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MASOOD HAIDER: LAST
GASPS OF PAKISTAN'S DICTATOR, GENERAL MUSHARRAF STAGES A “COUP” AGAINST
OWN REGIME:
05/11/2007 (MaximsNews Network)
UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network /
- 05 November 2007 -- In
what really is the last act of a power-hungry dictator, Pakistan’s President
General Pervez Musharraf staged a coup against his own government on November 3,
a day rightly called the “Blackest day” in country's checkered 60-year
history.
Gen.
Musharraf, who first came into power on Oct 12 1999 in a bloodless coup, has
been lurching from crisis to crisis since March of this year, when he made the
fatal mistake of firing Pakistan supreme court's Chief Justice Iftikhar
Muhammad Chaudhry, a move that triggered massive protests from Pakistan's
middle class and unified the country's disparate opposition parties into
demanding an end to the military rule.
The
Supreme Court declared Gen. Musharraf's move illegal and reinstated the chief
justice. But he continued to target him, sensing that he post the biggest
threat to his prolonged rule.
When
the court was about to rule that his so-called re-election was illegal, the
general clamped down a state of emergency and suspended the
Constitution.
The
justices were sent packing but against the country's lawyers and intellectuals
have risen against him with full force.
In a midnight address to the nation, a nervous Musharraf explained his case
that reflected the paradox he is:
“Pakistan is on the verge of destabilization, if not arrested in time, now,
without losing any further time or delaying the issue. The saddest part of
everything, which saddens me the most, that after all we have achieved in the
past seven years, I see in front of my eyes Pakistan's upsurge taking a
downward trend. I, personally, with all my conviction, and with all the facts
available to me, consider that inaction at this moment is suicide for
Pakistan, and I cannot allow this country to commit suicide. Therefore, I had
to take this action in order to preserve the democratic transition, which I
initiated eight years back.”
Musharraf seemingly made a case against his own rule as all the facts that he
cited as a reason to act were a direct consequence of his inept handling of
issues and his desire to cling to power come what may.
One
of the primary reason Musharraf cites for imposing emergency in the
country is his determination to contain and fight the militants. But
in the crackdown which he has undertaken his targets are human rights
activists, lawyers, social workers, and the so called "enlightened
moderates." The militants who are running amok espousing
extremist ideology have not been touched.
Gen. Musharraf has this lost all credibility -- he is now in the twilight of
his career and the only way the country could return to normality is a return
to democracy with the military returning to barracks.
Although
news reports on Sunday claimed that Pentagon does not believe that US military
aid to Pakistan will be affected by Gen Musharraf's decision
but US lawmakers would demand that all assistance to Pakistani military be
cutoff.
General Musharraf’s move to seize emergency powers and abandon the
Constitution left Bush administration officials close to their nightmare: an
American-backed military dictator who is risking civil instability in a
country with nuclear weapons and an increasingly alienated public, observed
the New York Times.
The United States has given Pakistan more than $10 billion in aid, mostly to
the military, since 2001. Now, if the state of emergency drags on, the administration will be faced with the difficult decision of whether to cut off
that aid and risk undermining Pakistan’s efforts to pursue terrorists — a move the White House believes could endanger the security of the United
States.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice criticized President Musharraf’s
action in imposing emergency setting constitution aside and cautioned him he
risked
jeopardizing American aid essential for the economic fast track the country is
on.
But even as she criticized General Musharraf’s power grab, Ms. Rice stopped
short of outright condemnation of General Musharraf himself, even going so far
as to credit him for doing “a lot” — in the past — toward preparing Pakistan for what she called a “path to democratic rule.”
That seeming contradiction highlights the quandary in which the Bush
administration now finds itself, a newspaper asserted and rightly so.
Its
Déjà vu!!
Pakistan's
army which essentially lost half of the country in 1971 while
denying people of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) their democratic right to
rule the country could end losing the rest of the country under Gen.
Musharraf's rule. The similarities are frighteningly uncanny.
MasoodHaider@MaximsNews.com
Labels: United
Nations, U.N., Masood
Haider, Pakistan
coup, Gen.
Pervez Musharraf, dictator
~~~~~
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