General Pervez Musharraf: A tragic figure who failed to earn his nation’s respect, despite intensely yearning for it

Pakistan former President Pervez Musharraf passed away in Dubai, after a prolonged illness.

Former Pakistan President and army chief General Pervez Musharraf who passed away in Dubai was a complex and impetuous leader. He combined a penchant for reckless military adventurism (Kargil)  and yet had the ability to pursue more than once a peace dialogue with India – a nation that he detested, but also professing a love for its Hindi film songs!

Kargil Fiasco

Musharraf will be remembered for his feckless audacity when he embarked on the imprudent Kargil war in 1999 – a year after both India and Pakistan had acquired nuclear weapons. This was a solo tactical decision, whose strategic enormity by way of likely implications for regional stability was neither shared with the civilian political leadership (Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif) nor the rest of the military. At the time, even the Pakistani air force and navy were not kept in the operational loop by Gen Musharraf.

India, with the astute Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at the helm of national affairs prevailed in Kargil – albeit at considerable human cost in lives lost – and the US brokered a Pakistani withdrawal in July 1999 that was humiliating for the General.

However Musharraf used the Kargil fiasco to seize power from PM Sharif in a bloodless coup later that year and remained in the saddle as the army chief (till 2007) and President till 2008. In this period, General Musharraf faced many domestic and regional challenges beginning with the 9/11 terror attack and subsequent developments in Afghanistan.

Musharraf Post-9/11

To his credit, he was able to deploy a mix of wiliness, chutzpah and commando-like courage to navigate through many storms – and these ranged from a direct US threat to “bomb Pakistan back to the stone age” in relation to support for the global war on terrorism (GWOT),  to domestic challenges from Islamists, and a rebellious judiciary.

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Musharraf had an opportunity to pull Pakistan back from the quagmire of state support to religious extremism and terrorism – but with characteristic ambivalence and duplicity, he chose to hunt with the (GWOT) hound and run with the  (jihadi) hare. This was to be his undoing over what is remembered as the Lal Masjid fiasco – when he tried unsuccessfully in July 2007 to evict pro-Taliban elements from a mosque in Islamabad.

Kargil apart, the other stain that will remain on the Musharraf palm is the assassination of former Pakistan PM Benazir Bhutto in December 2007 by pro-Taliban terrorists. At the time, it was believed that Musharraf could have ensured greater personal security for his arch political rival – but chose not to – with some critics accusing him of playing a tacit role in this sordid killing.

Tryst With India

It is with India that Musharraf had a very complex and tumultuous engagement – almost from the time he joined the Pakistan military academy in 1961. As a young officer, he participated in all the wars that Pakistan waged against India – and he internalised the humiliation and trauma of 1971 and the loss of East Pakistan in a deep and virulent manner. The manner in which India consolidated its presence in Siachen only compounded this sense of bitterness against India.

It was perhaps to exorcise these ghosts that he embarked upon Kargil and also continued to support Islamist terror groups – though he himself was targeted by these elements in failed assassination attempts.

Paradoxically, the same Musharraf who saw India as the arch enemy sought to arrive at a peace deal with Delhi – one where he wanted India to resolve the Kashmir nettle in a manner that he could take back to Rawalpindi, the GHQ of the Pak military. This was pursued with PM Vajpayee and subsequently PM Manmohan Singh, and in the latter case the four-point proposal evolved into quiet back-channel diplomacy, which was the closest that both nations had ever reached to agree upon a modus vivendi. But like the myth of Sisyphus – the Kashmir-terror boulder rolled back to square one both times.

Bitter with his political exile in the UAE, in the last phase of his life General Musharraf was charged with high treason against his country in 2014. He could never return to the nation that he so fiercely sought to defend from all adversaries.

The respect that he yearned for tragically eluded him – alas. Hopefully his country will forgive him in death.

Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.