Why Youth Glorify Gen.

Pervez Musharraf

By: Muhammad Umair Khan

On 12 October 1999, then COAS, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, overthrew Nawaz

Sharif’s government and illegally took over the country by using the Kargil
debacle as an excuse. In other democratic countries, this would’ve been
remembered as a dark day by the entire nation, yet a decent chunk of the
population doesn’t consider it a big deal, if not seeing it as a welcoming change.
This opinion is mostly found amongst Pakistan’s youth, who’re in majority. The
reason is the 15th Amendment which Nawaz’s PMLN government was to enforce
before he was removed. This Amendment aimed to turn Pakistan into a theocratic
hell which would’ve made the country more religiously intolerant.

According to this Amendment, the federal government was to be under an

obligation to take steps to enforce sharia, establish ‘salat’, administer ‘zakat’ and
promote ‘amar bil ma'roof’ and ‘nahi anil munkar’. This empowered the
government to issue directives for the implementation of these provisions and take
the necessary action against any state functionary for non-compliance with the said
directives. Before this happened, Musharraf imposed martial law and started his
pseudo-liberalisation of the country.

On one hand, he gave a free hand to private news outlets to grow and the country
witnessed a revival of Pakistan’s film industry but on the other hand, he was also
responsible for the crackdown on the same press and widening ethnic divide across
the country later on, which now threatens the country’s unity. During his reign,
Pakistan’s relationship with Hindustan improved but the concept of ‘Good Taliban
and Bad Taliban’ was also introduced.

He released hundreds of women from prison, who were rotting in prisons for
‘adultery’ since Zia-ul-Haq’s era, by amending the Zina and Hudood Ordinances.
Almost all of these women were rape victims who couldn’t produce four witnesses
to identify their rapists. So, instead of getting justice, they were thrown in prisons
‘for having extramarital affairs’. Unfortunately, they weren’t released during
Benazir Bhutto’s PPP government either. Their release by Musharraf was seen as a
progressive move; however, he was the same person who later blamed the victims
of the rape. In his disgusting statement, he claimed that Pakistani women
deliberately get raped to get the sympathies of the West and get settled there in the
name of shelter.

He talked about moderate enlightenment but then formed an alliance with the
mullahs and made them part of his rule. He was also responsible for countless
imprisonments, torturing of traditional politicians and deaths. Despite all this,
many of the youth, who are the future of this country, have a soft corner for him
because our politicians have performed even worse when it comes to separating
religion and the state.

Recently, PMLN’s Javed Latif held a press conference on PTV and blamed
political adversary, Imran Khan, for ‘trying to bring liberal and secular traditions’
into Pakistan’s politics as per “Qadiyani conspiracy”, as if those were bad things
and these claims would make the youth leave his party. Unsurprisingly, Latif
himself came under fire for playing the religion card and he was rightly told that
our politicians needed to come out of the 80s as the world and Pakistan’s society
have changed. Simply put, there is no going back. Progress is an unstoppable force
of nature. It never stops and only gives people two options: Let it happen
peacefully through evolution or oppress people to the point where they are forced
to take their rights by force through a bloody revolution.

In 2023, Pakistan has witnessed an increase in attacks on minorities and Ahmadi

“places of worship” but the state is completely silent on it. Then PTA decides to
ban the ocean of knowledge, Wikipedia, just because one person on the planet of
eight billion decided to upload a religious opinion that boomers didn’t agree with,
as if it’s their first day on a computer and they don’t know how to ignore some
random post on a site that has countless more articles in the favour of Islam as
well. Remarkably, the people working at PTA are the same who were appointed by
Imran Khan’s ultra-conservative hybrid regime. The current government has yet to
give those positions to open-minded, visionary and young civilians.

Below average performance of our politicians on the economic front, them having
stone age mentality and their use of religion card in politics have made young
people less sympathetic towards them and their genuine sufferings, hence, forcing
them to even give martial laws a benefit of doubt, which they shouldn’t. They see
pseudo-liberalisation as a better option than zero progress.

When they are told about the violation of the constitution by Pervez Musharraf and
how he once stated that it was just a piece of paper that belonged in a dustbin, their
response is, “A constitution that discriminates in the name of religion and prevents
us from becoming a nation deserves this treatment.” The anger increased after
‘geniuses’ in the parliament decided to widen the scope of Pakistan’s draconian
blasphemy laws recently instead of throwing them out. A lot of people were left
disappointed because they thought that our politicians might’ve learned their
lesson after facing militancy and extremism. Apparently not.

This is the exact same reason why many glorify Ayub’s destructive era as well. He
too created the perception of being a ‘progressive ruler’. Our politicians need to sit
together and devise a plan to amend the constitution to make it more inclusive. It’s
also time to modernise Pakistan’s education system and write history correctly
without being insecure about it. It’s also in their political interests to do so.

Last but not least, a religiously intolerant syllabus and constitution create an
intolerant society. And intolerant societies, apart from making the personal lives of
citizens a living hell and forcing talented people to leave the country, also fail to
attract foreign investors. No one wants to spend billions in a country where their
companies or sites can get banned over non-issues or their workers can get lynched
over having a different religious opinion.