The sad state we're in

Pakistan's recent past has not been just about Musharraf. He embodied in his person attributes that most right thinking people in the country thought were the most undesirable and distasteful aspects of Pakistan's polity which cab be summarised as 'Arrogance at Home and Servility Abroad.'  

The conflating of appearance and style with substance, and rhetoric with practice The recent Olympic Games can help to decipher some of these attributes, which represent perhaps the dominant style of Pakistani politics, exemplified in particular by the politics and modus operandi of retired General Musharraf. However, whatever he did or said is found to varying degrees in most aspects of Pakistani politics and society. The Commando had a deeply flawed and malformed character but he is not the only one with these characteristics. So there is no room for complacency or smugness. In fact Olympian efforts are needed to undo all the bad that was done under Musharraf and then go on to reconstruct and reconstitute a better Pakistan.

The attributes mentioned can be deciphered by locating his claims about his own abilities in a framework of higher international standards. He missed no opportunity to propagate himself as a super commando and a political supremo who will deliver the last blow. Musharraf's thinking and deeds, his swagger and bragging (could this be a reflection of personal insecurity as his origins are from the Ganga-Jamna region and not from around any of the rivers of Pakistan) blurred his sense of reality and fantasy and left Pakistan in a huge mess.