Sahil Yar Muhammad
The strongman Pervez Musharraf passed away in Dubai after a protracted fight with his illness which took him from Pakistan to Dubai in 2016. Loss of life is always hard for the person closest to the deceased. However, that does not absolve one from their sins, especially those sins which have been the cause of pain for millions.A former President and a former Army Chief, Pervez Musharraf is touted as a gallant man, a brave commando and man of liberalist ideas. However, beneath that veneer of praise which his admirers heap on him, Musharraf was nothing more than a coward, a traitor and a sinner.The Kargil war is branded as his greatest triumph which is said to have failed because of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. This mistaken construct so enigmatic of Pakistan is nothing more than a distortion of history. The Kargil operation was only known to Musharraf and his close aides. A failure is what it was and a failure it must be remembered as by posterity.When the odds turned against Pakistan, Musharraf shamelessly turned to Nawaz Sharif to stop the Indian assault. India only stopped when the U.S intervened at Nawaz Sharif’s request. In any other country, Musharraf would have put to trial and court-martialed for putting the entire country at risk with his misadventure but not in Pakistan. Here, the democratic government was toppled when it tried to punish the mighty general. And then ensued the era of dictatorship again. The War on Terror seemed to have been a god-send to ensure Musharraf stays in power. Selling his country out for money is what it all boils down to. Many people do argue that Musharraf didn’t have a choice. The U.S would have attacked us if we didn’t comply.To that argument I answer, it is poppycock. A democratic government would not have so shamelessly bowed to the U.S like Musharraf. That was the case with the U.S invasion of Iraq in 2003. The U.S wanted to move its troop through Turkey and Turkey flatly refused. Even with pressure from the Turkish military and the U.S, the democratic government of Turkey stood by its decision.They were not bombed to the stone age, neither were they attacked. Turkey was not that powerful than us as well and being a NATO member had only put pressure on them to comply with U.S demands. The fact of the matter is; it is easier to scare a single dictator than a democratic assembly. Whatever the result, at least the state would not have been so alienated from its people. The War on Terror and the resulting double-game of Pakistan cost us more than 70,000 men, women and children. Those people also had dear ones to grieve for them and the blood shed in the name of the War on Terror is on Musharraf’s hands. The people must understand that the development and prosperity during his era was not because of his expertise. The prosperity of that era which by the way was only for the privileged few, its price was paid in blood, the blood of our brothers, sisters and children. The prosperity was only possible because of the millions of dollars in aid which Pakistan received for siding with the U.S. Even if there are some redeeming aspects of his rule, it does not absolve him of the sins he has committed against the people, the treason he has committed against the constitution and the damage he has inflicted on the country. So much for the brave and courageous icon many people make him out to be, he is and will always be, a traitor to his institution, his country and above all, his people.
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