By Arsalan Iftikhar
Date Posted: November 13, 2007 (The Providence Journal)
TRANSLATED, the word Pakistan literally means “Land of the Pure.” Sadly, nothing has been more impure than the declaration of martial law by Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the most recent of the five military dictators that Pakistan has endured in its 60-year history. Today’s political and social turmoil jeopardizes an already shaky political equilibrium and will have global repercussions for decades.
“King” Musharraf, in a televised address to 160 million Pakistanis, cited the danger to the country posed by “extremists” and said that only emergency rule (a.k.a. martial law) could solve this problem. He then proceeded to summarily suspend the constitution, sack the entire Supreme Court, close transmission of privately owned television news channels and curb the broadcasts of international broadcasters. Parliamentary elections scheduled for next January were delayed for up to a year, officials told The New York Times.
Both the chief justice of the Pakistani Supreme Court and Asma Jehangir, the most prominent female human-rights activist in Pakistan, have been placed under house arrest. Police officers armed with tear gas and clubs attacked thousands of protesting lawyers and rounded up lawyers, academics and professors in other cities. Our American “ally” in our “war on terror” has shown his true colors as a ruthless, power-hungry and dictatorial knucklehead.
Even though pressured by both U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to refrain from imposing emergency rule, Musharraf defiantly decided that declaring martial law would be the only way to maintain his political power in an era when Pakistanis yearn and mobilize for democratic rule.
Nothing shows Musharraf’s duplicity more than his recent unholy alliance with former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Rightfully called “a kleptocrat in an Hermes scarf,” she was ordered into exile by the Supreme Court for regarding the national treasury as her own personal piggy bank. The anti-Musharraf sentiment came to tragic fruition during the horrific double-suicide bombings during a Bhutto rally, which killed over 130 innocent people. Musharraf’s declaration of martial law while Bhutto was visiting her family in Dubai shows what happens when two political crooks do business together.
The only silver lining in the chaotic shambles of Pakistan comes from the nation’s lawyers, human-rights activists and intelligentsia. Thousands of the most educated elites are taking to the streets in their Armani suits defiantly challenging their tin-pot dictator. Many times, these rallies result in military police clubbing peaceful protestors to bloody pulps. Although bloodied, hundreds of millions of Pakistanis yearning for democratic rule continue to raise their voice to Musharraf and his military tyranny.
Wearing both a military uniform and a dictator’s robe, General Musharraf has sunk to a disgusting new political low. Therefore, it is the role of democratic vanguards worldwide to send a resounding message to his palace in Islamabad that if he tries to wear both of these silly outfits and continues his madness, he will ultimately be standing naked with no clothes at all.
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Arsalan Iftikhar is Contributing Editor for Islamica magazine in Washington D.C.
http://www.projo.com/opinion/contributors/content/CT_pakistan12_11-12-07_H67OOJ1_v16.359549e.html
