We are talking of solution to the problem of terrorism. Every Pakistani, including people who condemn Lal-Masjid operation wanted terrorists to be punished and law of the country to be the authority, no differences on that. But has the operation achieved these goals? I am not looking at individual strands of this event and who did what and what not. what I see is that operation remained counterproductive, it didn't produce the results Musharaf originally intended.
Graphician:
You can make the same argument fo rthe entire effort against religious extremism in Pakistan, isn't that the case? After all, all these operations and we will have religious extremism and terrorism -- The problem, I think we can argue very persuasively indeed, is that Musharraf did not do enough, did not systematically break the back of religious extremism, by attacking every single facet or manifestation of the problem.
Do we question why is Musharaf still trying to explain and defend he was right then? Why he had to? Do you not see his action was widely unaccepted in the country? It is for the one simple reason that the same extremism which he was trying to quinch, flourished 100s of times more. Is that a success or failure?
Again, after all the army operation since the end of the Musharraf regime, has terrorism diminished? Really. think you are not looking at the entirety of the situation? Have we attacked the financing of religious extremism? Have we been serious about banning religous hate speech? Have we attacked the entire propaganda setup? Have we punished politicians of the religiousw parties who not only do not condemn but suuport the religious extremists??
This incident is not the only incident that is on the table for us to decide. Every single initiative he took went against the interest of Pakistan. Kashir? Afghanistan? Enlightend Moderation? NRO? Chief-Justice? The Imported Prime Minister? Debt driven economy? BB's assassination? There should be few things upon which we could say okay these were better in his time. If you like to compare his time with This government then you are comparing bad with worse.. but is only a bad our faith or alternatively a worse? Do we not think of anything that is slightly better than Musharaf?
First of all Musharraf's twitter piece is designed to offer a counter to the propaganda of the religious extremists and those politicians who opposed his regime, Musharraf regime and any other regime in Pakistan would be not only justified but duty bound to respond as the Musharraf regime responded - Musharraf was spot on with regard to Kashmir, in fact we were weeks away from a solution, Mr.Kasuri himself has confirmed this.
With regard to Afghanistan, Mr. Musharraf was again, spot on, Events in Afghanistan are of a "vital interest" to Pakistan, with regard to the economy, Mr. Musharraf's regime saw the halving of poverty rates - I think you are less than objective when discussing the Musharraf regime, and it really is because you find the argument of the religious parties to be more persuasive than any other.
There is a criticism that Musharraf must be open to, and that is that his regime did not do enough, was not systematic enough, was not decisive enough to clean out the nest of vipers that is religious extremism and the Sardari system in Balouchistan and that he did not abolish the FATA which continues to deprive millions of Pakistanis of their basic rights.