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Rasheeda Bhagat

KARACHI, May 10

THERE are many constants that one has expected to witness in Pakistan over the years. India's repression of the Kashmiri Muslims, its role as a big brother in South Asia, its paranoia with Pakistan, and so on. But one shade of public opinion that one had expected to change was the exuberance in the immediate aftermath of the military coup by General Pervez Musharraf in the October of 1999.

Well, that has not changed. Pundits in the Pakistani media, particularly political analysts and commentators in the editorial pages of newspapers might continue to bemoan the death of "real democracy" in Pakistan, but public opinion, ranging through a broad spectrum minus of course the fundamentalist lobby, still perceives the Pakistan President as a saviour.

And one gets a taste of that shade of public opinion beginning from the Emirates fight EK 600 from Dubai to Karachi. A casual question to a fellow passenger from Peshawar, Muneer Hussain, on the halaat (situation) in Pakistan, results in a eulogy on the General sahib. Working in the holy city of Mecca during the last 12 years, he is going back home on a two-month break. A father of three daughters, he is grateful to the Pakistan President for making school education for girls "totally free, and they give them a free meal too in the school. This will remove illiteracy and ignorance from our society. Aur, jo beshumar corruption tha, us par inhoney rok laga diya. Uskey pehley, Paksitan ke badshaon ney is mulk ko beshumaar loota. (He put the brakes on endless corruption. Prior to that the emperors had really looted the nation)."

To a puzzled look on the `badshah' reference, he said with a grin, "Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif." You land into Karachi and find the admiration for Musharraf all pervasive.

Says Mr Fakhruddin Mamuwala, a Karachi-based businessman, "When Gen. Musharraf took over, our economy had become a basket case. Our foreign exchange reserves were low and the economy was on the verge of bankruptcy. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, it was a do or die situation for Pakistan. Had President Musharraf not taken the quick decision to ally with the US and provide support in the war against Afghanistan's Taliban regime, this country would have been finished."

Mr Wasim Mirza, Managing Director of the Karachi-based Swiss Speciality Chemicals Ltd, agrees, "We live in a tough neighbourhood. On the one hand we have Afghanistan and Iran as our neighbours and on the other hand, we have India. In the last few years, we've gone through sheer hell. When your Prime Minister talks about one not being able to choose one's neighbours, that's one statement we in Pakistan can understand."

After the events of 9/11 and the war had begun on Afghanistan, fundamentalists in Pakistan gathered force and would have taken the nation to the brink but for the timely intervention of Gen. Musharraf, he says.

"I would say, President Musharraf and his team have done wonders to steer us out of that horrible situation. You shouldn't really be surprised to find that most Pakistanis are pro-Musharraf today. On the one hand you can talk of democracy and all its attendant benefits. But in a country with so much of illiteracy and such high corruption, coupled with the tough neighbourhood in which we live, we did need a Czar like person. A person who is not only an effective ruler but also an honest man himself. President Musharraf is himself not corrupt and the first thing he did was to put in top positions effective professionals like Shaukat Aziz, the Finance Minister, (who continues to hold the portfolio even today as a Senator) to steer the economy out of a mess," adds Mr Mirza.

Mr Akhtar Alavi, General Manager and Director of Pakistan's largest insurance company Adamjee Insurance, too feels that the President has done a commendable job in the toughest of circumstances.

"The massive mandate with which Nawaz Sharif returned to power had certainly gone to his head. Corruption was one but not the only factor. Unbridled political power was used by him to muzzle or destroy almost every institution in the country."

When it came to providing a decent Government, President Musharraf had done a good job in putting, mostly, corruption free ministers at the helm of his Government.

"To understand the mess we have inherited, you have to look at the history of Pakistan. In Afghanistan, we've paid a huge price for getting involved against the Soviet Union. In those days the Taliban were the Mujahideen and they were heroes. But overnight the label changed from Mujahideen to Taliban and what we inherited was the Kalashnikov culture, and arms and drugs became rampant in our society."

On whether Pakistan had left this culture behind, Mr Alavi says with a sigh, "It is such a big business and involves such huge money that it is very difficult to curtail this business. Over the years millions of Afghan refugees poured into Pakistan. Unlike Iran we were not able to confine the Afghan refugees to the refugee camps. So they spread out into the N.W. Frontier region, bought land, built houses, set up shops and businesses. They are very well organised and very violent and it is now very difficult to control them."

Under these circumstances, to steer the nation from the brink in an "era when the US had hardly finished with Iraq before it started threatening Syria", President Musharraf had acted with a cool head on his shoulders. He had adopted a political strategy which had checkmated India, got enough financial succour from the US, and put the Pakistan economy back on the road to good health, is the consensus in Pakistan.

In a way, adds Mr Alavi, Agra also helped bolster his image back at home. "He had gone with an open mind, managed to get such good media attention, particularly during the breakfast meet with top editors, but was "betrayed at the last minute by the powers in Delhi" But that humiliation only helped to increase his stature in Pakistan, he added.

Response may be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in

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