Appearance of a man of destiny

Thrice in our short history a moment has struck when a man of destiny could have given Pakistan the system for which it was created i.e. the system of Democratic Islamic Welfare State. First it was General Ayub and Then  Zia followed by Pervez Musharraf. In between, a debauch, corrupt, boozer, womanizer better known as General Yahya, was brought to power by Ayub but that was the work of destiny. Under him the Eastern Wing was destined to become Bangladesh. The tragedy couldn’t have struck under a pious head of the state. The other three Generals just frittered away the golden opportunity they were blessed with. There were times when South Korea passed through a period of critical civil unrest and general political instability under the feudalistic and corrupt regime of Syngman Rhee. Then appeared General Park Chung-Hee on the scene, He staged a coup in 1962. He proved to be a saviour of the people of Korea. He ruthlessly banished feudalism from the country; put down corruption with an iron hand: made his nation 100% literate and raised the general levels of education; developed export-oriented industries to the scale that within a decade Korea became the fastest growing economy. Its GDP recorded robust growth ensuring equitable distribution of wealth. The result was that Korea that was far behind Pakistan in economic development during fifties, went far ahead of Pakistan within a decade. It also became democratic which was a blessing that flowed out of the era of prosperity. The democratic process works both ways. Genuine democracy precedes as well as follows equitable prosperity. Had any one of our Generals achieved even a fraction of such performance he would have not only sustained himself for indefinite period of time but also become immortal in annals of history. Similar to Korea, democracy in Pakistan is likely to follow economic prosperity for which a powerful General like Park, blessed with a vision, is needed to get things done. With the appearance of Musharraf on the scene on 12 Oct 99, nation had pinned lot of hopes on him. His firm declaration to usher in an era of True Democracy was a heart warming message for the masses. However, during the eight years of his long tenure he could not make any significant contribution in this direction. He boasted of his Local Government System as a mega achievement that was supposed to have taken democracy down to the ground root levels of the society, failed to get established even during his own tenure. His rule was more of a passive breed. Much of the damage done to his image was by the indifferent governance of the members of his cabinet headed by an incompetent Prime Minister. Discredit for selection of a bad team squarely lay on him. He declared to construct the Kala Bagh Dam but gave it up for lack of consensus of the provinces on the project. A leader like General Park would have first built the dam and then let the consensus follow as a matter of course. In Pakistan’s heterogeneous population consensus, even on a very minor matter, is difficult to obtain. The Dam was too big a proposition for seeking consensus. The colossal energy shortfall that the nation suffered later as a result of this criminal negligence was the revenge of the betrayed Kala Bagh.