THIS Independence Day, August 14, can, quite easily, go down as the most critical birthday of Pakistan in its 62 years of sovereign existence. The nation has been off balance for a fairly long time. But at this particular moment in our national life we are, literally, caught at a tangent with at least two grey areas of critical import staring us all in our face.

One is whether Pakistan's 'enemy number one,' the notorious Tehrik-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan chief, Baitullah Mehsood is really dead and buried or is his reported death a figment of some fertile imaginations in Washington and Islamabad.

The second question is whether former President Pervez Musharraf, now safely ensconced in London, should be tried for treason under Article 6 of the same Pakistan Constitution that he so brazenly flouted and breached on myriad occasions, most recently and notably on November 3, 2007.

At stake in both questions is the credibility of the government, a sine qua non for good governance.

It has become axiomatic in Pakistan to moan the declining standards of governance and jarring failures of successive regimes, civilian or military. This incumbent government, now in the saddle for more than a year, has touched a new low, not only in governance but also in its appalling failure to convince the populace that it has the capability to alter course and improve. Its harrowing paralysis of governance haunts and hurts all the more at occasions like marking the birthday of Pakistan.

It will not be too long before the reality or falsehood of the claim that Baitullah Mehsud has been killed unravels itself. Rehamn Malik will then either bask in the sunshine of solid achievement or end up with a lot of fresh egg on his face. The death of the notorious outlaw, if proved, should effectively be the first passing grade for the nouveau rulers who have yet to allay fears about their capacity to rule, much less know what good governance is all about.

If the end result of the ongoing flight of fancy comes out to be a case of just that, flight of fancy, its blowback will simply be devastating for the ruling elite. It will convince the people that what they have bargained for in return for democracy is a pack of liars and bully boys whose sole competence—or lack of it—is anchored in how dutifully they can take orders from Washington and then clumsily ram it down the throats of Pakistan's befuddled people.

The case of Pervez Musharraf is, at once, simple and complex. A simple case of executive action looks complex because it drags into debate a plethora of ground realities, accumulated over the past 50 years in which Pakistan has mostly been on a roller-coaster of bewildering twists and turns. Many, nay most, of these realities are inconvenient.

The most inconvenient and jarring truth or ground reality is that governance in Pakistan has been hijacked on four occasions, at least, by Bonapartes, of enormous ambition, masquerading as 'saviours' of the country and its people. Invariably all of them have flouted and made a mockery of the constitution but none has ever been hauled in a court of law and made accountable for his misdeeds and breaches of law.

Another inconvenient truth is that at least five, legally elected, civilian governments, three of those of PPP and two by PML-N have shared space, intermittently, with the 'boots' on the political stage but none has had the courage or will to make the military dictators and soldiers of fortune accountable for treating the law of the country with utter contempt.

The current dispensation is the 6th legally constituted civilian government of the last 50 years but it also happens to be the most incompetent and pusillanimous. Doesn't it have any iota of self-respect to bell the cat which, in any case, has fled Pakistan and sought refuge where he thought his former mentors would be able to shield him the best? The sad answer is that it doesn't.

On the face of it, those holding Pakistan in their thrall at this critical moment show neither the will nor the gumption it takes to make a major leap to put Musharraf in the dock. Zardari is in power because of Musharraf. He wouldn't be where he is had Musharraf not taken all the stops out of his way by coming up with that petrifying clap-trap of the National Reconciliation Order (NRO). Obviously, Zardari would be the last to see the cushion pulled out from under his seat.

So the government, on cue from him, no doubt, has taken the line of least resistance by referring the issue to the National Assembly. Prime Minister Gilani has injected chicanery of his own into the debate by insisting that the parliament must come up with a 'consensus' in favour of Musharraf's trial. Consensus? And that too from a parliament where scores of its members owe their pelf and power to the former dictator? They are votaries of his, especially those sitting there under the banners of MQM and PML-Q. They would be loath to jettison their mentor because of fear of being swept aside like detritus after a storm if Musharraf was found guilty of the crimes he's accused of. Why should anyone expect them to commit hara-kiri?

Premier Gilani has been thoroughly disingenuous in passing the buck to a moribund parliament and, thus, virtually endowing each one of its mostly dysfunctional members with a veto. Strange are the ways of this ruling cabal. It doesn't flinch from using presidential ordinances to impose taxes summarily—an exclusive preserve of the parliament—caring two hoots for the clueless elected men and women. But where simple executive action would clinch the deal on Musharraf's trial it lobs the ball into the parliament's court. What a twisted sense of proportion it has. It's exactly a mirror image of the way it has been dragging its feet on throwing out the obnoxious 17th amendment, a handiwork of Musharraf.

The real reason for executive paralysis is that this government has got so used to taking its orders on issues of substance from Washington that it's simply petrified taking any initiative on Musharraf without a hint or a signal from its mentors.

But Washington has no more interest in Musharraf. He was a valuable 'asset', to use a favourite American jargon, to Bush and served his master well at the cost of Pakistan. But the Obama administration has no brief for him now that there's a more supine servant in Zardari to do Washington's bidding without question. Washington doesn't care a damn what happens to its former puppet-on-a-string they'd rather have Islamabad squaring this circle on its own. So what options do the people of Pakistan have if those coming to power with their consent, and shouting from their roof-tops of their popular mandate, would betray their trust with a straight face?

The only option for the people is to wage another campaign, on the model of the successful struggle to have the top judiciary restored to its status. This, incidentally, is the only option left to the people to honour the legacy of the Quaid. He was their 'great leader' and not of those who hijacked his Pakistan within years of his demise and have never, to date, relaxed their chokehold.

The Pakistan the Quaid envisioned was to have three basic sources for its guiding light.
One, a secular Pakistan where there would be no room for religious extremism and where minorities would live in safety and enjoy equal rights with the majority. The recent mayhem at Gojra is the latest reminder that Quaid's Pakistan isn't safe for minorities. The unstinted backing of the people for army action against the archaic Taliban is evidence of a hankering for a Pakistan free of extremism in the name of religion.

Clean and efficient governance was the second on the Quaid's list of a progressive Pakistan. Clean governance isn't only one without corruption of any kind but also one where everyone is accountable for their deeds, in particular the denizens of power and authority. Musharraf was corrupt in more ways than one and must be held accountable for his shenanigans.

That brings in the third pod of the Quaid's healthy Pakistan. For accountability a system of clean and prompt justice is ineluctable. For the first time in Pakistan we have a free and independent judiciary committed to upholding the rule of law that the Quaid cherished for his state. This is one feather already in the people's cap.

And, like perfect icing on the cake, there's a vibrant and dynamic news media eager to serve the people and bare the closets of skeletons of the ruling elite. Minister Khurshid Shah's phlegmatic outburst against a private TV channel's talkshow host in the parliament, on the issue of independent power producers, speaks volumes of the nervousness of the ruling class at the media's crusade for clarity in governance. Let the party begin.

Let there be a crystal-clear people's initiative to lift the deep fog and allow the sun to shine on
Baba's Pakistan. We owe it to him.

K_K_ghori@yahoo.com