Extraordinary circumstances… needed extraordinary measures… no half-hearted measures. I had to act and I acted. ”

– Pervez Musharraf

GENERAL PERVAIZ MUSHARRAF:

A REFORMER AND A TRUE NATIONALIST

Fortunately, we are living in a country where democracy prevails to some extent. I would like to take the liberty of expressing my views for a person who fought three wars for Pakistan and saved it from many hardships. He is none other than Former President Gen ® Pervez Musharraf. In his tenure he brought about many positive changes in Pakistan. The issues surrounding his achievements are endless therefore I’ll be shedding some light on “enlightened moderation”

People criticize enlightened moderation because they believe it adapts western ways and goes against Islamic teachings. Let me tell you what enlightened moderation is. It is a progressive Islam where women are empowered and economy is flourishing. We are living in the modern world, we cannot let our women be derived of their birth right which is acquiring education. 1500 years back our Holy Prophet (pbuh) made education compulsory for both men and women. He did not say that education is compulsory for women only. Similarly Quaid-e-Azam wanted Pakistan to be an Islamic, welfare, modern and a democratic state. After Gazw-e-Ohad Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) said that time has come for Jihad-e-Akbar (bigger jihad). Jihad means a noble struggle to eradicate extremism, ignorance, illiteracy and poverty. This is what exactly what enlightened moderation is.

Former President Musharraf saved Pakistan’s sinking economy when it was about to be declared a failed state. It was due to his wise approach and aggressive decisions that brought economic revival to Pakistan. Immense foreign investment was witnessed during his tenure like telecom industry and banking sector. Pakistan became no 3 in banking profitability. Multinationals like Telenor, Warid Telecom, World Call and Wateen established their businesses and created a healthy competition in the telecom industry, as a result customers got good deals and 7 lac people were employed. As privatization is the backbone of economic revival, so many industries were privatized like PTCL and Habib Bank Limited and many institutions were denationalized. Lets take the example of Forman Christian College that has been privatized and drastic improvements in the standard of education have been witnessed. Industrial estates were setup throughout Pakistan like Sundar Industrial estate in Lahore which employs 60,000 people. Gawadar port became functional and highways were constructed throughout the country. So his visionary leadership brought GDP growth to 7 %, stock exchange to 17000 points dollar was sustained at Rs 60 and foreign exchange reserves were at the highest. Thus president Musharraf brought economic revolution to Pakistan. The present government openly criticizes the economic policies of General Musharraf while begged in front of IMF on the basis of his economic policies. If the economic boom was fake then why did the IMF approve a loan on the basis of previous economic policies?

We are living in a modern world where we cannot let our women be derived of their birth right which is acquiring education. President Musharraf emancipated the women of Pakistan and gave them their due rights which even a woman prime minister could not give. During his tenure, the first seven female fighter pilots were inducted into Pakistan Air Force which was the real empowerment. Women were inducted as cadets in army, navy, rangers, and commandoes in police, traffic wardens and national highway police for the first time. They were inducted in 1122 as well. He increased women representation in the National Assembly, Provincial Assemblies, and local government system, for which I can firmly say is more than any western democracy. He abolished the discriminatory laws like honor killing, vani, karo kari, and Quran marriage etc.

President Musharraf empowered the youth of Pakistan by lowering the voting age to 18. He gave youth the power to vote and in turn decide their futures. This was something really remarkable. Higher Education Commission was setup in 2003 and in its 6 year tenure 43 universities were initiated, research output grew to 400%, and student enrollment was tripled from 125,000 to 375,000. This is something to be really appreciated. According to different world institutions, there is no better example than Pakistan’s growth in higher education. For the first time a Pakistani university was ranked amongst the top 400 universities of the world. Forman Christian College is the biggest example of HEC. Other examples are virtual university, University of Gujrat, Malakand University, university of Chakdara, Air University Islamabad etc.

President Musharraf brought the essence of democracy by enforcing local government system to transfer funds to grass root level and as a result health and educational facilities improved to a great extent and thus the people of Pakistan were empowered.

Now I would like to mention his biggest achievement which was media freedom and how in the end he himself fell prey to it. He rightly said “I am a victim of my own creation”. It is true media is a commodity that goes with the best bidder. Before 1999 there was only one television channel and that was PTV. Today there are countless channels with which we are well aware of what’s going on in our country and we can easily point out the wrongs of our society.

Critics say that not a single MW of electricity was produced in his tenure. The expansion of Mangla Dam was bigger than any dam, then he revived the thar coal project which contains the world’s second largest coal reserves which are 148 million tones, and if we use even 4% of that coal we will not have power shortage for about 40 years. Then he initiated Neelam Hydro power project of 1000 MWs, then he gave a plan of Basha Dam which will be the world’s largest rollercoaster dam and will produce 4500 MWs, built Mirani, Subukzai and Zhob dams which irrigated lacs of acres.

What the present government is doing is that it has stopped funds for Basha Dam just because it was initiated by General Musharraf. Now the question that arises is why we have become short of electricity. It was due to the immense industrialization during his tenure. The demand of electricity was increased from 7% to 15%. The pace of growth and consumption of electricity could not be calculated, but it was not intentional. The situation became worst under the current government. Atta, ghee, gas, and electricity went missing ad suddenly reappeared after the elections. What a coincidence? This was a part of a greater conspiracy against him to destabilize his power and infect Pakistan. This conspiracy started from 2004 when President Musharraf refused to handover A. P. Khan to the USA. Western powers wanted a liberal government which could give them complete access to Pakistan, so therefore our current situation is before you I need not ellaborate

President Pervez Musharraf was the only leader who defended Pakistan when it was at the risk of two front wars. What a courageous leader he was that while standing with the world’s most powerful president he disclosed that America threatened Pakistan to take Pakistan back to the Stone Age.

National security had become a vigilant issue during President Musharraf’s term but he managed to handle the situation in a very professional and fair manner. During his term Pakistan became self sufficient in defence production and our defence revenue reached the highest level. We made Al-Zarrar and Al Khalid tanks, which are one of the best tanks in the world. Then we made JF17 thunder jets parallel to F-16s in collaboration with China and Agosta submarines in collaboration with France and last but not the least we made unmanned drones (Auqab).

The most important and historic peace initiatives he took with India have no parallels. We must not ignore the famous handshake with Vajpayee in the SAARC conference, which changed the whole Indo-Pak scenario. As a result, from 2004 not a single bullet was fired from both sides on LOC till the end of his tenure. His able leadership skills brought the Kashmir resolution on table and his Kashmir road map was widely hailed throughout the world. AG Noorani, an eminent Indian lawyer said, “President Musharraf brought the Kashmir solution to resolution but unfortunately couldn’t be resolved due the internal mess these lawyers created”.

The Kashmir peace road map was a line of action in order to resolve the Kashmir issue. It stated that there be demilitarization, free trade, and free movement on both sides; and LOC was to be made “Line of Commerce”. Borders were to be made irrelevant. There would have been maximum self governance for the kashmiris under the watch of Pakistan and India for 15 years. As a result ties with India improved drastically like never before which further improved the trade, air and railway links. During President Musharraf’s tenure, we had at par relations with India and other superpowers. His achievements can never be denied.

Soon after the so called judicial movement started, it was part of a greater conspiracy to overthrow Gen Musharraf’s regime because he took stand on many important and sensitive national issues like refusal to handover A.Q Khan and sending our troops to Iraq, Gawadar port’s completion, IPI gas pipeline, Nuclear missile programme, relations with China etc. He was never dictated nor influenced by anyone that’s why he was not suited to the foreign powers so they decided to overthrow him and they succeeded. The fake judicial movement was foreign funded too because there are around two lac lawyers in Pakistan and at the time it seemed that the whole nation of sixteen crore had become lawyers. According to Ahmad Qureshi, a renowned journalist the people who participated in that movement were paid professional agitators who were only planted to destabilize Gen Musharraf’s government.

A reference was filed against the CJ by the PM and was passed to the president. He referred it to the supreme judicial council and then to the full bench. It was fully constitutional. As a result the CJ was restored and the president accepted this whole heartedly. But what did Iftikhar Choudhary want to do? He wanted to derail the democratic process which was put on rail and for the first time assemblies were about to complete their 5 years term. Regarding 3rd November steps, again whatever he did was constitutional and in the supreme national interest.

Abraham Lincoln who was the 16th President of the United States violated the constitution and flouted its laws many times. He told the people that the most important clause of the constitution is to preserve the country. So if someone is flouting the laws and violating the constitution in order to preserve the country, that person is still abiding by the constitution because he would be following the most important clause of the constitution which is to preserve the country. At that time America was facing the civil war.

Now the question is what situation did Pakistan face that President Musharraf had to take the 3rd November steps. The answer is Pakistan was facing civil disobedience and a parallel judicial government was in the making that paralyzed the executive and the government ceased to function. So these steps were in need at the time and had to be taken. For the first time assemblies completed their term which was a big achievement. In this way President Musharraf saved the democratic process which no one other than him could do. Then he initiated the process of reconciliation in which he brought back the self deposed leadership of Pakistan, acting in line with the people’s wishes.

For the first time assemblies completed their term which was a big achievement. In this way President Musharraf saved the democratic process which no one other than him could do. Then he initiated the process of reconciliation in which he brought back the self deposed leadership of Pakistan, acting in line with the people’s wishes.

The most free, fair, and transparent elections were conducted under him. He added another word which was peaceful and for the first time such peaceful elections were held. The law and order situation was never so bad under his government. It deteriorated after the elections. The peaceful election in Swat is a testimony to my statement.

Finally, the impeachment drama started. It was not simply a number game, the baseless charges leveled against him were to be proved and this could have taken many months. Prestigious institutions like army would have been dragged into the parliament which would have lead to the disclosure of national secrets. Just to save the prestige and integrity of the Army and to prevent the political chaos, he stepped down in the supreme national interest and proved that he meant by what he said that, “Pakistan comes first”. On 18th August 2008 we lost a great leader who always led from the front and President Musharraf will be remembered as the greatest leader Pakistan ever had, Infact people have started remembering him like well-known journalists Najam Sethi and Hasan Nisar. After General Musharraf we have sadly reverted to the parliament of corrupt politicians who unfortunately do not understand the true meaning of nationalism as does honorable President Pervez Musharraf, a true nationalist of Pakistan.

People used to call him a dictator.

What is the situation now?

Pakistan is being ruled by a civilian dictator.

Saad Naseer Malik