Think
Musharraf Has No Real Supporters? Meet Nayyar Afaq
Published : March 23, 2008 |
Author : Ahmed Quraishi (http://www.ahmedquraishi.com)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—Pakistani politics are so
filled with hate and incivility
that often no
distinction is made between political opposition and
personal
enmity.
We’ve seen this clearly manifest itself in the
case of President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf.
Whatever his personal or professional
failings – and the best of them have
some – the
reality is that the man is sincere, incorruptible,
and a true Paki-
stani
nationalist. In his eight years in power, he
represented the average,
middle class
Pakistanis in the most powerful office in the
nation. He
empowered the
middle class politically and economically in a
country where
politics are
monopolized by feudal elites.
He worked.
That’s why he has critics. Plenty of them. But often
some of his
critics turn
their legitimate opinion into personal hatred. Which
only happens
in immature
democracies where people abandon civility in
political debate,
often turning
national politics into personal enmity involving
hate,
inappropriate
language, and sometimes even violence. All the three
traits are
in abundance
in Pakistani politics, unfortunately, mainly because
our politicians
encourage
them by example.
In Mr. Musharraf’s case,
his critics are not even willing to accept that the
President has
any supporters. But he does. Plenty of them. He
doesn’t know
them. They
support him not because he gave them any direct
benefit but
because they
recognize that he has been sincere with Pakistan.
Nayyar Afaq is a prominent student of the
physics department at the
Quaid-e-Azam
University in Islamabad. He belongs to the original,
real
supporters of
President Musharraf, a group that existed much
before Mr.
Musharraf
sullied his name by allying himself with tainted
politicians.
Afaq has written a beautiful,
classic poem dedicated to his political role model.
You can’t pay
someone to write something like this.
Read it
here:
http://www.geocities.com/nayyarafaq/pakistan-first.htm
(Ahmed
Quraishi-Pakistan's young political analyst and most
stylish media
anchor
of Geo Network)
03/23/08 |
