Pervez (P) to power (P) or prison (P)

PPP is known as Pakistan People’s Party but there is another PPP very much in the offing as well to be honest. Former President Gen (Retd) Pervez Musharraf has just couple of days before announced in Dubai that he will come back to Pakistan within one week once the care taker government has taken over to contest the election and the news has stirred both whether government or opposition.

Gen who toppled Mian Nawaz Sharif government in a bloodless coup in 1999 and then ruled the country till 2008 when he was forced to leave the office of the President of Pakistan and he opted to leave the country on exile and since then he has been shuttling in between London and Dubai as he has his houses in both the cities. During the years in exile he embarked upon a new venture to deliver lectures on different topics in different parts of the globe. He has very successfully delivered lectures in many countries including even India and he is believed to be the highest paid speaker, more than Bill Clinton former UAE President for example so from monetary point of view he is quite well off and on average he must have earned even more than what he earned as President of Pakistan. He is very much in demand to deliver lectures at the most august places where none but intellectuals come and he really proved as the best speaker of the day though practically speaking he had been a certified Khaki throughout his life and then took over first as Chief Executive and later as President and honestly speaking he during his stay in power in Pakistan he never ever showed any guts that he is a seasoned speaker but yet he proved his mettle.

Lust of power, to be honest, obliged Gen to form a new political party called All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) so that he can contest elections likely to be held in couple of months and gamble with his luck to again become President or Prime Minister of Pakistan. He has once said publicly that he will bring Earthquake like Imran talked of Tsunami in the political arena of Pakistan and he is very much confident that his APML will get quite good number of seats in all the provinces of the country. He also has announced that he will contest on more than one seat perhaps one in each province believing that the people have not forgotten what he has done for the country during his tenure from 1999 to 2008 and hence in reciprocation he expects that people will vote not only for him but also for his political party. He did not pronounce that APML will sweep in the election like what PPP, PML (N) and TIP has voiced but nevertheless Gen said APML will not the 1^st from bottom either.

During his absence his name has been mentioned in many criminal cases where he has been directly accused of being very much instrumental in the cases like murder of Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi when she returned from exile and that of Bugti when he was attacked in a cave in Baluchistan. Musharraf has also been   found to be responsible for killing of many innocent students when Lal Masjid cum madrassa in Islamabad was raided by Pakistan army on his direct orders to quell the uprising since those who were inside the mosque had stocked lot of gun and powder to be used against those who try to invade the mosque. Gen fully knows as to what has cropped up against him and who are those pulling the curtain since he left the country. On top of it there are some other cases also where his name has been mentioned as an accused. However, he is quite abreast of all those cases where his name has been mentioned and he is held responsible directly or indirectly and in reply to those accusations and in reply to such accusations he has very categorically said that he cannot be held responsible in any of these criminal cases. He even went to the extent saying quite loudly that he is not afraid of and he will face all the court cases as and when he is back in the country in couple of weeks and not months. He very categorically said that his life is not in the hands of those who are deadly against him but in the hands of Allah so he is not afraid of death whatsoever.

Summing up, I can say with complete conviction, utter confidence and sweeping authority that in the given situation Pervez is just gambling with his luck and perhaps he also does not know where he could land in Pakistan which could be either Power or Prison and time itself will only prove as to what does he get when he is back in the country. What is your guess-Power or Prison?

Iqbal Hadi Zaidi / Kuwait