As good as they come

Most times, there is just the one opportunity. Fortune has favoured Pakistan to be the recipient of multiple opportunities, not just multiple but multiple golden ones. Ironically, they have not flourished, wasted in fact. Like Pervez Musharraf’s legacy, Pakistan’s own is of one of lost opportunities. It has continued to look a gift horse in the mouth and allowed them to slip away.

Fortune favours the brave it is said, and a brave nation we are. So here it goes again, with President Musharraf’s resignation yet another golden opportunity to act with wisdom and foresight, as a united nation, and achieve the goals established sixty-one years ago, is as good as they come. The vacuum created by his departure will itself be a test of the mettle of our democratic leadership. The last time this happened democracy lunged at the opportunity and within a decade had literally “nuked” itself.

Today everything democratic is being put to a rigorous test. Government has cause to celebrate. The prime minister has congratulated parliament on finally attaining sovereignty. The “democracy is the best revenge” slogan rings loud. Yousuf Raza’s speech was moving but he failed to deliver what the nation is waiting for. From this very floor four months ago he announced the release of the illegally detained judges. He did not restore them that day. Nor did he do that yesterday.

What is one to make of this dichotomy? The birth of sovereignty, democracy and independence of the judiciary could have all been on the same day. Making August 18 the Day of Deliverance. He wasn’t destined to make history. Two golden opportunities to fulfil the mandate of the people. Wasted.

Nawaz and Zardari are the beneficiaries of extreme fortune too. Under normal circumstances, history would have judged them harshly for blowing the previous tenures of democratic government. But Musharraf’s inability to nurture and secure a successor during almost a decade at the helm, unlike Ayub and Zia, has left the field wide open to them. It is “even stevens” today; both these leaders stand on their own now. It can go either way.