11-year PPP, ‘N’ rule was black era: Musharraf

Terming the 11-year tenure of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif as the black era of Pakistan’s history, former President General (r) Pervez Musharraf on Monday said that Nawaz Sharif and incumbent political elite lacked vision to rule the country.
In an exclusive interview with Pakistan Today, Musharraf said Nawaz Sharif had miserably failed the masses twice back in the 90’s. “When Pakistan was handed over to me it was almost gone, state institution were in shambles and 11 years of Pakistan People’s Party and Nawaz Sharif – 1988 to 1999 – are remembered in the history of Pakistan as black era,” he said. “They have failed twice and have not learnt a single lesson from their failure,” he added.
He said a number of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid and Pakistan Muslim League-Likeminded leaders were in touch with him. “In Pakistani politics, politicians have developed a hope of just waiting for right opportunity to jump,” he said. Pervez Musharraf expressed disappointment over the fact that a number of PML-Likeminded leaders had ditched him by distancing themselves on the eve of launching APML in October 2010. “I would just say some leaders have certainly disappointed,” he said.
He said Pakistan was leading towards the right direction when he was in government. “Now, we as a country have no direction for the last three years. My successive government has destroyed of what we achieved in 8 years,” he said. Justifying his claim, Musharraf said GDP growth had reached 7 percent, stock exchange grew to 17,000 points, dollar remained stable at Rs 60 for nine years, foreign investment was immense and Pakistan’s budget grew from Rs 80 billion to Rs 522 billion in his tenure.
He said there was no silver bullet to kill radicalism and extremism which he termed the biggest challenge for Pakistan and it society. “However, educational reforms that include mosques and madrassa reforms could be a key to attain this object. The economic prospect is also important as you have said there is no silver bullet,” Musharraf added.
Musharraf termed terrorism as the number one challenge for Pakistan followed by the ailing economy. “Present government has not been able to carry on with the economic boom we introduced and resultantly economy is in shambles,” he said. He said Pakistan needed a stable Afghanistan working under democratically elected government without any external influence “and we should strive to attain this purpose in Afghanistan.”
When asked whether he was afraid of his possible trial in BB assassination case, Musharraf said: “This is another shameful aspect of these so-called democratic rulers that they tried to implicate their political opponent in false and frivolous political cases. This is just another case of political motivation. I have faced challenges in all my life and I took a decision of entering into politics after analyzing the implication of my decision and I am ready to face the political harassment that will come.”
He said that if all the factions of Muslim League did not unite, they will disintegrate. “This will be in the interest of Pakistan if we can create the party that does not revolve around family hierarchies,” he added.