“Opportunist” Musharraf puts foot in mouth every time he voices his opinions: Editorial

ISLAMABAD - Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf suffers from the foot-in-mouth disease, and even though his statements are hardly taken seriously anymore, the incumbent government should ’straighten the affairs of the state’ so that “opportunists” like him are not given a chance to issue such outrageous statements, an editorial in a Pakistani newspaper has said.

“It is unfortunate that the many previous and current civilian governments leave much to be desired. Their incompetence and barely concealed corruption have always given adventurers room to dream. Musharraf is one such opportunist,” said the Daily Times editorial.

“Even though he (Musharraf) is hardly taken seriously anymore, his words ought to wake the present incumbents out of their slumber to straighten the affairs of the state so that men like him are not given a chance to issue such outrageous statements,” it added.

The editorial noted that every time the former military ruler “publicly voices his opinions, he, quite frankly, puts his foot in his mouth by rehashing his usual rhetoric in often unremarkable ways.”

His latest barrage of comments came on the eve of the fall of Dhaka in 1971, one of the most devastating points in Pakistan’s history, a dismemberment that could have been prevented had it not been for army intervention, it said.

“To hear Musharraf say that the army may yet again be forced to intervene in politics due to the declining state of affairs in the country is enough to make one understand why the man is being kept at an arm’s length from Pakistan,” the editorial added.

Musharraf fails to understand that many of the problems that plague Pakistan are precisely a consequence of the malaise of the military’s direct interventionist policies, and that it is because the democratic process he so openly castigates has been flimsy and constantly interrupted, that the country has been gripped by many maladies, it further stated.

The editorial went on to say that the retired general fails to understand that the various periods of army rule that subverted the democratic process only piled up problems for the civilian government that would inherit them, only to be toppled in the next coup.

Taking note of Musharraf’s comments that if the rest of the world continued to alienate Pakistan, the country would be forced to take matters into its own hands, including “working with the Taliban”, the editorial said.

“Now that is hardly a novel idea since Musharraf is the original architect of the dual policies vis-’-vis the Taliban and the US. It was during his stint as president that he struck a deal with the Americans for a crackdown on extremist jihadis but continued to give safe havens to the Afghan Taliban.”

“Musharraf’s assertion that Pakistan may just have to work with the militants is ironic because it is Pakistan that initially deployed the Taliban fighters to Afghanistan in 1994. Pakistan was also one of only three countries to officially recognise the Taliban after they took over in Kabul in 1996. Our creation of, and collusion with the Taliban is common knowledge but it looks like the ex-president may need to brush up on his history,” it dded. (ANI)