Only a month after his long-announced ‘home-coming’ General Musharraf has become rather an embarrassment to the government and the army of Pakistan. He had insisted on coming back against the advice of many of his well-wishers among the army high command, the ISI, the Saudi government and others because he was under the illusion of Pakistan craving for him and needing him as a savior from all the ills that have befallen the country under the PPP government. Because it is unfortunate that every dictator thinks that he is perhaps the Messiah of the nation while infect he is the most hated person in the eyes of people. He did not believe that his star had fallen long ago when he had left the country. May be the people running his party in Pakistan who must have known about this situation did keep him in the dark deliberately.

Now his physical remand has also been granted to FIA investigation team in Benazir murder case, in which quite surprisingly all forensic evidence on the scene were washed away within hours of incident, though Gen. Musharraf denies his involvement but it is true that this case has not been so properly investigated that it deserved because of high profile casualty during his tenure as president and after that during PPP rule. On this very day Nawaz Sharif rally also came under fire in Rawalpindi where six people lost their lives, while Benazir perhaps had lunch with Afghan President Karazai in Islamabad, who had a personal contingent of Black water security. It was reported that the district administration it was reported that was informed by PPP Rawalpindi office bearers that they suspect presence of mysterious people on top of an under construction building but no heed to this complaint was paid by police. There is thus criminal negligence if nothing else to be tried.

Multiple cases have been brought before courts against Musharraf, who is though under arrest but for security reasons he is being kept in his Chak Shahzad farm house. All this has happened despite the fact that many precautions had been taken for his safety and political revival under external pressure. The support of Altaf Bhai had been secured, Chitral constituency which would have been a sure win for him was provided by one of his followers, and Nawaz Sharif was made to pledge not to say a bad word against him. But all these precautions came to nothing.

His popularity graph had already fallen, when he compromised Pakistan’s national interest to American interest by adopting US proxy war on terror that even US had to compromise with Benazir on her terms to invent infamous NRO that broke the backbone of the nation in last five years of PPP mis-governance, Musharraf is considered a facilitator in this great game, in Pakistan this was already visible when he was still in power, which later proved from the reception at Karachi airport that brought a limited number of people out to greet him on his return. Since then the streets of Karachi and the rest of the country have remained empty; he has lost the sympathies of the masses and thus street power so all efforts to build his image will prove futile again.

And that is regardless of the other changes that have taken place in the political arena of Pakistan. It seems most of this change has been triggered through the homecoming of another self styled leader of Muslim world, Dr. Tahirul Qadri, who descended in January in Lahore from his self-imposed exile in Canada with an unclear agenda that he termed as ‘changing of system’ to save the country.

Though he and his ‘long march’ did not achieve much and ended in a declaration with the same sitting government that he considered an ex-government on arrival in Islamabad, because he considered that government was toothless and difficult to implement the discussion about articles 62 and 63 that did never play any role in previous run-ups to elections seem to have been brought in through Dr. Qadri.

This change went unnoticed or was not taken seriously by General Musharraf and it cost him the candidacy in all four of his intended constituencies. Thus, he will not be able to contest the elections for which he had come initially. His party, anyway weak and ill prepared for an election campaign will quietly disperse and political life will go on without General Musharraf as it had during the last five years if any other factor is not put to work in derailing the elections to facilitate US & NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan under a well hatched conspiracy. What remains for him now given the fact that as one of the first steps he had been put on the exit control list is to face the multiple trials in which he has been implicated.

Given a just and evenhanded judiciary that would not have been a big problem because many of the implications are either twisted or difficult to prove. But in Pakistan the judiciary is for the first time so far functioning independently but is acting in a new style that has dire national and political implications.

The Chief Justice who was threatened and mishandled by Musharraf in 2007 is not going to forgive him- there are obviously limits to impartiality also- and his idea of justice seems to be rather ‘an eye for an eye’. Be it the Benazir murder case or the Bugti murder case there is much that could be said to clear General Musharraf. But it might not be said to keep him on the hooks.

The latest drama was his bail cancellation in the proclamation of emergency in November 2007 an unlawful act that should attract action under article 6 against him because he had imposed emergence as Army Chief and not as President of Pakistan. While the judiciary has covered up for his army coup and take-over in 1999 under the ‘doctrine of necessity’ they are now straining the law to get him on that even involving terrorism. And given the way the case is conducted by the court inspite of these glaring illegalities impression is being created that all is not just but more about revenge than about justice.

But this situation is also showing the character of the retired general. Instead of facing the court he ran away when his bail was cancelled from the court, which damaged his image and that of the army immensely. It brings also to mind his conduct in Kargil episode, where he sacrificed the lives of hundreds of soldiers, while himself sitting safely in the GHQ, just to end up as an embarrassment again.

All this drama has left no doubt that Gen. Musharraf is a spent force and is becoming an embarrassment for the army in the first place but you never know the drafters of NRO might trust him again for their own requirement under political expediency.

To avoid that eventuality to happen, it is high time that someone will have to get him around the ECL and deport him back to Dubai. God bless Pakistan.

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