In these eight years, what General Musharraf has done to Pakistan will one day be recorded by historians, but he is certainly not going to be remembered for his seven point agenda each one of which, eight years later, stands forgotten. Reading between the lines of his statements, it is one point that he claims progress on: the economic regeneration. This is rejected by independent economists who can see the abject poverty into which the masses are falling. Inflation in double figures, prices of basic food items are going beyond the reach of poor people.
So-called macro economic indicators have indeed improved, but prosperity is confined to the upper class traders, businessmen and industrialists, wheeler-dealers and construction contractors. The rich are becoming richer, but the poor are getting poorer. The trickle down effect of the economic growth, eight years down the road, is not reaching the lower income strata of the society who find it difficult to subsist.
The world of high finance under Musharraf and Shaukat Aziz has become a scandal: a major stock exchange scam in 2005 exposed serious insider trading with the network involving people in high places. Similarly, shady privatisation process, especially that of the Pakistan Steel Mill, something that had to be stopped by the Supreme Court, is fresh in people's memory.
Official enquires into such episodes peter out, which shows the indifference of this regime to issues of accountability. In October 1999, at the time of the military coup, "across the board accountability" was the most prominent point in Musharraf's seven point agenda, a central plank on which an elected government was overthrown.
The military backed regime has succeeded in managing to keep the Opposition divided, but that does not mean that the public at large stands in approval of the regime's performance. In fact they are in a state of disillusionment caused by the lack of credibility that marks the conduct of the government and the Opposition alike. MMA, the religious parties' alliance, failed to dissolve the assembly in NWFP where they had the government, because they were divided. Dissolving the assembly in time could have stopped the recent election of president.
A better yardstick of the mood of the people is the lawyers' movement for the restoration of the Chief Justice last spring when the people at large gave massive support to the lawyers and came out against General Musharraf's reference against the CJ. The collective wisdom in Pakistan today prevents people from following the opposition that consists of parties whose credibility is no better than that of the government.
Nevertheless, the official declaration of the president's election has been stayed by the Supreme Court pending a decision on Justice (Retd) Wajihuddin's petition against his (Musharraf's) eligibility as candidate which is being heard. The contempt of court case of Mian Nawaz Sharif's deportation has also started today (Wednesday) and notices have been issued by the Supreme Court to several government departments. The so-called National Reconciliation Ordinance, the formal instrument of the deal between General Musharraf and Ms Benazir Bhutto, has also been challenged as a discriminatory, bad law.
The assemblies, after the farcical election of the president a couple of weeks ago, finish their term on November 15 and new general election is expected by the mid of January 2008. In the meantime polls suggest Musharraf's support at rock bottom and the PML-N graph shooting up. Ms Benazir is coming back on October 18 (Thursday) in the middle of nasty statements against her, in spite of the deal, by the Q League CMs of Punjab and Sindh respectively.
General Musharraf clearly overwhelmed from all directions, there are several issues in the boiling pot and anyone of them could become a rallying point for the people. It is wrong to believe, as the regime seems to do, that everything is all right because people are not out in the street everyday, vandalising traffic lights and burning tires. The threat of martial law lurking behind, the people are simply waiting for an idea to catch their fancy: anything can happen, any moment.
I would like to conclude this lament with a short quotation from an email I received:
"Read your 'Another Dark Day' with a heavy heart. Allah knows where we are heading for...promises of retribution, accountability, recoveries and punishment, and then compromises, expediencies, plea bargains. There are only a few things we have banished (or buried) in perfect totality: truthfulness, honesty, honour, commitment, integrity and a few more such 'cheap commodities'... Thankfully, there is someone else who, somehow, takes the undeserved care of the remaining chunk of Pakistan. Those presumed responsible for its survival are laying six-foot deep, floating in the air in shreds or ... in exile. Pray name one among my 160 million compatriots who can live up to his word to his last breath. I will follow him blindly. 'Learn the lesson if you have any sense. (Quran: 2:269; 5:100; 13:19; 39:9; 59:2; 65:10 etc)'. Shall we ever learn? Seems doubtful."