Though Musharraf's policies may not have engaged the common man the way Z.A. Bhutto's did, however, it did have a deep impact on urban, middle-class Pakistan.

This happened in two stages. The first was the proliferation of a new-found sense of creative freedom among the urban middle-class youth, and the next stage was when this astute sensibility eventually evolved into a new political awakening of sorts.

Or was it, really?

If one scans the writings that still appear in newspapers and internet sites of certain pro-Musharraf punters, or listen to certain men and women who appear as hosts and 'analysts' on TV (and make no bones about being the general's fans); and their youthful followers who love taking part in whip lashing cyber discussions, one can clearly detect in their tirades a constant stream of some of the most outlandish reactionary and nationalistic claptrap this side of Joseph Goebbles!

Most of these ladies and gentlemen come from well-to-do, upper-middle and middle-class backgrounds. Many of them are young. And 'educated.' But I am afraid on most occasions than not, their rhetoric has very little to do with anything either enlightening or moderate.

Educated they may be, the twist comes in when most of them suddenly morph into desperate nut cases spouting utter hatred.

Hatred towards democracy, towards politicians, and towards the stupid and 'illiterate' masses that actually exercise their right to vote and elect these politicians; hatred towards minority sects in Pakistan, Hindus, Jews and even fellow Muslims who commit 'shirk' (blasphemy) by going to Sufi shrines. Funniest, however, remains to be their hatred of 'liberal extremists!'

Now remember this is coming from men and women who might be drinking, smoking and grooving on the latest Indian and Western tunes on their iPods. Or who may be associated with giant western multinationals, foreign funded NGOs, fashion and pop industries, elitist schools and colleges, and major money making concerns and private TV channels.

Is this what Musharraf's enlightened moderation create?

Apart from a country infested with psychotic monsters jumping about in suicide belts, this enlightened moderation also created perfumed little pompous rats proving that yes, extreme patriotism can most certainly mutate into a plague infected with a warped understanding of politics and nationalism -- mostly constructed on an unending series of diabolic conspiracy theories, and feel-good lectures constituting sheer lies and delusions about one's country and religion.

Thus, I think instead of calling his doctrine 'enlightened moderation,' he should have called it 'frightened frustration' instead. Because the kind of hairy barbarians conducting suicide attacks on the one hand, and the pompous patriots dripping with chauvinistic drool and anti-democracy bile that his rule eventually generated, is really about frustrated cowards running amok.