Just wanted to tell you one thing my friend.
Ayesha Siddiqi is a real substandard researcher and her book on Pakistan Army was full of concocted stories and half baked theories.
You would do better to read the only definitive book on Pakistan Army which is Crossed swords by Shuja Nawaz. This book is extremely well researched and offers the best insight into Pakistan Army, its achievements and its failures.
Now coming to Musharraf,
I really want him to be trialed but with a precondition of trialing all those elitists and politicians who are guilty of same and a lot more.
NS was the spawn of the most definitive dictator in our history...he worshipped Zia, the same Zia who more than anyone ruptured our system and tore away our constitution...Zia derailed Pakistan in a totally new direction...
How can NS and others be let off for supporting Zia on one hand and now talking about the holy struggle against dictatorship?
Have these people apologized to the nation for their own support of Zia and their own rule which became absolutely dictatorial before Musharraf turned the tables?
BB and company have always sold Pakistan for their personal gains, Zardari has been the most notorious person in our history and yet has become president under the charge of all these peerless and stainless Politicians we have...
Our PM sheds crocodile's tears on the situation of the nation but just bought 3-4 additional houses in DHA Lahore....whenever PML-N comes to power in punjab there is a wheat and sugar shortage and they then carry out the drama of being strict on the hoarders, whereas they themselves are the ones who carry out this dastardly act.
When compared with these leaders we have had, i do not blame anyone for liking Musharraf.
It is the pathetic performance and absolutely unacceptable behavior and attitude of our politicians that they have driven our nation into such a corner where we feel it is better to have a dictator like Musharraf as our leader.
It is indeed not the forte of our politicians to refrain from imposing themselves on the ordinary citizens, they come in their caravans of imported vehicles and armed thugs and get VVVIP treatment in all public areas at the cost of causing great pain and inconvenience to the nation...they do this still despite knowing that the nation is at an edge....
As far as personal wealth and corruption is concerned, the generals of our army at least are in the tax net.
You know how much tax Nawaz Sharif paid in his second government?
It was less than what my mother paid when she was a school teacher!!!
Same is with Fazl ur Rehman who has multiple houses, land cruisers etc. and yet did not pay anything since everything was a gift...can you believe the aduacity of these liars and criminals?
It is absolutely a nightmare when we see how much wealth these politicians have accumulated and how little they contribute to the national exchequer...they are absolutely without any shame and honor to have so much wealth and still not paying taxes and giving anything back to the country which they have raped and plundered. How can we tolerate them when all the burden of their errors and corruption falls on salaried individuals like myself?
Regarding all the corruption you attribute to Musharraf, even if he did some hanky panky it was negligible and we did not even feel it in our personal lives.
The administration was much better and lots of work was done even in Baluchistan which no other government had ever done before. South Punjab was also given attention.
There were only 6-8 billion dollars out of which half were spend on the war effort.
With the rest we had constant electricity supply, correct billing of utilities, a booming economy, multinationals staring new ventures in Pakistan, no sword of IMF on our head, controlled prices on all commodities of life...and the list goes on and on...so i do not think Musharraf made a fortune like NS, Zardari, BB etc.
All this is based on my experience of living in Pakistan as a salaried professional in a multinational who is running his house and has firsthand knowledge of how things have gone much worse these days in every aspect of life...
From where i am sitting this was not at all possible without Musharraf being much better than the current lot of our politicians.
So my point is very simple, do not look at Musharraf alone, instead focus on those whom he competes against and then you will know why despite many of his mistakes many still like him better.
Still, we have to be patient and let democracy run its course and hope that we weed out these corrupt politicians and let the educated and honest people come on top in next 20 years or more...it will be a torture to bear but something we have to do in order to mature
