Government's follies

In her letter on former PM's article in an Indian newspaper, Syeda Mahwish Fatima Naqvi has criticised Benazir Bhutto and in doing so has defended the Musharraf regime and blamed previous governments for all the wrongs that present government is trying to correct.
I fully agree with the writer for taking Benazir to task who thinks nothing is unfair that can lead her to power and her writing in Indian newspapers is not for the love of poor Pakistanis who are victims of price hike but it is to put pressure on the present government to offer her a deal.
I cannot, however, agree with the writer for blaming previous regimes for media control or economic distress. In today's world of internet, satellites, unlimited TV and radio channels, control on media is not possible. This government was lucky to benefit from 9/11 like many other countries in the region when capital flew eastward from USA.
Instead of taking advantage of the situation, our military government with usual military mindset of thinking they know everything when actually they know nothing and lost a great opportunity of economic revival.
There is not a single power project, not a single big water reservoir and not a single highway project initiated by this narrow vision regime. We have to realise that by asking a banker to manage the country's economics is equivalent to asking a dentist to have an open heart surgery. Shaukat Aziz's knowledge of economics is limited to trickle down theory and pleasing his bosses.
It has been 7 years now. Where is that trickledown affect? On the economic front, major achievement of this government is to bring capitalist economic system by allowing rich to become richer.
The first major act of this government was to abolish wealth tax. Then instead of managing large inflows of cash from overseas Pakistanis for the benefit of majority or poor, they let interest rates fall and let corporates amass profits and instead of getting higher taxes from companies and allowing relief to poor, they allowed oil companies to set fuel prices, cement companies to double cement prices, gave sugar mills subsidy when international prices were low and allowed sugar companies to double the price of a necessity when international price jumped although their cost of production has nothing to do with international prices of sugar.
They have a totally different policy for wheat, which enables the majority of rural Pakistanis to feed their families. When international prices of wheat increase, our government forcibly purchases wheat at lower price by banning movement of the commodity and when international prices are lower, they use all the delaying tactics in wheat procurement forcing growers to sell their produce to mills and hoarders at much lower prices.
Land mafia, led by army officers, has been allowed to lure common people to gamble in real estate casinos. Import duties are reduced to allow rich people to have cheaper Mercedes and BMWs but no benefit for the buyers of smaller cars. Corrupt politicians are pursued only as long as they are in opposition and as soon as they support the government, all their sins are forgiven.
Politicians are certainly corrupt and that is true for every country but so are generals. Any one who has power will always abuse it unless there is accountability and that can never be done by an individual. It is only possible through established institutions. We have to let democracy prosper even if politicians are corrupt. Gradually institutions will improve bringing accountability and justice.
If General Musharraf really believes that the Pakistan Army is a professional set-up and sincere to the country, why does he fear that the next Army chief will not support him. If he really trusted his army, he should not hesitate to take off his uniform and appoint someone else as army chief.