There have been very few rulers in the history of pakistan who when thrown out of the seat, kept on hitting back and trying to damage Pakistan, both inside and outside the country. Whever that list is compiled, I’m sure Musharraf will remain on the top of that. Due to his nasty moves and ugly thoughts, I’ve no doubt that he has been the worst thing ever happened to this country hurting Pakistan a lot during his nine years of tyranny and now trying to do something again that can bring him back in news, on whatever the cost country pays.
Now here is a columnist of Dawn noticing the same and putting up in his words in today’s paper.
Birds of a feather
By Kamran Shafi
Tuesday, 29 Sep, 2009 | 06:53 AM PST
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The timing of his new disclosures, the exact opposite of what he had said when he was himself in power is evidence of the fact that he is no friend of Pakistan, or of its military. —Reuters Photo
**WHAT is more damaging, Transparency International’s report on growing corruption in Pakistan, or the Commando’s going public on diverting military aid from the US against India too? **
Verbatim: ‘Wherever there is a threat to Pakistan, we will use it [equipment provided by the US] there. If the threat comes from Al Qaeda or Taliban, it will be used there. If the threat comes from India, we will most surely use it there,’ Gen Musharraf told a private TV channel a mere 10 days before the meeting of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan.
To make Pakistan’s case even weaker, he went on: ‘There is nothing like this equipment has come from the US and must only be used against Taliban, or that equipment has come from China and must be used against this or that.’
‘Whoever wishes to be angry, let them be angry, why should we bother? We have to maintain our security, and the Americans should know, and the whole world should know that we won’t compromise our security, and will use the equipment everywhere!’
The timing of his new disclosures, the exact opposite of what he had said when he was himself in power is evidence of the fact that he is no friend of Pakistan, or of its military (read army) when it comes to grinding his own axe – this time to try, foolishly of course, to come back to power using means fair or foul. We must recall that when he lorded it over us, his government had rejected a New York Times report which had said Pakistan had used $5bn on weapons systems that were India-specific.
We must remember too that his ‘revelations’ have come hard on the heels of the top spooks of yesteryear making idiots of themselves on our media for all the world to hear and see, as they recounted the extent of their skullduggery in influencing the country’s politics, as a result damaging themselves and the ‘agencies’ at whose breast they had once fed, instead of the politicians they had tried to target. And thereby convincing those who had some doubt that the ‘agencies’ were not that bad, that they were worse.
Even their most ardent supporters were left red in the face at all the goofiness on display.
It is to be noted too, that Musharraf’s present foray into Pakistani politics in which he has also gone to the extent of calling Nawaz Sharif a ‘closet Taliban’, is aimed at turning the West away from a popular political leader. Little realising that no one really believes him because of his own very bad record when it comes to giving the yahoos succour. We must never forget that the Swat and Fata yahoos came into their own during Musharraf’s watch.
Also, the world remembers that the pro-yahoo Mullah Military Alliance was midwifed by Musharraf and his ‘agencies’, and was then facilitated into power in Balochistan and the Frontier through a patently rigged election by him and his toadies. He who refused to appear to welcome the then Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has some gall to call the man who invited the Indian prime minister to Lahore a ‘closet Taliban’.
We have to immediately note too that the Jamaat-i-Islami which later became an important part of Musharraf’s own MMA, was on the same side as the Commando and protested violently at Ataljee’s visit to the Minar-i-Pakistan, a protest which was firmly put down by the Punjab Police. And then people say he should not be tried?
But if Musharraf is damaging Pakistan by his untimely nonsense, the newly fangled United Kingdom Border Agency (UKBA) is doing likewise to Britain. Now then, what is this shemozzle that goes on, day in and day out, eh?
I’ll keep it simple. A friend who has been to the UK at least 91 times over the last 40 or so years: a 67-year old grandfather; the head of a multinational; an extremely well-known English language columnist; and who has banking accounts amounting to over Rs7m has been refused a visit visa this summer!! Whilst the rest of the grounds of refusal are too stupidly ludicrous to narrate here, this being a paper of record, let me just try to walk you through the funds’ angle.
Seven million in the bank and no visa? Well, in that case I should not even dare to apply when my UK visa runs out next year for I never have more than Rs18,000 in all of my three accounts with Standard Chartered after the 20th of the month – even when they are full up after I receive the remittance that my son (bless him) sends me from London they never account to more than Rs150,000. So, I need never apply, what, ladies and gentlemen of the UKBA?
I am 63 years old, and a grandfather too (my elder boy’s son, here in Pakistan); I have written in the Pakistani English press and for publications on the net for 25 years now; I have been to London countless times; I was Benazir Bhutto’s press secretary for two years and then served in the Pakistan High Commission in London for three as minister (press), but I have no money. So I needn’t even apply, what?
My son who lives in Notting Hill drives an Aston Martin which is duly handed to me as I arrive, with a full petrol tank and a credit card in the glove compartment so I can scoot hither and yon to visit my friends Henry Shepherd-Cross in Compton Bassett, Wiltshire; Wendy and Sue in Stroud, and Peregrine Hodson in Bisley, Gloucestershire. My boy uses his Range Rover when I am there, to go to Guards Polo Club to play polo on the weekends. But I have no money, so I needn’t even apply?
A friendly word of advice to the Brits: instead of upsetting more people every day, simply announce that Pakis will not get visas any longer. Full stop. So go climb a (Paki) tree.