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Where was Tariq Aziz on the eve of December 27, 2007? I have the answer but first the issue at hand: The return of Rambo and his latest googly to the media. He has proclaimed that the Swiss courts don’t have any proof of money laundering. So why so much fuss about the NRO?

I had no plan to weigh the readers down with events of the past. My hand (actually finger, tapping on the laptop) has been forced by the return of Rambo, the puffy-faced commando who now seeks our forgiveness and wants us to take him back. Either our rulers, past and present, consider Pakistanis idiots, or they themselves are idiots. It’s not a riddle that defies an answer. We already have it. Still, for the sake of clinical analysis, sober reflection and veracity of facts, I’d like my readers to travel back in a time capsule to relive the past 15 years or more.

I hope to fill this space with stories (real ones) of how Benazir Bhutto, Asif Zardari; Nawaz Sharif and Gen (r ) Musharraf, each in their own ways and in varying degrees, allowed corruption, nepotism, favouritism, cronyism and mediocrity to turn governance into a giant septic tank whose stink today has reached the high heavens. All these protagonists of democracy and ‘servants of awam’ are guilty of collectively causing irreparable harm to the economy, development, parliament, judiciary, executive, civil service and foreign policy of the country.

If the sceptics find a slight exaggeration above or excess in the critique of these rulers, then they should step out of their ivory towers on to the streets of Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta and Islamabad to see how low politics has descended and how high poverty/inflation/misery has spiralled. Some among you may yawn and wonder why go back into the seeds of time? Why dig out the past? The quick answer: Pakistan is perhaps the only country that recycles rulers who instead of being trashed continue to make a comeback.

Let’s then call our recycled rulers the ‘Comeback Kids’ or ‘CBK’ for short. According to Wiktionary, CBK means: A person who repeatedly demonstrates the propensity to overcome downturns or periods of bad publicity, and rebounds to victory or popularity.

Kitchen cabinet is one passion all the four have in common. The chief ‘chef,’ according to common folklore, was Tariq Aziz during Musharraf’s rule. I’m not so sure. Was he really the brains behind the hideous NRO? I think the NRO had its birth in another continent with President George W, his veep Cheney and secretary of state Condi as the impregnators of the plan. Tariq Aziz, Gen Kayani (then the ISI chief), Gen (retd) Mahmud Durrani our ambassador in Washington were the three ‘wise men’ from the East who were present during the immaculate conception and brought the ‘NRO baby’ back to Musharraf.

Having rid himself of the ‘meddlesome’ high priest of law and his band of honest judges at the Supreme Court, Musharraf was on the high road hoping to rule Pakistan till kingdom come. But fate had other plans for him. Just when he and his party animals were getting ready to dance away 2007 with balloons, fire crackers and champagne, Benazir Bhutto was killed in a flash. She left this world stunned and all sobbing openly in the streets of Pakistan. Many blame Musharraf for her death. Did the general really plan her assassination? Before we rush to judgment, there’s a small item that must be made public right away.

If Tariq Aziz was indeed the chief of Musharraf’s kitchen cabinet, and if Musharraf was in some way connected with the assassination plot, should Tariq Aziz not have been in the Presidency when the news of BB’s death arrived? Where was Tariq Aziz on the eve of December 27? He was at his watering hole playing bridge. When the TV flashed the news, Aziz along with others sat silently taking in the details of what had happened.

Musharraf and wife started life in the presidency way back in 1999 as ordinary people. They had little money or property; no ambitions. They were nice people. And son Bilal Musharraf had no lofty dreams of hitting it big. So what went wrong? The good life and good times got to the three. At the risk of repeating myself, I must reproduce a paragraph I wrote some weeks back. Here’s what I said: “Soon after Musharraf became the president, he went to China on an official visit. It was very cold. According to someone very close to him, the couple didn’t have extra dollars to buy themselves thermal vests. They shivered until someone in the entourage lent them $300 to go get themselves woolies. That was the winter of 1999. ‘The suits he wore during the trip were atrocious, cheap material and badly stitched.’ Very soon Mr & Mrs Musharraf’s wardrobes underwent a sea change. Donning Armani suits and matching ties with imported leather shoes became the dictator’s hallmark. When the Iraqi president Saddam Hussain offered oil to Pakistan at throwaway prices, Musharraf declined. Why? The Americans had gotten wind of it waving green backs at him that proved too tempting to resist. Some went into the Pakistani treasury; some allegedly into his bank account abroad.”

The person who related the above incident was once a great admirer of Musharraf’s as were many of us. But it didn’t take long for him and us to become disillusioned. Unfortunately, we’ll never discover the scope of the general’s malevolent rule because not many in Pakistan are willing to come forward with information.

Especially against the army that Musharraf presided over for nine years as its chief. All one gets are scraps as the above which I’ve reproduced. The GHQ is like the secretive Freemasons Club or the Yale University’s Skull and Bones Club that has among its elite members Bush and John Kerry, and many others considered the most powerful men of the 20th century. All are sworn to secrecy, sitting behind walls of silence, like the inner sanctum of the Rawalpindi brass!

One person allowed entry into GHQ and given interviews is the younger brother of the late army chief Asif Nawaz. Journalist Shuja Nawaz spent 30 years writing the history of Pakistan army. In a column in Foreign Policy magazine, Shuja Nawaz writes: “Recent conversations with officers at different ranks and including many senior generals about Musharraf’s standing indicate clearly that they resent what they call Musharraf’s move away from professionalism of the army and infusion of the army into civilian jobs. They are trying to restore that inner core of the army’s professionalism now and would resist being drawn into the political fray by Musharraf’s return. Most of Musharraf’s favourite generals are no longer in key positions inside the army.

Some of them have been superseded in the recent promotions as General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, chosen by Musharraf to succeed himself, puts his own stamp on the upper echelons of the army and on the institution as a whole.”

Needed then are whistle blowers among retired generals who served with Musharraf and saw him change from an honest, average army officer into the Armani-wearing, fist-clenching, now dollar-doling man of today. Unless someone squeals the truth, it’s unfair to heap all blame on just one man for everything that went wrong from 1999 – 2008.

Speak up now or forever hold your peace.