To envisage the implications of time and history, opportunities lost are never regained. Almost for half a century Bhutto family and self-styled military leaders worked collaboratively to undo what was important to the essence of freedom and integrity of Pakistan as a Muslim nation. Pakistanis have not produced leaders to lead but to mislead and destroy its ideological and functional imperatives. About quarter of century earlier while studying in North America, I wrote to General Zia ul Haq: " what would our history say, why there was no Jinnah, Iqbal, Moudoodi and Mushraqi born out of this nation except the Martial Law administrators who kept the body of Pakistan afloat through law and order gimmick." The late General Zia had no rational answer but to acknowledge that he cannot respond to this question. Nothing has changed over such a long distance of history. The wicked politicians and military dictators of Pakistan have punished conscientious Pakistanis. They have ignored the facts of history and articulated dark illusions to assert the joint power sharing adventures aimed at dismemberment of the political institutions, encroachment of social justice, human dignity and nationhood. Their vested loyalties belong to foreign masters, not accountable to the people of Pakistan. After losing half of the country to India, they never felt ashamed to explain, why they should be spared from accountability? Pakistani Generals should have learned from the contemporary history, whenever a country is militarized, it ended up in defeat and disgrace. Are they not following the same end in waiting?
In Summer of 1999, the Forum of Concerned Pakistanis in Canada informed and warned General Mushraaf who was still the Chief of the Army Staff that " wicked people never destroy another wicked person. To alleviate the wickedness, one must encourage pious and honest people to hold position of responsibility." The self-made President and General appears to have discarded the lessons of history. Corruption flourished under his governance to a magnitude that none before dared to institutionalize. In a literary context, corruption means politicians and military officials working together to destroy the Muslim nation. The aim is attractive to all the enemies of Islamic Pakistan. Educated Pakistanis (mostly found in Pakistani graveyards or some may be living abroad), assumed that Pakistani army officers had some sense of national belonging and could be counted as loyal and honest to the nationhood and its defense. No so, The NY Times headlines of Sept 2007 reads: Pakistani Generals are paid by the US to do the job. The assignment is clearly to terrorize the nation and incapacitate its body of strength, viability and lifeline energies so that no external force should bother to dismantle its structure. The Generals and ruling politicians enjoin cruel dogmas to run the powerhouse with the direct aid of Western nations. They are collaborators in making a bloodbath of the Pakistani nation, its national interests and Islamic heritage by manufacturing terrorism myth in relation to Islam and its practitioners. Like the European imperialists, they have continued to massacre the innocent citizens in schools and mosques. The Islamabad Lal Masjid destruction was the latest experiment to test if Pakistanis would tolerate what future is coming for them. In case they want to change the history, Europeans have a rich history of terrorism when they forcibly colonized the large parts of Muslims societies. Terrorism not much proclaimed democracy, was their way of life to occupy and control the Muslim people. They looted the people and their resources and made Europe go to change and industrial growth. Now they claim to be civilized as if they have not seen the mirror.
What have a common Pakistan gained in the last half of a century of misrule in the country? With no defined system of Government, feudal landlords and neocolonial elite supported by the colonial established army institution continued to run Pakistan, only an ordinary citizen has been deprived of a true national identity, whereas, freedom has lost its meaning and purpose. How could foreign-minded slavish Bhuttos, Zardaris, Sahrifs and Pakistani Generals be an object of hope to any plausible change for the nation or a hope for a promising future? Leaders create leaders. None are or were leaders to fulfill the requisites of history. Given the sense of rational choices, only educated young Pakistanis could possibly rescue the already crumbled body of the nation, if there was a new system of governance in place facilitating democratic institutions and fair opportunities to restore systematic order, what has been lost by corruption and indifference to the interest of the nation.
Pre-arranged dramatic coming of Ms Bhutto to Pakistan reminds the observers if she was directly involved in the killing of General Zia and 12 or more Pakistani Generals in the C130 plane crash in 1988 through the US complacency at the time? In similar manner, she was installed to replace General Zia. That was not the first time, Bhutto family strangled Pakistan. Late Z A Bhutto was instrumental to the surrender of Pakistani army to India and the disintegration of Pakistan in 1971. Twice dismissed as PM on corruption charges and numerous other cases of money laundering and embezzlement of the Pakistani treasury, what credibility does Ms Bhutto has to return to the political mainstream? She and her husband could be indicted for 17 million dollar money laundering case in Switzerland. Are the masses that shameless to tolerate this kind of junkies? None have any relationship to Islam and democracy. If nothing else, it proves how egoistically stupid is General Mushraaf to ask Ms. Bhutto for partnership. The hoax of Reconciliation Ordinance is nothing more than a recipe for disaster and self-survival, both for Benazir Bhutto and the locked-in General. Ironically, none have learnt to find a peaceful exit door. The General is no more than a dirty mouse trapped in a self-constructed hole of greed and ignorance that is usually embedded in power seeking adventures. He knows no way, how to opt out of this entrapment. So is Ms Bhutto unaware of her end too.
What legitimacy could General Mushraaf claim to negotiate any political deal on behalf of the Pakistani nation? General Mushraaf and some of his colleagues could be tried in a court of law to have terrorized Pakistanis and looting of their precious natural resources. They would work together to create and institutionalize terrorism and desecration of Islamic values to please the Foreign Masters. The Generals and Ms Bhutto are the problem; they cannot be part of the solution. Their survival and solidarity depends on how much terrorism they could import into Pakistan and how effectively to chastise the Muslim masses, ultimately depriving them of the nationhood. Once again as long time ago, Dr. Quershi (Managing Editor of URDU Digest), wrote on the surrender of East Pakistan: General Yahaya and Mujib stabbed the living body of Pakistan, another time Bhutto will stab it again. Isn’t it that history is repeating itself? Now General Mushraaf and Ms. Bhutto will collaborate to enact the same stage drama.
