Re: Things I dislike about Musharraf
To tell you the truth there is only one thing and that is his view that he is the only one that can save Pakistan, this bacame more pronounced in the last few years. I, however, do understand why he thinks like this. We as a nation still need some growing up to do. After the ouster of BB and NS, we had an opportunity to rid ourselves of corrupt politicians, yet we brought the same people we hate so much back.
I do not blame Musharraf for siding with the lotas, they through their cunning ways and wheeling and dealing were able to bring about the biggest coalition. I am sure all of us would agree that none of them were smart enough or fit enough to be given the reins of the country and that is why musharraf kept most of the decision making powers to himself. And that is why he is also responsible for the things that went wrong.
Pakistan, is not an easy country to lead. It requires a very delicate power sharing balance between the Army and civil administration. Musharraf, being from the Army, relied too much on its diciplined structure and marginalised the civil institutions. He is also a bad manager in the sense that he is too shy of delegating responsibilities.
One think I do not doubt about the man is his sincerety. He does sincerely believe that he is a messiah and different from the corrupt politicians, unfortunately that has made him into a dictator. If he had been slowly delegating authority in the last five years to civilian administrative institutions, the nation would have progressed much better and things would have been much different now when we are ready to elect the second assemblies. ** ** I think because of thinking that he is the only one that can do the job right, we failed to grow strong institutions. This, unfortunately is a hallmark of dictatorship and I blame the Pakistani politicians for it as much as I blame Musharraf.
I do think the future is bright though. Even without Musharraf's backing it is clear that PPP will come out as the victorious party in the coming elections. BB has a far stronger personality than the choudhries and will not be as impotent as the current government is/was. This will create that balance where Musharraff can be the check over a strong civil government with less meddling powers. I see good things happening. Lets hope whoever wins the election has the cajones to take some decision making authority from Musharraf and are mature enough to know that the old antics wont work anymore and to retain power they have to show positive results.
Long Live pakistan.
Well put ashtray!
I however don't really agree with the bold parts.
While its true that institutions have never been developed as much as would be ideal, but given the political circumstances which you too realize, how could it have been practically possible to delegate authority to civilian institutions when the figures available to run these institutions had either to be selected, which points a lot of fingers, or elected, which brings back the crooks of all shapes and sizes. So I feel even this is not his fault but mostly a fault of the politicians, dictatorial as well as lip-service democrats of the past decades more than Musharraf.