Islamabad(IANS) : By imposing “what amounts to martial law”, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has pitched himself and by extension, the army, against all civil and legal institution of the country and alienated what remained of his support among the intelligentsia and civil society, a newspaper comment Tuesday said.
“Whatever implication this has for his personal role in the country’s future, more troubling is the disaffection that this generates against the army,” Shafqat Mahmood wrote in an article headlined “Musharraf has pitched army against civil society” in The News.
Holding that the army was the “option of the last resort” and the final troubleshooter in times of difficulty, Mahmood noted that it was currently engaged in “what amounts to a war” in the tribal areas in the country’s troubled north.
“Whatever the strategic and tactical mistakes being made there, the army requires the nation to stand behind it. The extra-constitutional steps taken by General Musharraf have made this difficult if not impossible,” he maintained.
According to Mahmood, the reaction to the emergency Musharraf imposed Saturday has been “overwhelmingly negative”, with the stock market plummeting by over 600 points, civil society organizations and the legal community being outraged, and dissension surfacing within the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML).
“While some ministers can hardly contain their happiness because they see their term being extended indefinitely, others are brooding about the negative fallout. Mushahid Hussain, the secretary general of the ruling League, is once again…laundering his conscience.
“In an interview to a foreign news agency, he thinks this is the end of Musharraf. He speaks like a man ready to bail out,” Mahmood wrote.
“The zero tolerance approach of the law enforcing agencies is adding to the outrage among the people. Lawyers have been beaten up all over the country but the action in Lahore has been particularly brutal. All their leaders including the brilliant and courageous Aitzaz Ahsan (the newly-elected head of the Supreme Court Bar Association) have been arrested.
“The curb on the media is another example of desperation. It is irritating the people no end because they are now used to the thrust and parry of free debate. Has no one told the General that denial of information creates more problems?” Mahmood wondered.
“The regime will soon find out the resilience in the media. Already some channels have started to air their transmission from Dubai,” he noted.
“This darkness at high noon cannot last… This is one battle the General is sure to lose,” the writer maintained.