Mushy seeking another safe exit

Saeed Minhas

There seems to be a plan in the offing to provide yet another safe exit to the former dictator Gen. (Retd) Pervaiz Musharraf in the name of imminent security threats to his life and even elections. Though the pretext this time might be hisailing mother—who for sure is ailing because of aging. The court or should we say the judge, however, is still an area where negotiators are stuck and have dubbed it a hard nut to crack so far.

Our sources have confirmed that efforts are afoot to send him off after getting assurances that not only his Interpol arrest warrants stand nullified but even his properties and bank accounts would not be confiscated by the courts (read Judge) for non-appearance. Assurances are being drafted, and some say even exchanged, to ensure the Court that Mushy will return whenever summoned by My Lord. However, just like the proverbial once bitten, twice shy, My Lords are hesitant to let the fish slip out of their hands. Remember how Hussain Haqqani begged for the same mercy from the Lords and, once granted, has made it a point not to return to the land where he grew his spinning skills. “Hurdles are there but not the extent that it cannot be resolved,” hoped one of the insiders. Kasuri and company, surrounding Mushy, believe that My Lords want to make a Pinochet out of Mushy—a Chilean dictator who was brought back to his country from UK and faced not only high treason but genocide charges till he died in 2006. However, Kasuri and party believe that with powerful hands backing Musharraf, that’s just not possible. A plot of explosives laden car has already been thrown open and pleas of sending him back are likely to grow, not in public but amongst real ‘publicists’, reveal Mushy supporters.

Regardless of what transpires with My Lords, it is strongly believed that Mushy has brought more of a bad name to his mother institution than himself. With no point in keeping him in a palatial safe house and drawing unnecessary attention towards the “institution”, Mushy has been given an olive branch to stick on to it not only for others but for his own sake. Knowing that his dreams of returning and making a show for himself have gone crashing like Kargil or many other adventures, close aides conformed that he too has agreed with his former subordinates.

The discussion going on amongst the guarantors, as transmitted through various emissaries, is that Musharraf was given a full opportunity to fulfill his desire of landing back in Pakistan. Against all the advice to the contrary, Mushy was assuming a heroic comeback to the land which he conquered as army chief in a bloodless coup in 1999. Musharraf has been pleading to all his foreign guarantors; including Americans, British and of course Saudis that his following is growing with every passing day in Pakistan. Reports from the homeland secret agencies were considered outdated by Musharraf when he was informed that he would only draw criticism for the armed forces as an institution and might not gain much on the political front. Citing his social media popularity where almost a million are following him on Facebook and Twitter, Musharraf just brushed off all the concerns of his former subordinates and insisted on touching the tarmac in Karachi.

It sounds astonishing that his main advisors, which included none other than one of his former spy masters Gen. (Retd) Pasha, his present counsel Ahmed Raza Kasuri and a handful of highflying youth from Karachi, remained persistent that the former general would just sweep everyone aside. Pasha who is doing a health consultancy for UAE from the lands of wheeling and dealing these days; i.e. Dubai was somewhat skeptical, informed the sources. He was getting the information not only from his own footmarks but also from guarantors and that’s why he tried to persuade his former boss from rescheduling his announced landing for the time being. The reason was simple, that having taken care of all the possible adversaries like Mian Nawaz Sharif and company, the threat was not from Peoples’ Party or Mushy’s former allies sitting in the caretaker set up, but it was obvious that courts will have a go at him anyway.  Knowing how vindictive, and as some say ‘outlandish’, the judiciary has become, every effort at pushing Mushy back into reality fell astray. APML insiders believe that having spent over 200 million to buy brand new vehicles for the posh boys and girls of Karachi, media campaign and even on cameramen of the local TV networks, Mushy was not in a listening mode.

The first big shock to Mushy occurred when he saw a handful of nosy media crowd and his paid staffers outside the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi. Supposedly, he had chosen Karachi not because of any other reason but because he firmly believed that after all those years of faithful association with the local political and gang masters of Karachi, he would be given some kind of backing, at least on ethnic grounds if nothing else. He was hoping that by airing some statements in favour of Imran Khan, he would pull some of the youth contingents to the airport for his classic return. Instead, what he could muster with those remarks was that Khan just kept quiet and instead of poking his nose in the Mian-Mushy affair, tried to persuade PML (N) to come up with their usual tantrum about the return of their tormentor.

Resultantly, Mushy refused to take out any procession by citing the threats from Taliban and instead opted to peter out from the airport with a retired colonel and a team of commandos which he had already hired before even landing in Pakistan or getting the pre-arrest bail from Karachi. His stay in Karachi was nothing but melodious for the media persons as they were lavishly paid by the youngsters handling APML’s impressive office at Kashmir Road--one of the elite areas of Karachi.

With no constituency to contest for and hardly any support from the social media followers, Mushy is all but waiting for a safe passage. His comrades believe that he will be brought back once the judiciary changes hands by the end of 2013. But then who knows whether the current leadership of My Lords might seek an extension on the pretext that their two precious years were spent on roads and they should be given that time to ‘serve the country’.