Retried General Pervez Musharraf was a breath of fresh air in 1999 when we all got sick of listening to same old repeated mantra by the then 'seasoned' politicians, namely Nawaz Sharif & Benazir Bhutto. Musharraf was someone who all of a sudden showed up as a man who made sense, spoke with logic and a growling confidence (which was by virtue of the uniform but still). Available media for learning the affairs of the country were PTV, BBC Urdu radio and newspapers Jang & Dawn. With such limited means of information, we were serving the two great leaders of this country as a tennis ball with each throwing towards the other playing for an endless loop of deuce.
Musharraf, despite all for whatever he is praised, worshiped and regarded in this country especially for the magnificent gain of national honor and pride by submitting to US threats after 9/11, was perhaps a man who fancied a free media in his life. But as the song goes, " Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it all." Mr. Musharraf asked a bit too much for himself.
An open mind is not a slave mind. As the people who were asleep and less conscious were provided a voice, they cluelessly started questioning. Some were staunch supporters of the then government while the rest saw the picture differently and so opposed in whichever capacity possible. From high end bureaucratic parties to low end chowk-talks people felt immense pleasure in speaking out the ideas, thoughts and the philosophy of enlightened moderation. So, the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) was the Extremists VS Moderates.
Pakistanis discovered a new lifestyle; using cell phones. Oh we loved Musharraf for that. There was also another 'first time' item in our newly shaped lives; Shaukat Aziz. A minister who was well dressed, smart in speaking. Having stayed in his halo effect that he had worked for World Bank before parachuting into the political arena, we were in romance with his offerings: mobile phones & cars. We all 'knew confidently' that he was the man this country ever craved for!
The tried and tested universal laws of economics did not apply to Pakistan because we did not know them. Convenience. Earlier, any failing economies saw heavy trends of investment in the stock exchanges of the country and real estate. But it was the major indicator of our Economic Growth because US Dollar was stable enough to maintain on a certain level.
And then the bubble busted. And hell, there was no alarm beforehand - we always like to believe that we'll be 'informed' that a shit is about to happen.
I don't want to get into the sweet memories of emergency rule, sacking of chief justice of Pakistan & a series of brutal operations against the Bugtis and the Jamia Hafsa. Since it was all in the best interest of the country we aren't entitled to opine. The legendary role of dispute resolution played by today's Army Chief Pervez Kyani (wow, another Pervez - I wonder how we would react if our next President has a name like Mir Jafar) between the Hero and the Bandita (alleged by the same hero) turned out to be of pivotal significance.
The economic growth was factual, proven, acknowledged and adopted by the world, was too fundamental and long lasting. But a completely useless point is, that almost the same people were in power at that time also. How could I miss the thriving, the brave, the courageous, the upright, the noble Electronic Media. Today, where I see all the leaves dispersed in air, the stem of Media stands strong. Anchors became leaders. Audience became hostage.
Those times were good. Who can deny it? Obviously no one.
No comments:
Post a Comment