This article is meant to make the people realize
and appreciate the role of Pervez Musharraf, the ex-army general
and the president of Pakistan for his contribution in the
development of the most neglected district of Chitral. There are
mixed feelings of people about the presidency and multifaceted
role of the former president Pervez Musharraf in the context of
Pakistan. Some people blame him for putting Pakistan into
jeopardy after 9/11 most horrific event. Some people praise him
for his dictatorial role. Still many of Pakistanis accuse him of
derailing Pakistan from the democratic regime and for his war
against extremism. Despite all these, being a Chitrali and the
direct beneficiary of the ex president I always salute his
timely decision to bring Chitral into the limelight. His love
for the Chitrali people is evident from the mega projects he
started and completed during his nine years of governance.
It is an undeniable and unquestionable fact that after Zulfiqar
Ali Bhutto, the ex Prime Minster of Pakistan, General Pervez
Musharraf happened to be the only hope for the people of this
region. On October 12, 1999, after taking over the government he
diverted his attention to Chitral and visited Chitral for more
than five times and announced many developmental projects which
are either completed or some are still in the process of
completion.
The mega project of Lawari tunnel, the estimated cost of which
is more than Rs.20 billion is now going to complete. This
project was initially started by the late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto
and was shut down by the former dictator, General Zia without
showing any reason thus depriving patriotic citizen from their
basic right. After taking over the power Pervez Musharraf
prepared feasibility report of this mega project and restarted
work on Lawari tunnel and completed. One of the ex Prim minister
of Pakistan and the protégé of General Zia even accused Pervez
Musharraf of spending huge money on a single district, which in
his own world is not considered as a part of the country.
However it must be kept in mind that the Lawari tunnel was the
matter of life and death for Chitralis and the ex president
initiatives won the hearts of many people of Chitral.
This time every party wants to politicize the mega project but
every individual know it better that the real credit goes to the
man who is the real benefactor of us. We, all the Chitralis are
hugely indebted of Mr.Musharraf for his love and affection for
us. One can easily justify the fact that the representatives
from Chitral who are in the power corridor used Musharraf Card
very effectively during the last general election and won the
seats in the National and Provincial assemblies.
Chitral is shortest gateway to central Asian countries. It has
many cultural, religious and historical ties with this land.
Besides benefiting in many other ways the Lawari tunnel would
usher in a new era of progress in Chitral through connecting it
with the Central Asian countries.
The Mastuj Gilgit road is another mega project, is another
feather in the head of Pervez Musharraf. This road is going to
be proofed as another gateway to China, who happened to be the
friend of Pakistan in most critical moments in the history of
our motherland. Mastuj Gilgit highway could also be used as
another to access the down country sides instead of KKH.
Many other mini projects of school, colleges and water channels
were started at the time when Musharraf was in power. He took
great interest in Chitral and many times publicly declared
Chitralis as the most peaceful and civilized nation on the face
of planet.
Dear President!
The people of Chitral are heavily indebted to you. The whole
Chitrali nation remembers you in their prayers. One event
continuously recalls my memory when one day of the last year the
first vehicle crossed the tunnel. Just after crossing from below
the gigantic mountain, every one was paying Shukrana to Almighty
Allah and there was a slogan of Pervez Musharraf Zinda Baad and
Bhutto Zinda Baad, Long Live Bhutto and Musharraf. The slogan
was echoing in the mountains of Lawari.
We must be thankful to all contributors. It is the time to thank
all those who supported Lawari tunnel project in any way. I
would like to take the good name of former MNA, Late Ataliq
Jaffar Ali Shah, who for the first time proposed the Lawari
tunnel project in the national assembly. Salute to his piercing
vision which made this Herculean task possible. Chitrali nation
will never forget the great visionary leader and the former
Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto whose personal interest made
this possible. The role of Tehreek-e-Tahaffuz- Huqooq-e-Chitral
gave momentum to Lawari tunnel project and highlighted the issue
in national and international media. Last but not the least,
architect of the tunnel the Sambu company really deserve
appreciation and admiration.
At the end I would salute all the people whose support made this
difficult task possible. In the words of great Urdu Poet Hafiz
Jalandhari,
Ye Ghazi Ye Tere Pur Israr Bandey
Jinhe Tu ne Bakhsha hay zauq-e-Khudai
Du neem un ki thokar se sehraa-u-darya
Simat kar Pahaar Un ki haibat se rai.
Zulfiqar Ali Shah,
Booni, Chitral.
01 July 2010
Comment -1
After reading the subject letter, I am greatly satisfied and
agree with the writer. I think words used in the article are
representing the voice of all Chitralis. We salute Musharaf for
his love which he showed in the form of Lowari tunnel,
Chitral-Gilgit road ,many mini projects and much more. Through
Lowari tunnel, the rich culture of Chitral is now exposed to the
whole world and Chitralis are now able to avail basic
necessities of life that include health, educational, food items
etc. Chitral is eagerly waiting for Musharraf- if not Musharraf
then a leader like Musharraf.
Inam Ullah Khan Yaftali,
AKU, Karachi.
01 July 2010.
Comment -2
In reference to letters sending salams
to Pakistan and Musharaf, I have the
following points to make:-
No doubt General Musharaf took much interest and
made the Lawari tunnel dream become a
reality and Chitralis will forever remember him for this big
service. However we being Pakistanis first and Chitralis after,
should see what services he rendered to Pakistan as a
whole in his nine year tenure as an
almost absolute authority. Here are some of
them;
1. He trampled the constitution and assumed
power with the help of guns thus prodding
the 'might is right culture'.
2. At the time of his military takeover,
he declared the then politics as sham and promised to rid the
country of sham politicians, but soon he embraced those
very sham politicians who declared to
accept him in uniform for a
100 years.
3. Despite being from a humble background and
having had military training, he never tried to set an example
of austerity. In fact when he visited Chitral a number of times
to watch Shandur polo, his fleet of helicopters and advance
corps of elite security forces
would have put even phillipine's
Marcos to shame.
4. His obsession with personal security was
giddying. On his visits to Shandur as mentioned above, there
would be virtual curfew clamped in Chitral town from three days
preceding his visit, until it was over..
It was then that Chitralis saw for the first time gun
mounted army vehicles in the streets of Chitral as if some army
operation was on, where as it was merely General Musharraf going
to Shandur to watch polo.
5. He, through his agencies,
engineered the MMA, which after
coming to power in nwfp, allowed extremism to
quietly flourish in Swat and other areas, the
result of which were seen in the form of
ugly terrorism acts, after his exit.
6. He arranged to
import a foreign based
unworthy con man, in the person
of Shoukat Aziz as his prime Minister, who played
Russian roullete with the economy,
and who hastily exited
the country after 'doing his job'.
7. He played double game with
both the Americans and the Islamists,
with the sole view of perpetuating his stay in power; in the
bargain he lost the trust of both.
I fully agree, salaam to Pakistan and salaam to
Musharaf for the Lawari tunnel, but I request my fellow brothers
and sisters not to ask him to come back. Pakistan has a
population of 180 million and most of the people given a chance
like Musharraf got, would not do worse if they could not do
better. Let's not focus on personalities.. Time
and again we have seen that it doesn't work like that,. Let's
strive to change
the system, believe me it can be done.
Afzal Ahmad,
Chitral.
03 July 10
Comment -3
This is with reference to the article ‘Salam
Pakistan & Musharraf’. I am dumbstruck, to say the least, at the
insistence of the ‘learned’ author to eulogize a dictator who
masqueraded as an ‘enlightened’ moderate. I find it
intellectually dishonest and logically absurd to evaluate the
role of a despot, no matter how benevolent, through the prism of
a certain development project in a certain area. That is crude
reductionism, an exercise intelligentsia in Chitral, frequently
and habitually, indulges in leading to a situation where any
effort at a realistic assessment of issues of the area becomes a
mere exercise in futility. I find such reductionism exclusionary
in the sense that it invokes an understanding that the issues of
Chitral are somehow different from those of the rest of the
country.
I find it preposterous that since an
all-weather access route was the most important issue we faced
in Chitral and since Pervez Musharraf, as the author believes,
was the one who started work on a tunnel project through the
Lowari Pass, he became a messiah for Chitralis. All his
wrongdoings, his commando-style rhetoric and his short-sighted
policies can be pushed under the carpet and he can be hailed as
a redeemer of some sorts. History is witness to purple patches
in the reign of the most despotic of dictators and Musharraf’s
was no different, in his case not due to any of his own efforts.
In fact he just happened to be in the centre of a geo-strategic
matrix which has led to an enhanced importance of the Southern
Asian region in global political equations.
Musharraf happened to be at the helm of
affairs when extra-regional forces decided to push forward with
their plans for a geo-economic grid to link the strategic
regions of Central, West and Southern Asia. In short, any
analysis of the Lowari project, its origins and its impact must
take into account, along with domestic and local variables, the
revived and dynamic engagement of extra-regional forces in our
region.
As for ‘Yeh Ghazi Yeh Tere Pur Israr bandey’, it was not Hafiz
Jalandhari, as the author says, who uttered these immortal
words. It was Dr. Allama Iqbal who wrote these and I am sure he
did not have people like Musharaf in mind. He wrote these in the
context of Muslim conquests in Europe, particularly Spain. Let
alone Pakistan, the Muslim world at large has yet to produce
anyone even comparable to the men of character Iqbal had in mind
Muntazir Ali,
Karachi.
03 July 2010.