Books Review

Musharraf has left today 18-August-2008. Twenty years and one day after Zia ul Haq died in an air plane crash. Back then hopes of democratic rule were raised after the victory of BB as PM. Even now we have great hope that democracy will be on track. But we should also look at what are the lessons we can learn from the rise and fall of Musharraf? - We should always be ready to learn from history - Never go back on a promise. Musharraf must be remembering Dec-2004 when he promised to take off uniform - Always keep a tab on public sentiments and adapt accordingly instead of forcing your own opinion on the public. - Always choose your friends carefully.

Two years ago on 6 Jan-2006 I posted an article I had written in Feb-2005 about dearth of democrats. Much water has flown under the indus ever since. Specially since March 2007 after the world famous NO by Iftikhar Chaudhry. We have had a long lawyers' struggle, presidential elections, return of two natives and general elections. We thought that was end of it but it never gets un-interesting in Pakistan. After a long drawn "war" to restore the judges via Bhurban Accords, Resignations from Cabinet and loads of summits. Now we are at a juncture where the born-again democrats are impeaching the President. If all goes well the judges will be restored soon as per the promise of Mr. Zardaari and Mr. Nawaaz Sharif. So keep your fingers crossed this is not going to get uninteresting anytime soon. So we live in interesting times.