A whimper in Pakistan
General "Busharraf" finally went down with a "whimper" in the wake of what may be termed as a sequence of inconsequential "bangs" to prop his "Kubla Khan" image. History would testify that this dictator, analogous to others before him, was also predestined not to build the "stately pleasure-dome" he decreed. His prowl as the most powerful Sultan that ever reigned in Pakistan, effectively silencing the voices of democracy, by rewriting the constitution, dismantling the Supreme Court, and using the military against his own people has ended up in the "caverns measureless to man/down to sunless sea: " So much for the denouement.
Any student of the current affairs in Pakistan would not have missed the "naked emperor" syndrome in the retired general as soon as he was shorn of his military uniform and regalia in the ceremony in which he formally handed over the power and status of the army chief to his successor General Ashfaq Kayani. He indignantly chastised the western leaders in presence of foreign diplomats and alleged that the West had no inkling about how to oversee democracy in a developing country like Pakistan. He probably meant to say that "East is East and West is West and the Twain shall never meet" while the West, especially when the Bush Administration, was his enabler and underwriter at a critical juncture of history. He was the Sultan in the East with the help of the West, but in the end he lost both the East and the West. He knew full well that his days were numbered. His image as the best ally of the US in its war on terror was already tarnished and to make the matters worse, he could no longer "hold the centre" in Pakistan in the face of inordinate slippages that were leaving indelible marks on the socio-political-economic landscape of the country. There is no doubt that he left the country in a greater chaos than when he took power. There is no denying the fact that if his presence unified and galvanized the democratic opposition in Pakistan, his absence is going to take it away and plunge the country headlong in a greater plight.
My worst nightmare is that the people of Pakistan, who have traditionally always got too little too late, will see another replay of the missed opportunity for its democracy. The ouster of an enormous "enemy of the people" may still bring back the divisive politics of the old and another perfect storm may flip the restoration of democracy into a restoration of military dictatorship. I hope the parallel between Pakistan and Bangladesh never comes to pass.
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