Periscope on Pakistan

Easy way out
On the morning after October 12 there was a clear choice before the army: 1 To assume the burden of government and in due course sink into the mud like previous incarnations of the military spirit or 2 to perform a quick act of surgery, cut its losses and leave it to the political process to mop up the blood from the floor and get on with the business of restoring the country to the constitutional path. The first was the easy and ready-to-hand option; the second required a keen sense of judgment. True to our collective worth, the first option was chosen and the second not even considered and this is why, instead of soaring like the eagle and seeing things in totality from a distance, the country8217;s new rulers are stuck with their noses to the ground, involved in the nitty-gritty of everyday things. Are we doomed to repeat this cycle for sins committed in an earlier life?

The same drama
Apart from men of real worth, most of us, when caught in a rush, are unable to see the wood for the trees. Commanding the Pakistan army, one might have supposed, was a full-time job. But from Ayub Khan onwards, a succession of army commanders have thought otherwise. Which is why like Faiz8217;s lover Kuch ishq kiya, kush kaam kiya8217; goes a line of Faiz they have done a bit of this and a bit of that and ended by doing nothing well at all. The situation is not much different today. General Musharraf too is in a rush: meetings, foreign visits, governance, reform, accountability, Sattar8217;s strange obsession with the CTBT and, in the midst of this confusion, trying to set, with the assistance of an inept team, a direction for his regime. To move beyond the sphere of municipal administration and the removal of encroachments, the military government must have a political plan. But it has none or at least none in sync with reality. At the same time, it is afflicted with a strong sense of infallibility whichprevents it from thinking in terms of an orderly withdrawal. So, despite appearances, it is stuck on the same spot with the nation too condemned to mark time as it watches with tired eyes a familiar drama being repeated one more time.