with keen interest and accorded considerable respect.

In Texas, he hobnobbed with politicians (including a probable US presidential candidate) and lectured at Rice University.

Texas is where, not long ago, a Dallas journalist spotted him at a restaurant and gushed that he was “probably one of the hottest men I have ever seen”. Musharraf later travelled to New York and appeared on The Daily Show. He strode onto stage amid boisterous applause, and sipped Gatorade as host Jon Stewart peppered him with relatively painless questions.

Then, in Washington, a diverse audience — high school students, scholars, bureaucrats, diplomats, packs of journalists — politely welcomed him to the Wilson Centre. Some refused to applaud him, yet nary a catcall was heard. The only protests were lodged (in advance, via email to Wilson Centre staff) by several Balochistan activists.

How does a disgraced former president and fugitive, who now admits he diverted $10bn of US counterterrorism aid to strengthen defences against India, command such respect in the United States? One reason is America’s infatuation with celebrity. (One often hears that we worship the House of Windsor more than Britons do.) Another is that Americans are far removed from the actions — the raid on the Lal Masjid mosque, the firing of Chief Justice Chaudhry, the media crackdowns — that turned Pakistanis against their president.

Yet perhaps most important, soon after the 9/11 attacks Americans came to believe that Musharraf was the indispensable leader — Pakistan’s only hope for fending off fundamentalism. Today, US public opinion towards Pakistan has never been more hostile, yet the triggers of such sentiment are the current government and perennial villains like A.Q. Khan. Musharraf is rarely a target of such ire.

In reality, this interest in and respect for Musharraf is observed in Pakistan more than is often acknowledged. His speeches generate banner headlines (witness the response to last year’s announcement of his new political party). And while the country undoubtedly expressed widespread hostility towards him just before his inglorious resignation — in 2007, he was less popular than Osama Bin Laden, while by early 2008 his approval ratings stood at 15 per cent and three-quarters of
Pakistanis wanted him to resign — today he is more divisive than discredited. Some hate him, yet others admire him.

Consider, for example, all those who argue that Pakistan was less dangerous, corrupt and impoverished during the Musharraf era than it is today. Last year, an Express Tribune blog post articulated 50 different reasons why Pakistan “needs Pervez Musharraf”. To be sure, some of these reasons (“Copper and gold deposits were found in Chagai”) have more to do with circumstances than with Musharraf, while others (“A historic 100 per cent increase in tax collection was observed”) are of questionable accuracy. Yet others still — industrial sector growth, increases in foreign reserves — are hard to dispute. The post spawned more than 400 comments, with many heaping scorn on the author’s reasoning — and many others applauding his analysis.

Musharraf, contrary to the hopes of many, is not going away; he is, after all, running for the top political slot, with plans to return to Pakistan next year. His prospects are admittedly slim and he faces a slew of challenges, from the popularity of Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif to that pesky arrest warrant.

Yet stranger things have happened, and certain factors could work in his favour. These include the military’s continued high marks; according to recent polling by the Pew Research Centre (conducted after the discovery of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad), nearly 80 per cent believe its influence on Pakistan is positive. Or the perception that Musharraf remains a viable political figure. Several days before his Wilson Centre speech, an informal Pakistani newspaper poll of several
hundred readers found that a substantial 43 per cent believe he can become “a serious political force”.

While being escorted out of the Wilson Centre following his talk, Musharraf, always an engaging personality, extended his hand to several passers-by, all of whom clasped it heartily. One onlooker began chanting, “March 23, 2012, let’s go! March 23, 2012, let’s go!” — eliciting a chuckle from Musharraf and his entourage.

Neither Musharraf nor his handlers nor the onlooker may have realised that this date marks not only his expected return to Pakistan, but also the US release of a movie called Hunger Games. This much-ballyhooed film, based on a best-selling young-adult book trilogy and expected to become the next Harry Potter phenomenon, depicts a post-apocalyptic America.

March 23, 2012: one more tie that binds Musharraf and the United States.

The writer is the South Asia programme associate at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars in Washington, DC.

michael.kugelman@wilsoncenter.org

Source; www.dawn.com

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The Third Option

26 Apr

These were the days just after Pervez Musharraf had resigned from office as President. He was having lunch with a group of friends at the Boat Club in Karachi when an elderly lady got up from the next table, approached the former president and said: “What sort of people have you handed over the country to?” Musharraf looked at her and then bowed his head in silence. He had no answer to give.
It appears that the man who ruled Pakistan for almost nine years and did a reasonably good job is still caught in that silence. He makes perfectly relevant utterances from time to time but is somehow not able to make sure that what he is saying and what he is thinking about the people and the country is heard by the masses.

Next August, it will be three years since Musharraf relinquished the reins of power. Much water has flowed under the bridge since then. In fact, it has turned into a deluge of towering prices, corruption on a massive scale, almost zero governance, crime at its worst, an ineffective foreign policy and shameless politicking that has continued to hurl Pakistan’s ship around in the rough seas of survival.

Now that democracy has lost its shine for the people of Pakistan, thanks to the extra efforts made by Messrs Zardari and Gilani and all their buddies, there are a growing number of people who look forward to Pervez Musharraf’s return – and somehow access to the seat of power. Their view is that he would be an answer to all the rot that is slowly gnawing into the national fabric.

In reality, returning to the Pakistani political fray would be an uphill task for Musharraf, considering the high money-spending benchmarks already set by the likes of the Sharifs, the Chaudhrys and the many waderas and sardars. This will not happen in the short term either. Furthermore, there is too much riding on the retired general’s life. Whatever the truth, too much poison and hatred have been infused into the minds of the people by those who do not like him or are afraid of him. Then, there is the media which is working overtime to weave a web of revulsion against the very man who, despite his military credentials, accorded unbelievable liberty to them. There was many a “democrat” who came before and after Musharraf but did not make the slightest effort for the cause of media freedom.

Now, it is the Musharraf-liberated media that has strengthened the commonly held belief that hundreds of youthful protestors were killed in Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa. The media has also worked relentlessly to establish that it was Musharraf who gave direct orders for the killing of Akbar Bugti. And, over time, more people have been led by the same media to believe that Musharraf was “involved” in Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.

The pity is that no intense effort has been made by the APML to counter these allegations. As far as Akbar Bugti’s death is concerned, even the ISPR has not stepped forward to issue a clarification of what actually happened. Such a move would have removed a lot of dust from the Bugti incident as this was an army operation in which a senior officer was killed along with his subordinates. The deaths occurred as a result of the heavy rocks around Bugti’s hideout caving in. It certainly did not happen because Musharraf, sitting in Rawalpindi, gave orders to gun down the Baloch leader. In fact, the army colonel who died and the other officers had been sent to negotiate with Bugti.

Politicians and the media also do not lose an opportunity to propagate the view that Musharraf is responsible for the wave of terrorism that the country is engulfed in and it was he who invited the US to launch drone attacks into Pakistani territory.

What the APML needs to do is launch its own blitzkrieg of information about all the good that was done in Musharraf’s time. There was talk of a whitepaper when Musharraf resigned but no work seems to have been done on the document. If taken up in earnest, it could serve as an important and authentic tool for the former president and his cause.

Musharraf would have, of course, avoided his downfall had he exercised better judgment in taking certain decisions, such as on Kalabagh Dam, Akbar Bugti, the chief justice’s removal, imposition of the emergency and the NRO. However, the perception that he did not did not take his political and military comrades on board in assessing crucial situations is not true.He waited for months and consulted everyone who mattered before ordering the SSG units to break into Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa.

He was first criticised for being slow in taking firm action against the forceful occupants, but once he gave orders for the action, he was seriously censured for having launched an overly rash and “inhuman” army operation. The irony is that at no point did his political comrades make an effort to clear the confusion surrounding the standoff. They never bothered to even mention that no less than the Imam-e-Kaaba had been approached by Pervez Musharraf to intervene and persuade the militants to come out peacefully.

On the other hand, where political issues were concerned, he went into the direction pointed by the politicians around him while people like Shaukat Aziz, Humayun Akhtar, Khurshid Kasuri, Dr Hafeez Shaikh, Liaquat Jatoi, Shaikh Rashid, Faisal Saleh Hayat, Ijazul Haq and Jehangir Tareen chose to take the backseat. Here his simplicity prevented him from making more balanced judgments. A good example is the reference against Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry that he sent to the Supreme Judicial Council without giving the matter much thought – and even allowing himself to be photographed in uniform with the chief justice just a day before the storm was let loose.

To be concluded

The writer is chairman of “Moderates,” a private-sector think tank. Email: chairman@ moderates.com.pk

http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=43682&Cat=9

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10 Questions for Mr. Pervez Musharraf

06 Apr

By TIME Staff Thursday, Mar. 24, 2011

You are planning a return to Pakistan to run again for President, a job you left in 2008. Why?

For the sake of Pakistan. I am very comfortable. I go around the world lecturing, and they pay me well. But there is a cause bigger than the self. I governed the country for nine years — successfully. So I don’t have to reinvent the wheel. And I know Pakistan is suffering. I know there is a vacuum of leadership. Therefore the cause of Pakistan pulls me toward my destiny. Maybe it’s a call of destiny much more for the nation than for myself.

You stepped down at the behest of the people. We’ve also seen Tunisia’s Zine el Abidine Ben Ali and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak step down at the people’s demand. How would you advise Muammar Gaddafi?
I would like to seriously object to the comparison. I left peacefully through my own volition. So please don’t compare me to those two. However, you have spoken about Gaddafi. The will of the people should reign supreme. It’s almost a civil war there. A political situation must be found.

Do you see any good leadership in Pakistan that will shift the country from the grip of religious extremists?

That is why I want to go back.

So how do you combat the rise of the religious right?
You have two choices: succumb to circumstances or do something. I know the people of Pakistan are moderate. It’s unfortunate when the government itself and the leadership appease the religious groups and extremists by turning a blind eye.

Which is more of a threat to Pakistan — extremism or India?
At the moment, it’s extremism and terrorism. But you can’t compare. Let’s not think this is a permanent situation. The orientation of 90% of Indian troops is against Pakistan. We cannot ever ignore India, which poses an existential threat to Pakistan.

Is Pakistan the most dangerous country in the world?
It is very dangerous, yes, I will have to admit. But the most dangerous is Afghanistan.

But Afghanistan doesn’t have nuclear weapons.
Yes, we have nuclear weapons, and we are proud of it. Nuclear weapons are the pride of every man, woman and child walking in the streets of Pakistan. Why are we nuclear?

Because of India.

What is preventing Pakistan from becoming the modern, progressive state you envisioned when you took power?
The condition of the region. In 1979 we launched a jihad in Afghanistan against the Soviets. Who was the spearhead of the fight? The religious militant groups. In effect we introduced religious militancy by design in Afghanistan, and then [the U.S.] left the place high and dry. The responsibility lies with the West. The U.S. encouraged it all, and we suffered. This is what we face. It comes from history.

But you can’t lay all the blame on history.
Yes, we have to take the lessons we have learned. We have to be careful not to create another blunder. The U.S. is declaring that it will quit in 2014. The Taliban are seeing that people are running away.

So the decision to pull out in 2014 is not a good one?
I know [what] public opinion is in the West and the U.S. But real leadership comes when you need to change public opinion, not go with it, because it’s not in your interest or the world’s interest. This is the reality in Afghanistan at this moment.

 

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Security before Democracy

21 Mar

DEMOCRACY is an obsession with the West. Perhaps, rightly so because after the failure of communism and socialism, democracy has emerged as the only successful form of government.

However, when one looks around in the Third World which is experimenting with democracy, one sees an unacceptable manifestation of the same — a democratically elected government is in place but taking the country towards disaster. Therefore, clearly, politics/democracy needs to be reconciled with national security — progress/development of the state and welfare/wellbeing of its people.

What are the imperatives of democracy? Are fair elections and an elected government the only requirement of democracy? To me, that is merely a label. How the elected government governs is the true essence of democracy. Democracy’s primary functional concern ought to be: ‘Are people masters of their own destiny? Are they empowered enough to look after their own interests?’

People implies masses belonging to all segments: vertically, the rich and powerful, feudal lords, tribal chiefs on top and the grass-roots common man at the bottom; horizontally, all provinces/states, tribes, religions, sects, castes, men and women.

I strongly believe the danger lies in denying power, not in sharing or giving power.

How does national security affect democracy? First and foremost is security against external threats implying the maintainance of adequate forces to pursue national interests with honour and dignity. Clearly, no state, no democracy.

This is the ‘traditional security element’. Pakistan has suffered from an existential threat from the east since independence, after its first war with India in 1948. Therefore, for its security, it adopted a military strategy of minimum defensive deterrence quantified into force levels for the army, navy and air force.

But when the armed forces, well-organised and well-managed as they are, also become strong in numbers, they tend to acquire a voice in national governance.

Next is security from internal threats or centrifugal forces acting against national security, homogeneity or integrity from within society. This is the ‘non-traditional security’ aspect; its various elements which are confronted for functional democracy to evolve are ethnic, tribal, religious or sectarian disparities and discord; regional or societal development inequities; poverty, joblessness and economic disparities; illiteracy; food and water issues.

Let’s discuss how to ensure national security to protect the state in all its dimensions and tailor democracy to suit a typical Third World environment. I will quote examples from my practical experience.

The people’s destiny must be entwined with that of the state so that they develop a stake in it. This is possible when the state rises economically and its wealth is distributed equitably among all regions and peoples.

With the economy put on the upsurge, we have to ensure its benefits trickle down to the people. In Pakistan we identified poverty and joblessness among the rural uneducated, the urban educated unemployed and the urban uneducated unemployed. We tackled each systematically.

For the rural uneducated unemployed, we focused on agriculture and agro-based industry, dairy and livestock. For the urban educated unemployed, we focused on the telecommunication and information technology sectors. For the urban uneducated unemployed, we emphasised building and construction which is labour-intensive. We reduced poverty from 34 to 17 per cent in seven years.

Education and skill development needs to be pursued vigorously. Public-private partnerships can pay rich dividends. We created the National Commission on Human Development; the National Vocational and Technical Education Commission was created for skill development which in turn led to innumerable vocational training centres imparting three- to six-month turnaround courses for construction skills. The overall strategy was for universalising education up to middle class and then diverting the people towards skill development.

Food, water and energy should be considered as the inalienable right of all. Sixty per cent of diseases in Pakistan are water-borne. We initiated a project of installing water-filtration plants down to the union council (15 to 20 villages) level. Electricity was provided to all villages with more than 50 houses. Simple food kitchens for the poorest segments need to be provided with public-private philanthropic participation.

These are the main areas of human security as part of non-traditional security which will reinforce national security and enhance the people’s stakes in the state. This brings me to the aspect of sustainable democracy.

First and foremost, democracy must be tailored to fit the environment in which it is to function. There is no set formula. No country’s example can be superimposed on others without adjustment.

In Pakistan, democratic institutions are under-developed, and democratically elected governments have always failed to deliver. Whenever there has been a dysfunctional, elected government running the state aground (which invariably has been the case), people take the only recourse of appealing to the army to take over. The army’s response to this mass national appeal can only be unconstitutional. There is no constitutional salvation.

In such a crisis, which has struck all too often, the question that gets debated is whether upholding democracy is more important than rescuing the state. An institutional role, therefore, has to be evolved for the military to voice its concerns to prevent any unconstitutional act, which the public pressurises them to do.

This I call checks and balances.

The other important factor is the empowerment of the people. We must devolve authority to the lowest level — empowerment and authority devolution to the district level and below means giving them political, administrative and financial authority.

Empowering the people is inadequate if women and minorities are not integrated into governance. They must appropriately be represented at all tiers of political authority so that they feel the satisfaction of belonging and participating in nation-building. We empowered women and minorities by giving them reserved seats in the district, provincial and national assemblies besides their right to contest openly from any constituency.

The ultimate factor behind all development of the state, welfare of its people, the country’s unity and integrity is collective economic wellbeing. Economic strength is the mother of all development and the guarantor of national security and sustainable democracy.

The writer is a former military ruler of Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2011

 

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Pervez Musharraf addressed Pakistani community in Dubai, UAE.

21 Mar

On the occasion of 134th birth anniversary of Mohammad Ali Jinnah the founder of Pakistan, former President Pervez Musharraf addressed a prestige gathering of Pakistani community in Dubai, UAE.  A cake was also cut by the former president together with APML team. He mentioned during his speech that when he came in power, the first thing he did was to visit the Quaid’s mausoleum and took oath the he would do everything to build Pakistan in accordance to the guiding principles of the Quaid.

The Pakistani business community was overwhelmed with the presence of the former President of Pakistan Gen. (R) Pervez Musharraf in Abu Dhabi  on December 20, 2010 It was the first time he has made an appearance in front of such a large public gathering in Abu Dhabi since he announced his political party.

The All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) has sent legal notices to Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and PML-N chief Nawas Sharif to halt political activities in Punjab House, Islamabad. A notice has also been sent to the provincial chief secretary to get the building vacated, on the pretext that Nawaz was using the premises for political activities which is against the law.

 

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