The fox who cut deals

He, who had strutted on the international stage with great confidence, enamoured of his own ability to make persuasive pleas, convincing the audience of his sincerity and his earnestness in partnering them to resolve common problems, had begun to look like an actor past his prime mouthing his lines. He could not be easily persuaded to leave the stage. The all-powerful figure of yesterday that toyed with the constitution to suit his political needs spoke now of reconciliation, of cooperation, of dutiful adherence to his reduced role. As happens to dictators in decline, for Pervez Musharraf the medals shone brighter than his reputation.

Musharraf had become very unpopular, and so had the army. In his hubris he had committed many political mistakes, especially the decision to sack the chief justice not once but twice, in an unseemly and crude manner. The handling of the Lal Masjid episode had left many puzzled about its apparent procrastination; the eventual loss of life caused anguish. The killing of the Baluch leader, Bugti, was not calculated to enhance Musharraf’s political reputation or his popularity in that restive province. Most importantly, it was his military action against religious extremists in the tribal areas that touched a raw nerve as he was seen as killing his own people at the behest of the Americans. Pakistan’s economy also took a downturn, denting his claims about how efficiently the country’s affairs were being managed.

Musharraf lost ground heavily within and without Pakistan recently. The plan to restore democracy in controlled conditions, with bargains struck in advance, was derailed by Bhutto’s assassination. The Americans began to question his continuing utility after the elections, working eventually not so much to save him as to obtain a dignified exit for him so that civil-military relations in Pakistan were not strained dangerously. The exit has not been dignified enough as Musharraf has left under threat of impeachment. Timing is important; he left it too late in the day. He has now made it look like he has quit not to protect the country but to protect his own skin. Until the last he was defiant about his record. His farewell song was full of the music of his achievements, but it is doubtful anybody was listening. The audience was interested in the final sentence, not the plea of the accused, as he had been judged guilty already.

What he did not say was that he was wily as a fox, nimble on his feet, managed the Americans astutely, extracted economic and military aid from them for his cooperation, tried to protect Pakistan’s interests to its west by differentiating between al Qaeda and the Taliban, aiding the latter surreptitiously in order to protect Pakistan’s long-term interests in Afghanistan. He played his weak hand well. He persuaded India that Pakistan was equally a victim of terrorism, reversing the entrenched Indian position on Pakistan’s complicity in promoting terrorism in India. We failed to distinguish between the source of the terrorist threat in Pakistan, which was a backlash of his policy of cooperation with the United States, and the source of Pakistan-inspired terrorism against us. He achieved the objective of not having to fight on two fronts by scaling down tensions with India.

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