Speech Reveals Nervous, Dreamy Musharraf

"Musharraf thinks he is indispensable for the country, and Pakistan cannot be run without him," Fahim told IOL.

"He is an unrealistic person, who doesn't know where to go now," Makhdoom Amin Fahim, chairman of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD), an 18-party conglomeration, told IslamOnline.net.

"He should realize the ground realities, and act accordingly otherwise it will not go in his own favor."

Addressing a big rally in Islamabad from behind a highly-guarded, bullet-proof dais, Musharraf declared that the overwhelming majority in the country was with him.

"Do not challenge us. We are not cowards like you, we have the power of the people," said Musharraf wearing traditional Pakistani dress.

"He has appeared to be a nervous man," said Syed Munnawer Hassan, Secretary General of Pakistan's largest Islamic party, Jammat-e-Islami.

"He is just trying to hide his weakness."

Syed Mamnoon Hussein, a former Governor of Sindh province and senior vice-president of Pakistan Muslim League (N), agrees.

"Whatever he said (in his speech) doesn't suit him. He is threatening the political forces that he will crush them," he said, referring to Musharraf's statement that he will crush his opponents.

"He has realized the fact that he is loosing the ground that is why he is acting like a nervous person."

The speech coincided with the killing of at least 40 people and the injury of over 200 in clashes between the ruling Muttehida Quami Movement (MQM)'s supporters and opposition activists in the commercial hub of Karachi.

The armed workers of the ruling party blocked all the city roads with the help of law enforcing agencies to foil the opposition parties' rallies to welcome suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.

Chaudry was virtually detained by the authorities inside Quaid-I-Azam i International Airport for eight hours, and was not allowed to address a ceremony organized by the lawyers to commemorate the golden jubilee of the Sindh High Court.

Musharraf suspended the top judge on March 9 on charges of misconduct and corruption, sparking a wave of protests that have increasingly focused on his eight-year military rule.

Dreamy  

"Do not challenge us. We are not cowards like you, we have the power of the people," Musharraf said.

Experts and opposition leaders said Musharraf was day-dreaming about his popularity.

"The vested-interest elements around him have been misleading him that he is very popular among the masses," said Fahim, who is also the vice chairman of former Benazir Bhutto-led Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

He cited as a case in point a slogan raised at the meeting that "Pakistan is not acceptable without Musharraf."

"Musharraf thinks he is indispensable for the country, and Pakistan cannot be run without him.

"But of course, he is not," said the opposition leader.

"If the people of Pakistan are with him, then why did he addressed the rally (from) behind the bullet-proof dais," asked Hassan, the leader of Jammat-e-Islami party.

"Is he scared of the people who according to his claim love him?"

The speech, according to Musharraf's critics, also demonstrate his strong-man discourse.

"He has given a clear message through his speech that he is the only might in this country," said Fahim.

"He even doesn't recognize those who have been backing him over the last seven years."

The Jammat-e-Islami leader agreed.

"This was not the speech of a ruler who loves his people. It was the speech of a dictator who suppresses his own people," he argued.

Shamim-ur-Rehman, a senior political analyst, said Musharraf considers himself and Pakistan the same thing.

"General Musharraf thinks that he and Pakistan are essential for each other. He thinks he can't be defeated and he has been saying this for quite some time," he added.

"In my opinion, he is getting weak, and when someone gets weak, he boasts like that," said the expert.

"His speech shows that he is a fascist and he is patronizing the fascist groups in the society," Shamim said, referring to Saturday's gun battles in Karachi involving the ruling party workers.

He disputes Musharraf's claim that he is the most popular figure among the Pakistani masses.

"The army could be with him, but he doesn't have any popular following. As far as the people are concerned, he has no mandate."

Shamim also criticized Musharraf for delivering a speech to thousands of his own party's supporters from behind bullet-proof dais.

"He is so popular as he can't even address the people without bullet proof dais and jacket.

"This is the time for the military to think whether it is alongside or against the people of Pakistan.

"Unless the military interventions are stopped, our society cannot assume democratic proportions," said Shamim.

General Musharraf assumed power on October 12, 1999, in a bloodless military coup and dismissed the government of the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Sharif was handed down life imprisonment by an anti-terrorist court in a hijacking case. He was exiled to Saudi Arabia in 2001 under an agreement brokered by the Saudi authorities.

"My advise to him is to voluntarily step down, because the game is now over for him," said the former governor of Sindh province.

"A dictator can't suppress the masses for a long period."