International community observes three important days in the month of October. These are international day of disaster prevention, world food day, and international day of poverty reduction. Of late, Pakistanis have been unique on this count in the sense that they have been having another day to celebrate in October for the last six years. This latest addition to October celebrations is the anniversary of the third military coup in Pakistan which may be called ’national day of democracy reduction’ in the United Nations (UN) language.

Many among us feel that international days, as they are called by the UN, should not be observed because glitzy events organised around them are an insult to the people afflicted by problems like poverty and disease. Rather than trying to resolves these problems, celebrating these international days puts more focus on media coverage and a outward show of sympathy for the downtrodden, these people argue.

Many others are of the opinion that rulers and especially military rulers should not celebrate their rule’s anniversary because it may remind common people of what their expectations were from that ruler when she/he first came into power. Machiavelli in his book ’The Prince’ advises that rulers should try to mask their bad deals and bad deeds. This is because of short memory of common people who tend to forget easily things like these.

But gone are the days when advisors to the rulers used to study literature to offer a knowledge-based advice. Now they are so busy in keeping their masters happy through flattering statements that they hardly have any time to go through works like Machiavelli’s. General Pervez Musharraf’s advisors are no exception. Instead of trying to mask the bitter memories of the coup, they are reviving them by celebrating the coup’s anniversary.

The argument for and against the celebration aside, the anniversary has kept media as well as politicians quite busy. While people in the treasury benches are making huge claims of success, those belonging to opposition benches are busy in a postmortem of those success stories, terming the whole period an irredeemable failure.

To me, success and failure are relative. Someone’s success may be another’s failure and both of them will have valid reasons for being successful or flop. From General Pervez Musharraf’s point of view, the past seven years were extremely successful. He not only managed to take oath as the President, but also he got his provisional constitution approved from the parliament with the help of a ’friendly opposition’. He also did extremely well in the war on terrorism (earning millions of dollars by exporting alleged terrorists. Here lies a very important lesson for the Export Development Authority to learn). The latest feather in his cap is his controversial book ’In the Line of Fire’ that has generated so much heat that it has forcing our neighboring state to put a ban on its sale in its jurisdiction. His final success is that the United States of America cannot even think of a Pakistan sans Musharraf. This one may be the most important one for him, given where it comes from.

The opposition, on the other hand, has its own reasons to declare the General’s era as a failure. The Muttehida Majlis-e-Amal feels betrayed because it did not get much for its loyalty to him. Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) is a direct victim of his military coup. So to its members, all that happened during the last seven years has led the country towards destruction. Pakistan People’s Party should also term the past seven years as a failure because it has been forced to stay in the political limbo despite getting the highest percentage of votes in the last general elections and notwithstanding unrelenting news coverage of an alleged deal that it so desperately wants to cut with the General. Other politicians are either against or for the General’s government depending upon the fact what sort of evidences the National Accountability Bureau has gathered against them.

It’s a pity, no one seeks the opinion of the common people about life during the last seven years. Having warmly welcomed General Pervez Musharraf seven years ago, many ordinary people find their life become too difficult to let them think of any thing other than survival. A lay person doesn’t have any political agenda. All she/he knows is that diesel prices have increased by 250 per cent, sugar price has soared by 110 per cent, petrol price has been raised by 140 per cent and the prices of wheat flour, milk and cement have registered increases by 40 per cent, 50 per cent and 83 per cent respectively during the last seven years. Common people hardly feel cheered up when they are told that Pakistan’s macro-economic indicators are improving. They assess the government’s success from their ability or otherwise to afford a square meal for their families. In a country where bananas are sold at Rs 70 per dozen and grapes at Rs 160 per kilogram — that too in the holy month of Ramzan and in the capital city of Pakistan where price control mechanisms are supposed to be much more vigorous than other parts of the country) it’s hard to believe that half of the people live there with daily earnings below the price of one dozen bananas and almost two thirds of them have a daily income less than the price of one kilogram of grapes. But that’s the reality of Pakistan — a country where price of food is increasing as fast as the number of people unable to afford it. If any common people have any reason to celebrate Musharraf’s rule, they are that one third part of the country’s population which is enjoying all the benefits of macroeconomic development. They are the ones who provide documentary evidences of progress under the patronage of Pervez Musharraf.

I would not go into detail but a cursory reference to a recent incident may help keep the documentary record straight. A 37-year old mother of four was killed in an attempted robbery in Lahore’s Defence Housing Scheme neighbourhood last week. This is a housing scheme for the privileged section of the society so police turned up quite efficiently at the venue of the crime. But it somehow failed to mention robbery in its first information report (FIR). Instead an FIR for murder by unknown persons was registered. This may be an attempt on the part of the police to prove that the Defence Housing Scheme is safe from the street crimes and robberies afflicting every other nook and cranny of the country.

In a similar attempt to show a decline rather than a rise in crime, the police in a recent mobile-snatching incident offered the victim another set if he did not register the FIR.

But does it really matter if crimes like these don’t show up in record? Common people’s perception is not made by official documents. If anyone thinks it so, they must be living in a utopia and need to revise their opinion sooner rather than later. What matters most for common people is safety, the ability to afford at least basic necessities of life through legitimate means, rule of law and a more or less equal distribution of incomes and resources.

Whenever there is a change in government — be they civilian, semi-civilian or military — common people expect that their lives and the society will take a new leaf for the better. It’s only because of this expectation that they warmly welcome new rulers. But perhaps it’s hight time for them to learn from the past. Their hopes of a safe and secure society have always eluded them and they have always been betrayed by successive rulers.

Supposing that the coming general elections are without Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, I am quite optimistic that General Musharraf will have a few more anniversaries to celebrate his takeover of power. I don’t grudge him his luck but my humble advice to him is that he should concentrate on doing something that may create difference in the lives of common people. His macroeconomic achievements will be in vain if they do not raise the micro-realities at the grassroots level. To paraphrase former American President John F Kennedy, a rising tide should lift all boats.