Daily Times

This is the moment Gen (rtd) Pervez Musharraf has been waiting for, hope against hope. For after languishing in Pakistan’s political wilderness for all these years — despite numerous false starts and bureaucratic set-backs — the former commando is back. And he has none other than his old nemesis to thank for his impact on the country’s current landscape. It is beyond his wildest dreams.

Or, put another way, it is rather fitting that Pakistan’s last military dictator is at the centre of the most recent confrontation between the civilian set-up and the all-powerful security apparatus. After all, the country’s political leaders have over the decades lamented how periods of khaki rule have hampered the democratic process. Indeed, those past and present privately and not so privately complain of how even when the non-uniformed are intermittently in charge — the Army is never fully in the barracks.

These are legitimate grievances that cross the great divide. All of which makes the joint opposition’s dismissal of Nawaz Sharif’s recent ‘bombshell’ as mere sour grapes a tad disappointing; even if it was to be expected. The former Prime Minister has, admittedly, left it rather late in the day to dish the dirt on how the PTI supposedly joined hands with the security apparatus to introduce dharna politics to the country in a bid to oust the thrice-elected premier over his apparent audacity in putting Musharraf on trial for treason. And then there are the accusations that Asif Ali Zardari asked the senior Sharif to endorse the latter’s short period of martial law back in 2007.

Thus far, only the PPP has called for a non-partisan probe into Nawaz’s allegations. But even here it echoes the PTI position that questions above all: why now? Which is another way of suggesting that the former kingmaker fears the accountability court. This may well be the case. And while due process must be done — it cannot be mutually exclusive to unravelling once and for all this tangled web. If, that is, the civvies are serious about bringing so-called hidden hands to book.

When Musharraf was afforded safe and honourable exit from the country, it was part of a done deal between the then ruling PPP and the then COAS. Just as it was the last Interior minister who removed the good general’s name from the Exit Control List. The not unreasonable rationale being that the politicians have limited room to manoeuvre.

Nawaz’s claims have the potential to lift the lid on the extent to which the military establishment interferes in the political mandate. But this can only happen if the opposition is willing to temporarily ignore the bad blood that flows freely among the custodians of democracy. For this is in the national interest and goes beyond Musharraf and his abrogation of the Constitution. It is about checking a prevailing system that seeks exclusive control of the country. And the longer this is seen as just the way the Pakistani cookie crumbles — the higher the risk of the civilians developing Stockholm Syndrome of a different kind. One that views having their hands tied by the military establishment as a security blanket.

Thus it is hoped that all parties join together to push for the constitution of a judicial inquiry at the earliest. If they do not, they may well find themselves in the dock. Charged as accomplices to democracy’s undoing.  *

Published in Daily Times, May 25^th 2018.