IslamabadLate Night
Musharraf convened a tight group—Mahmood, Suddle, a trade advisor, and one police commander earmarked for the "Tourist Police" model. It wasn't a formal cabinet meeting. It was an operational huddle.
They watched the clips: the Canadian sponsor, the textile voucher pitch, the walnuts segment.
Mahmood shook his head. "They're commercializing a pilgrimage."
Suddle's tone was more precise. "They're making the corridor self-financing."
Aditya, inside Musharraf, didn't react emotionally. He saw the policy implications unfolding like a file map:
If the diaspora subsidizes fees, the poor can enter without humiliation.
If business offers vouchers, the fee becomes a non-issue.
If price arbitrage becomes the public narrative, the corridor becomes popular fast.
Popular fast was both good and dangerous.
Because popularity creates crowd risk.
And crowd risk is exactly what spoilers were waiting for.
Musharraf spoke, voice controlled.
"This is useful," he said. "But we don't let it become uncontrolled commerce."
The trade advisor nodded. "We can limit purchases. Basic receipts. Controlled market inventory. No cash chaos."
Suddle added, "Designated stalls. Licensed vendors. Standard pricing boards. Crowd lanes. Medical post adjacent."
Mahmood's eyes narrowed. "And smugglers will try to hide inside this."
Musharraf didn't deny it.
"That is why the market remains within a sealed perimeter," he said. "And why the fee stays—because the fee funds the discipline."
Aditya's mind completed the thought privately:
The fee also serves as a filter. When something costs nothing, it becomes unmanageable. When it costs a little, it becomes administrable.
He looked at the corridor line on the map and understood the deeper transformation taking place.
The hardliners in India had tried to weaponize the five dollars.
The diaspora and merchants had neutralized it in twenty-four hours.
And now, without anyone signing a treaty, a new class of stakeholders had emerged—people who would lose something if the corridor failed:
diaspora honor
business revenue
public trust
political momentum
Spoilers could still strike.
But now they would be striking something with defenders.
And defenders—unlike dreamers—do not disappear after headlines.
Musharraf stood, ending the meeting.
"Prepare the voucher framework," he said. "And draft a diaspora sponsorship channel—formal, transparent, auditable."
Mahmood looked surprised. "You want it official?"
"I want it clean," Musharraf replied. "If money is entering the system, it enters under light."
He paused at the door, the soldier's posture containing a bureaucrat's logic.
"And remember," he added, "the five dollars was never the point."
Mahmood waited.
Musharraf's voice was quiet.
"The point is to make peace cheaper than hatred."
Outside, the night was calm. Inside, Aditya felt the timeline tighten.
The corridor was no longer being argued only by politicians.
It was being demanded—and engineered—by communities and markets.
Which meant the next sabotage attempt wouldn't target a proposal.
It would target a movement.