The great betrayal

Mr Musharraf, after clinging to power for the last few months in the hope that America would bail him out finally called it a day announcing his resignation in a TV address to the nation on August 18, 2008. And so the curtain fell on nine years of his dictatorial role which he called "democracy". He declared that he was resigning for the sake of the country. He dwelt at length in the major part of his speech on the achievements of his government, but skipped his unconstitutional actions of imposing emergency and sacking the entire senior judiciary opening a door for lawyer's agitation and widespread protests by political parties which shook the foundation of his fragile rule.

Pakistan's 60 years history is briefly the sad story of the "great betrayal" of this nation by its rulers, both civilian and military in the past as well as present. Their dictatorial regimes flagrantly abused power, either openly or deceptively in the garb of democracy. These hijackers of Pakistan, drawn mostly from the feudal, bureaucratic or military elite, barring a few rare exceptions, neither represented the people over whom they ruled, nor shared the ideals and the vision behind the creation of this "safe haven" for Muslims where they could uphold and safeguard their endangered religious and cultural identity and live a life of dignity and self-respect away from the swirling sea of hatred and bigotry of Hindu India. They, as was expected of them trampled the basic objectives and the value system on which the country was founded by Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah after relentless struggle of a lifetime and the untold sufferings and sacrifices of millions of his followers.