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The General's Responsibility
While detractors and supporters of General Pervez Musharraf would view the April 30 referendum differently and make emotionally charged pronouncements to describe the event, statistics seem to testify that the President won a thumping mandate in the referendum to stay as the head of state of Pakistan for a period of five years. With the Supreme Court upholding the legality of the referendum a few days earlier, it is unlikely that a legal battle would ensue after the October 2002 elections and the subsequent restoration of the parliament.
The post-April 30 period would thus see the general charged with monumental responsibilities. Indisputably, the most immediate task ahead of him is the holding of elections and the restoration of democracy in October. Pakistan’s fresh experience with democracy must succeed. One sincerely hopes we would not see a repetition of the nightmarish travails of the past with an elected party failing to fulfill its promises and willfully engaging in plunder and loot, thus paving the way for an army takeover and a fresh chapter of military adventurism. Pakistan’s masses certainly deserve a better deal. With the condition that every contestant in the elections should have a university degree still in force, it is hoped that the forthcoming elections would lead to the induction of a new breed of MNAs and MPAs in the national and provincial assemblies who would be vested with the ability to contemplate and rationalize and to make sincere strivings to attain the realization of long cherished dreams.
In the last fifty-four years, both the rural and urban masses, have religiously practiced a science of values - age-old traditions and unflinching strength of character - which enrich emotional stirrings and more than make up for lack of material gains. Such ethos find little expression in the developed world where materialism is the order of the day and remains the ultimate decider in all transactions of state - social, political and economic. Steadfastly clinging to their traditions and heritage, the Pakistanis are keen to surge forth as a progressive, forward-looking nation. How could this goal be fulfilled?
If one reflects and ponders it is not difficult to identify what has been, and still is, the most cherished dream of the masses in the post-independence era. The trend is manifestly clear. Across the length and breadth of the country there is a burning desire, an ardent passion, on the part of each and every individual to send his or her children to school to acquire education - religious as well as modern. There are many young men who pine and aspire to make it to the higher seats of learning like Hardy’s entrancing character - Jude the Obscure. Not surprisingly, a Christian Science Monitor report published a few months back claimed that even the madrassa students are keen to get more than a nodding acquaintance with physics, computer science, and literature. Religion, particularly Islam, has been a stimulant to the creative impulse, a catalyst for a healthy change. General Musharraf has the perspicacity to realize that strengthening the education sector is of singular importance, a pressing need, an effort that needs to gather steam during the next five years.
Besides basic education, President Musharraf must also make a concerted effort to give a much needed impetus to the promotion of physical and biological sciences at the higher level of learning. Disciplines like information technology and nuclear engineering warrant sustained government support. The Research and Development institutes could contribute to the national developmental effort if the universities begin to function as the hub of research undertakings. The much-needed transition from a feudalistic to a progressive society could come about only with an accelerated input in the education sector.
Given the fact that the President’s assumption of power is considered by many as the “best thing that could have happened to Pakistan” and the high popularity that he enjoys among the “silent majority” in the country, it is incumbent upon General Musharraf to weld the masses together, and to act as a catalyst for a wholesome change on the economic and social front.
Of late, there have been quite a few pointers to confirm that the Kakul boys with their Command and Staff College training, fresh orientation at Sandhurst or Fort Benning, and exposure to the National War College ambience, are better poised to bring about the desired change in different fields. Both the politicians and the civil service currently seem to lack the spark and drive to deliver. General Musharraf should be seized of this fact and must act with promptitude. He must deliver.
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