I’m not a Imran Khan die hard fan or anything, but with every vote making the difference and this being his first interview since he was elected MNA (and his partys bad performance overall) this is worth a read:
By Javed Akhtar & K.S. Ramkumar
http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=20382
excerpts pasted below:
Q: What do you think of the outcome of the recent elections with no party getting a clear-cut mandate from the people?
A. Unfortunately, like most elections in Pakistan since 1988, there was a lot of interference by the establishment and whenever such things happened the results were distorted. In this situation, the results were distorted more than usual. The general demand of the public was for a change. People did not want to vote for traditional main parties. The mood in the country was to vote for new faces. But, unfortunately, the establishment preferred to defeat (former prime ministers) Nawaz Sharif and Benazir (Bhutto) rather than do a cleanup and allow a natural change to take place. By cleanup, I mean, cleaning up of big crooks in Pakistani politics, which is the need of the hour. Because people have a lot of money made through corruption and used in the elections, this sort of money used in the elections keeps out the honest politicians or people who have made money through legal means. So, rather than allowing this process of change to take place, the establishment manufactured the King’s Party (PML-Q) and then went all out to make sure that they won the elections. The establishment did not expect a hung parliament as has happened.
Q: What was the surprise packet of the elections?
A: Firstly, the establishment did not cater for the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal. This religious party was the one that surprised everyone. The reason why the religious party rose in the frontier in Baluchistan and Karachi was that for people they represented change. And they had a very good organization to cash in on that change. Parties like ours were destroyed in prepoll rigging. All the good electable people were pushed into the King’s Party, and no one, no candidate, wanted to fight against the King’s Party. Because no one wanted to spend so much money and then find oneself up against the government.
Q: What about the rules of qualification?
A: The (requirement of) graduation did not make much of a difference. Reducing the age to 18 was a positive electoral change.
Q: In fact, you yourself said earlier that corrupt people should be eliminated.
A: Yes, but the accountability process was flawed. The accountability process was such that it actually helped the corrupt. Because once they were exempted from the accountability, all the anti-government corrupt politicians…in the public eyes corruption ceased to be an issue so it helped the corrupt people. It helped people like Benazir once corruption ceased to be an issue.
Q: Corruption was also the issue raised by your party, wasn’t it?
A: Corruption is Pakistan’s No. 1 issue. It is also the Third World’s No. 1 issue. The Third World is Third World because of corruption. We don’t have institutions to fight corruption in the Third World. (Our) judiciary cannot eliminate corruption. It could not stop corrupt politicians from competing. Our election commission cannot stop the corrupt politicians from competing. So it was the hope of the people that General Musharraf’s government would not allow crooks to participate but unfortunately some of the biggest crooks joined the government party.
Q: Why has there been such a delay in convening the Parliament?
A: Because the government could not get the necessary numbers. There was prepoll rigging, then there was polling day rigging in selected constituencies. Then there was post-election rigging…horse trading and breaking politicians, making sure that the King’s Party gets majority.
Q: To begin with there is a problem of the prime minister. Fazlur Rahman (of MMA) wants the post. Who do you think will be the likely prime minister?
A: Well, the scenario is complicated because Fazlur Rahman wants to become the prime minister, yet MMA is a minority party. In other words people have not given his party the mandate. Chaudhry Shujaat who is the head of the parliamentary party of PML-Q does not want a Punjabi prime minister because they want to control Punjab through Chaudhry Pervez Elahi. Then there is the People’s Party (chaired by Benazir) where Benazir is bargaining purely on getting herself and her husband (Asif Ali Zardari) off corruption charges. So her bargain is not for any national interest. None of the things going on are of national interest. That’s why it is very disappointing for the public. And they are playing into the hands of the establishment which wants the politicians to be discredited.
Q: There was a call that the general should quit his army post if he wanted to continue as president.
A: My party is very clear that the 1973 constitution should be used. The moment the National Assembly convenes, it should be as per the 1973 constitution. Any amendments made to that constitution have to be made by the National Assembly of elected people. It’s their right. It’s the only democratic way of making amendments to the constitution. I’m afraid, the 1973 constitution is very clear about the election of the president, it’s very clear the way amendments are supposed to be made and that’s how it should be done.
Q: You said, your party candidates were not willing to fight government-backed candidates. What other reasons were there for your party not doing well in the elections?
A: You see, Pakistani politics has become a money game. You have to have on an average at least five million rupees to fight an election. It can go up to 10 million rupees. So in certain rural constituencies which are very big, very few people can afford this money. Most of the people who fight elections, who have access to this amount of money, (are) people who have made money through crooked means. Therefore, for our party to find electable candidates who can afford to spend that sort of money, it became very difficult once the King’s Party was formed. Once the King’s Party was formed everyone knew who would be backed by the establishment.
So good candidates were just not willing to come forward because they felt their money would be wasted. Despite that we had enough candidates in the provincial and national assemblies who have come forward, fought elections, got reasonable amount of votes in a very short space of time, in very difficult circumstances. Our party candidates, from now onward, will work in their constituencies. And, the public is already moving toward change and our party is poised that whenever the next election takes place we already have a core of candidates working in the constituencies.
Q: What election lessons you think you have learned from this so that your party can do better in the future?
A: Basically, the problem our party faces is finance. You see, you are up against people who have been in power. There is a huge amount of money once they have been in power and to fight these people you have to have money. You need money for your political organization, candidates need money to fight the elections and unless you have resources you cannot compete against these crooks. Normally, in true democracies such people would not be allowed to fight elections. In those countries the election commission would not allow people who have criminal records or corruption charges to fight elections. In Pakistan the Election Commission is totally subservient to the whims of the establishment.
Q: What were the reasons for the Islamic parties to do so well in the elections?
A: Three reasons. One, powerful anti-American feeling in Pakistan since the Sept. 11 (events), secondly, genuine desire of people seeking change. They did not want to vote for parties tried and tested twice, and, thirdly, they were organized enough…they have excellent political organizations to cash in on that unlike our party which did not have that organization. You need three things to win an election — popularity, electable candidates who have money or you need a very strong political organization. If you have two of the three, you can win. But you cannot be popular and not have candidates or organization.
Q. With President Musharraf reserving the right to dismiss the elected government if it is found to be against the interests of Pakistan and with no political party gaining absolute majority in the election, do you think the present situation is beneficial to him?
A: So far, it is not accepted. Both PPP and MMA are insisting that they do not accept the legal framework order (LFO) and the LFO includes Article 52 under which he can dismiss the (elected) government. This is one of the issues and this is how it should be. Unless the Parliament accepts it, unless these amendments are accepted by two-thirds of Parliament, they cannot become law according to the constitution.
To say whether Gen. Musharraf has become stronger or weaker, I think the government’s position is very weak. It’s weak because what you can do today is get either PPP or MMA to join the King’s Party. Now both of them have demands that they do not accept the LFO. Both of them want concessions. If Benazir is cleared of all corruption charges and Zardari is let out of jail, it will further destroy the credibility of the government.
The MMA’s demand is that Gen. Musharraf can only become the president if he takes off the uniform and comes into the assembly. Both these demands are going to weaken the position of this government. Its position is not that strong as it was before the election or before the referendum.
