Dear Virk sahib,

Reading your various arguments is like watching someone play tennis....alone. Its like you make a shot to the other end, run to the other side of the net, return your own shot and run back. You support democracy but you don't think Pakistanis should have it right now. You don't support military's rule but you support a military dictator. You present the very same, to the letter, arguments as Chaudry Parvez Elahi but when the comparison is made, you feel sad. Watching this solo tennis makes me dizzy. :) 

You also make incredible claims. You propose that the Pakistani people should have democracy and you think that the man for the job is Musharraf. Using your favorite type of analogies, you are expecting a mango tree from apple seeds. Another incredible claim of yours is that Musharraf is trying to eliminate foreign influence in Pakistan. I have no idea what makes you think that of a person who brought in Saudi Chief of Intelligence in Pakistan to hold an unprecedented press conference to tell people of Pakistan that their Supreme Court had no right intervening in "legal" affairs. And now Musharraf is using Saudi ambassador to pressurize Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudry to go in exile.

You tell us that you don't see Musharraf as the chief of the army. Musharraf himself would feel deeply insulted by that. There is nothing to indicate that Musharraf has different thought process, goals or methodology than the army. Unless you know something that I don't and you would share that with me, I find this notion of Musharraf being seen separately from the army quite hard to swallow. That has been the trend with your posts on this subject. You are making claims without giving us the bases of your claims.  

In your latest post, you have asserted that politicians will finish-off Pakistan while Musharraf may do many wrong things, he will not cause the demise of Pakistan. Once again, you haven't provided the bases of that claim. Can you back your claim up, from the history of Pakistan, that politicians will finish-off Pakistan and military will save it?

Your disdain for politicians and support for autocracy has deep historic roots and I will humbly request you to analyze them. These are the same historic roots that make Musharraf talk a lot about "Good Governance" (a favorite term of East India Company and British Raj) but he never talks about "legitimate governance". This is because of these historic roots that neither JIC in his article nor you in your various posts have talked about the 600 pounds gorilla in the room: the independence of judiciary. You have been pretending as if that has nothing to do with the latest martial law whereas it was the main cause of the martial law and there are no ifs and buts about it. Maybe you are ignoring it because its not that important to you. The independence of judiciary, a must for a just society, is not in your bullet-points either. Maybe, Its not a priority for you. Neither was it for East India Company.

Let me share with you that, in my entire life, I have rarely found any reason to be happy about Pakistan (winning of Cricket world cup was an exception) but many to be sad and disgusted about it. This year has given me a lot of moments to be happy about the country I come from and all those moments revolved around the Supreme Court of Pakistan. For the first time, our judiciary showed signs of independence. For the first time, it didn't shy away from the collision course with the powers at the helm. For the first time, the law of the land was brought to the corridors of power. For the first time, the principle of necessity was not being bought by the bench. The SC was creating important precedence, one that had the promise of solving many of the problems in Pakistan. All that was brought down by the person you believe will bring democracy to Pakistan. And for the first time, majority of the judges in the SC refused to bow down to the tyrannical measures of a military regime. These judges who refused to take oath under the PCO are the first genuine heroes of Pakistan and they are the ones who, right now, command the respect of the overwhelming majority in Pakistan They provided the beleaguered people a ray of hope which was quickly extinguished by the prophet of enlightenment. 

The solution of Pakistan's troubles isn't held in the hands of this individual or that one. Lets stop this 50-years old nonsense. The solution is strengthening of civilian institutes. Striking lethal blows to them won't bring us closer to democracy whatever your fantastical arguments maintain. When it comes to the civil institutions, your savior has ultimate failing grades and it is quite a leap of faith to think that Musharraf will end up doing anything positive about it because he hasn't shown any hesitation in past 8-years to trample the principles of civil-liberty under his boots. 

Regards,

Rafi