http://frontierpost.com.pk/editorials.asp?id=1&date1=9/15/2002
Out of the fray
A few years ago, it would have been unimaginable to visualise a Pakistani election scene sans the Bhuttos and the Sharifs.
That the October elections will be held without their being among the contestants goes to show the unpredictability of the times, as well as the uncertainties of politics, particularly in Pakistan.
These two frontline political families, who have had this country in thrall for long years, have been forced into an ignoble exit from the hustings by the Election Tribunals.
Mr. Shahbaz Sharif and Begum Kulsoom Nawaz Sharif were declared disqualified on Thursday, and hard on its heels came the decision by two Election Tribunals that Ms. Benazir Bhutto was not eligible to contest the elections.
The Election Tribunals ruled this on the appeals filed by the PPP Chairperson against the rejection of her papers by the Returning Officers of NA-204 (Larkana), NA-207 (Ratodero), and a seat reserved for women.
Ghinwa Bhutto’s candidature has also been held void, which means that for the first time since the elections of 1970, the Bhutto family will not be represented in a general election in Pakistan.
If Mr. Asif Ali Zardari’s disqualification from politics for seven years on account of his conviction by a NAB court is taken into account, the political as well as personal ordeal of Ms. Benazir Bhutto becomes graver.
For their part, the Sharifs were taken aback by the disqualification of their new aspirants for premiership, Mr. Shahbaz Sharif and Begum Kulsoom Nawaz Sharif.
Given that the deposed Prime Minister, Mr. Nawaz Sharif had withdrawn his papers ostensibly in solidarity with his political nemesis of yesteryear, Ms. Benazir Bhutto, the Sharifs had pinned their hopes on Mr. Shahbaz Sharif, while praying for a miraculous clearance to him by the Election Tribunal.
The ouster of these worthies from the electoral fray has the effect of a damper on the activities of their workers and supporters.
The PPP and the PML(N), therefore, seem stuck in a paralytic groove and this could well be one reason for the absence of the usual hoopla associated with elections.
Apart from these two families, many political stalwarts like the son of the ARD chief Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, Sahibzada Mansoor Ali Khan, the scions of the Nakai family of Kasur, Ghulam Dastgir Khan, Gohar Ayub Khan, Nisar Khuro, etc, have been disqualified.
An estimate puts the figure of those disqualified only on the basis of the graduation clause at above 80, which includes former parliamentarians and ministers.
From one perspective, the draining out of this old blood should be deemed healthy for the body politic.
From another, the exit of so many experienced politicians may create a vacuum in the coming parliament at a time when it is expected to fight for its rights under threat by a domineering President-COAS.
Though many of them have pitched their sons, daughters and other relatives as their substitutes, this may not compensate for the loss of experienced politicians.
The emerging electoral scenario, heralded by the removal of old faces, may sit well with the President’s political scheme; he can rightly be cock-a-hoop over this ‘pleasing’ development.
This was manifestly evident when he could barely disguise his glee while stating during a talk with reporters in the US that the new faces could prove better than the previous lot (of politicians).
But is this really so? Yes, it is correct that a body politic does need fresh blood in order to avoid becoming rusted.
But there has to be a gradual transfusion and there has to be a method.
The method adopted by this government, and also by previous military juntas, to disqualify politicians is dubious as well as ludicrous.
Ayub Khan sought to sort out the unwanted lot by way of EBDO; Zia through the Eighth Amendment; and the present incumbent through a mixture of the Eighth Amendment and EBDO (a precursor of LFO).
In democracy (what is this animal one may ask, given what has been made of it in this country), elections are considered the means to sift capable leaders from the chaff.
This government seems as far from this established principle as it is from democracy itself.
It is thus a moot point what credibility the coming elections may have, given that they are being held within a predetermined straitjacket, of which disqualification of ‘pesky’ politicians is one part.