Amir Mateen
ISLAMABAD: Shakespearean tragedy is what we have all read about but the ‘once almighty’ General Pervez Musharraf is actually living it, a mere 90-minute flight away from a country he once ruled like his private fiefdom but cannot even enter today.
The grand mansion that he built in the leafy Islamabad suburb, on the pattern of Shadad’s heavens, for his power dinners and musical highs, remains unoccupied. And you can’t really blame it because his fancy to live his once planned life there could cost him exactly that: his life. Article 6 is becoming a real threat after all in the new Pakistan. So now’s the time we get to see the real mettle of the self-proclaimed commando who said Pakistan first but always acted on Me-first doctrine. Will he ever dare come back?
Within months of his rather unceremonious fall from grace he has landed in a situation where his once sworn loyalists are not taking his calls. One finds them using overly harsh language against him to prove that they are no longer in his camp, even in touch. Most of his political grandees, dotting TV screens to harp lectures on morality, are lost and missing from the public eye.
The rag tag of his political leftovers is desperately looking for new umbrellas to get under. Some pray that Nawaz Sharif’s heart softens and he accepts them back; others hope sneak into the PPP camp. Others with nowhere to go would still like to test the waters before they completely abandon the general’s bandwagon.
An office in F/6 bloc of Islamabad stands opened in the name of an outfit called Pasdaaran-i-watan. A visit to the place revealed that two political ‘nobodies’ who sit there are off to Dubai. Barrister Saif is the head of the outfit and Brigadier(Retd) Rashid Qureshi is once again, God save us, media spokesman of Musharraf. One staffer claimed he worked in the government owned APP and the other introduced himself as one Zaman working for the Intelligence Bureau. The IB chap was told that he could be in trouble, either way, if he was lying or not. Another staffer claimed that Senator Mohammad Durrani sat there earlier and even took away furniture when he left.
Durrani was traced in the sand dunes of Bahawalpur where he said he was working for the Saraiki province. The idea seems to have come to him a little late in his career, perhaps out of desperation for nursing a constituency. It could also have been a cover to avoid Musharraf and the ever intrusive media. He denied the furniture story and the rumours that he was assigned by Musharraf to open the offices for what will later be announced as the All Pakistan Muslim League. As if we were already short of PML factions.
Musharraf faces a dilemma. He had got the so-called ‘tonga’ factions of Hamid Nasir Chattha, Kabir Wasti and Millat Party of Farooq Leghari merged into PML-Q. The party that he helped nurture and was supposed to be his baby after his retirement from office is no longer there. Chaudhry Shujaat refused to hand over the party to him or his nominee Hamid Nasir Chattha. He has got only a handful of sleepers like Marvi Memon, Sher Afgan, Sarwar Khan and Ameer Muqam in the PML-Q. Marvi Memon had more of her own posters plastered in Gilgit than that of party president in the recent elections. The elder Chaudhry had ignored it because if he pursues her disqualification at the EC Marvi will be replaced Tanzeela Cheema who is next on the nomination list. Tanzeela’s family is related to the Chaudhries but her husband Amir has switched over to the Nawaz League.
The Kashmayun bloc is indecisive. The only commonality among his top office bearers like Chairman Hamid Nasir Chattha, President Senator Salim Saifullah, Senior Vice President Khurshid Kasuri, Vice President Kabir Wasti and Secretary General Hamayun Akhtar is that they do not have a safe constituency. Its members are meeting Musharraf in Dubai in ones and twos but are not likely to make up their mind until he shows his cards.
Musharraf, during whose rule several shady deals were made, is told exaggerative stories about his popularity. One such presumption is that people hard pressed because of inflation and loadshedding are getting fed up of the both the PPP and the Nawaz League and the situation is ripening for him to stage an entry. The super presumption is that Musharraf is the only person who could replace them. Incidentally, the discussion was being held appropriately on April first.
A politician who met Musharraf recently said that he could not resist thinking about the joke about that mirasi who was told that he would never become the Chaudhry even if the entire village died. What a befitting fall for a person who exercised ruthless power and led the most extravagant and colourful life among Pakistani rulers. The stories we hear about his evening parties surpasses Yahya Khan by lengths.
His word was law and his whims could turn a pauper into a billionaire over night or the other way around. A crony put up a few billboards in town to catch Musharraf’s fancy and the next thing we heard he was made a senator. A swindler who deliberately lost in bridge game with Musharraf, was made head of a corporation.
A politician invited Musharraf in music parties in his house with choicest female singers he was given a ministry of his choice. One of the three prime ministers is also believed to have got the top job through this route. The question is that where are all those luminaries who swore by his word round the clock: his mouth pieces Durrani and Tariq Azeems; the most powerful intelligence chief Ejaz Shah; the cigar-totting Sheikh Rashid; the loud-mouthed Raza Hiraj and a whole menagerie that would consume reams of paper if listed.
We may have forgotten about them and the whole era too early. Perhaps there is a need to shed a little light on all these characters, most importantly on the two top honchos-civilian Tariq Aziz and military man Hamid Javed.
(Continued)
The News
April 5, 2010