Daily Times

Had he given Pasha’s message from his former institution some heed, he would be enjoying the good life, trotting around the globe. But our dear commando, who was done with his innings and was told by all and sundry to stay away from Pakistan, decided to follow his gut instinct, rather than his head. Without repeating what I have said about Musharraf at this venue, it is rather evident that his goose has been cooked. His fate has been sealed. Barring any last minute intervention of a ‘friendly country’ and a C-130 very quietly taking him out of the Promised Land, he is looking at a tight knot around his neck.

As they say, when your friends and yes men ditch you, and do not even bother acknowledging your sorry existence, you are done. His former institution has distanced itself completely. Despite the desperate attempts by Musharraf to get them involved, the armed forces are indifferent on his issue. The problem with the delusional former general is that he is regurgitating the same old lines that he used back in 1999, when he bestowed the title of Chief Executive upon himself. Lady luck was very generous at that point. All was going well. The cronies and sycophants were around him singing his praises. He was being compared to Ataturk and the show was all in his favour. The people who were supposedly tired of the corrupt politicos had finally found their angel of hope. The drama was good. The cast and crew changed a bit here and there but overall the message was the same. The heavens finally had mercy on us and we were all gifted with a messiah. The messiah was going to make ‘Pakistan first’ his priority and the era of ‘enlightened moderation’ was about to gain momentum.

The top brass of al Qaeda was found from our territory. One may reasonably assume that the CIA and other US intelligence agencies pinpointed the targets and Musharraf’s men went out to get the job done. George Bush was the lucky mascot for Musharraf. The military and economic aid was pouringin and the economic boom was on. As they say, for every rise there is a fall. Karachi was burning on May 12, 2007 and the General was reminding the nation with his cronies in Islamabad that the real democracy was the gift of a General. All the kings’ horses and all the king’s men were aligned to save the King. The former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who is presently off the horizon, was defending the General. The class clown Sheikh Rasheed was found in the nightly programmes of the tube, singing his praises. The Chaudhrys of Gujrat were his right hand men and above all MQM was on his side too. Now, all of them want to avoid him like the plague. Why? Because his time is up. His show is over. He is a liability and no one wants to own him.

We worship the rising sun, but if the same sun is setting, we shy away from that very sun. The legalities of Article 6 aside, the trial of Musharraf is farcical. You do not pick and choose when you will apply the aforementioned article and when you will ignore it outright. Hence, it will be in the best interest of this government to let Musharraf go. I know a lot of folks would be up in arms about this statement. Why not set the record straight? For once, a General pays for his excesses. Again, to those who are lecturing us on Article 6, did you squeak when Zia and Musharraf violated that Article to begin with? Selective justice is equivalent to no justice. From Ayub, Yahya, Zia and to Musharraf, this Article has been trampled repeatedly. If for the sake of history, you are unable to hold all of them accountable, then picking on Musharraf is very convenient. Especially when he is down and out.

This government’s stature will rise sky high if it pardons Musharraf for the sake of fairness. The much-expected conviction should serve as a deterrent for any other adventurous General down the road. The nation will heal as well, understanding that any such adventure will not be tolerated in the future. To make a martyr out of a toothless Musharraf is wrong on all counts. We can set our history and its record straight by showing grace and compassion. Because fairness and equity should be primary and paramount, especially when the Sharifs were pardoned by the same Musharraf when he was at his peak and of course due to Saudi intervention. It is a test of Prime Minister Sharif’s grace and sense of fairness. Better yet it is payback time. Otherwise, Mr Sharif will be remembered in history as a short sighted and vindictive Premier of this sorry land. One can sincerely hope that Mr Sharif chooses to be on the right side of our much tainted history.

The writer is a Pakistani-American mortgage banker. He blogs at http://dasghar.blogspot.com and can be reached at dasghar@aol.com. He tweets at http://twitter.com/dasghar