The political horizon of Pakistan as always been bloody and dramatic. Over half the term after independence was ruled by military dictators, each of them repeating the mistakes of their predecessors. Dictators are strange beings, they have enough guts and brains to see clearly when things are apparently going wrong. They know how to fix almost all that is wrong but what they fail to understand is that while correcting things that are wrong, they themselves make new mistakes and the list of things that are wrong never reduces in its count although it may expand.
Take the case of Mr.Musharraf, an able politician, an able negotiator and a man with guts. He did help bring Pakistan out of the mess created by Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto before he took over. But he forgot that "Power corrupts; and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Nothing can be truer than this. All people feel they will not be affected by power but, without exception, they fail. Hence, even for the most powerful posts, the first task of those who take the seat should be to put a check in place for anyone sitting on that chair. But this never happens.
In case of Mr.Musharraf, it is now his job to sit and introspect as to what exactly has he achieved. His greatest achievement is transferring the reins of the country in the hands of a man such as Zardari? And as usual, even Zardari is not free from a criminal history, always afraid of legal proceedings against his own corruption cases. Following Musharraf's path, Zardari will now go out of his way to shield himself against these proceedings and ensure that proceedings against his opposition move on fast track. And what would be the result? Similar chaos after a few years.
All dictators have had a dark record towards the end of their career. The problem is none has taken lessons from the past, no one is ready to risk his own power to do the right thing. Even in case of the current President Zardari, though he is not a military personnel, there is little hope that the things to follow will be any different. He has given the first indications to this by not reinstating the sacked judges, as it could lead to revival of corruption proceedings against him. His role will be just slightly different from that of a dictator as he has the parliament in his pocket as also the top post of the country which, thanks to Musharraf, has virtually unlimited power.
Without exception, people who reach to positions like these are great people then why do they still take steps that even a commoner can judge to be mistakes? Someone has rightly said that the best things for great people to do in the midst of chaos or trouble, is to do nothing!!
Author: VJ
