Re: Mushrraf reaches out to Zardari
Actually Zardari is in quite a situation now…he would like to retain Musharraf because he knows the day Musharraf goes will be the last day of Qabristan League…and he will have to deal with Nawaz Sharif one on one…his most dreaded nightmare..
However if he decides to continue with the illegal President of Pakistan…and make allies with Qabristan League…in the long run he will be wiped out as a political force…and public sentiment will turn against him…Musharraf ko achoot (in the sense of unpopularity) ki bimari hay…jo us kay pass jaey ga us ko bhi lag jaye gi…It will be like Zardari digging his own grave alongside Qabristan League…an idea which will be very difficult to sell to PPP Punjab wing…
I am sharing a very intresting article written by Najam Sethi in Daily Times…Idon’t fully agree with the writer for his obvious inclination towards PPP but still an intresting read…
http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\02\20\story_20-2-2008_pg1_12
News Analysis: Significance of Elections ’08
By Najam Sethi
Everybody said that these elections wouldn’t be free or fair and that President Pervez Musharraf would ensure handsome returns for the PML-Q. But nothing of the sort has happened. In fact, all the King’s men are gone, the King’s party has been reduced to ashes and the King’s fate is in the hands of the next parliament which will be strong enough to strip him of his extraordinary powers or impeach him if it so chooses. So let us give the devil his due, even though he went about it in a particularly devilish way.
Let us also acknowledge the heroic role played by the media, civil society and the international community. Everybody joined hands to relentlessly pressure President Musharraf not to deviate from the right path. Indeed, the boycotters, transformationists and confrontationists among the parties, civil society and the lawyers movement indirectly contributed to this sensible transition to democracy by threatening an alternative that was fraught with dangerous consequences.
President Musharraf had rubbished polls that showed the PML-Q in a wretched light. In the event, however, the polls weren’t much off the mark. They had predicted 12 percent vote for the PML-Q, 22 percent for the PML-N and 50 percent for the PPP. The first two projections turned out to be approximately right. But the PPP didn’t fulfill its promise. This was partly because the elections were postponed and the Benazir “sympathy wave” duly subsided over time; it was also partly due to the strengthening of the anti-Musharraf factor in the Punjab because a majority believed that the regime was in some way responsible for her assassination. Combined with the entrenched anti-Bhutto sentiment in the Punjabi middle classes, this naturally translated into a pro-“independents” tide which is unprecedented.** Certainly, the confusion in the minds of the PPP leadership over who would be its prime ministerial candidate when the polls were suggesting popular support for Amin Fahim did not help its cause in the Punjab where there is a significant anti-Zardari sentiment. **
This transition to democracy was envisioned by Benazir Bhutto and rejected by civil society and even some members of her inner circle. But she sacrificed her life to prove it was the right and democratic step to take. We owe it to her to make sure that the next parliament is able to rise above petty party politics and steer the country in the right direction. The confrontationists or transformationists wanted to get rid of President Musharraf either through the judiciary or through the army. But now the transitionists have provided a proper and democratic way of doing so via a parliament representing the free will of the people.
The greatest achievement of this transition to democracy is the rout of the religious extremists who wanted to plunge Pakistan into anarchy. The MMA has all but been wiped out. And Al Qaeda and the Taliban Movement of Pakistan have been thoroughly discredited for using violent means to achieve dubious ends. The return of the liberal and secular ANP and PPP to the NWFP heralds a promise of peace and stability denied to the hapless province during the reign of the MMA. It is the rise of liberal democracy and not the ouster of President Musharraf per se by any confrontationist means that will help solve the problem of religious extremism in Pakistan.
Indeed, it is significant that the leader of the ANP, Asfandayar Wali, is echoing the views of the late Benazir Bhutto when he shrugs away particular questions of the restoration of the chief justice and the pre-PCO judges raised by the lawyers movement and Nawaz Sharif by defining the general problems of religious extremism, poverty and provincial autonomy as being central to the debate over “whither Pakistan” and “what next”.
**Ideally, President Musharraf might be advised to voluntarily quit, redeem some honour and allow the fledgling democracy to settle down and grow. But if he is reluctant to call it a day voluntarily, the choice will be between banding together and getting rid of him or letting him stay as a lame duck president. **
In this context, Mr Sharif’s position, like that of the deposed judges and lawyers and civil society activists, is patently clear. They want him out before they will consider how to get into the business of government formation and coalition building. Restoration of the CJP amounts to much the same thing. Unfortunately, there is an element of vested party political interest in this approach that goes beyond pristine considerations of democracy.
Mr Sharif is not in a position to form a government at the centre or in the Punjab as long as President Musharraf and his PML-Q are around. But Mr Zardari is. Indeed, it seems logical that the PPP and MQM in Sindh, and the PPP, ANP and PML-Q in the NWFP and Islamabad can form coalition governments all over the country and try to make a go of government. However, if the agenda is to get rid of President Musharraf first and scuttle the PML-Q, this won’t be possible. Instead, we will plunge headlong into a political crisis that makes coalition government impossible or highly unstable and leads to another general election sooner than later. Certainly, there is no way that the PPP and PML-N can jointly form coalition governments in the Punjab and Islamabad without bitter quarrels and conspiracies against each other. In the event, if the PPP splits or is discredited in the coalition process and reduced to becoming a regional party like all the other parties, the net loser will be the country because PPP is the biggest and only true national party in the country right now.
This implies that the transition to democracy has just begun. And any confrontation that precipitates another election in the short term should be avoided. The first job is to protect the gains we have just made. The time to enlarge them will come in due course through more democratic and popular transitions rather than precipitous attempts at confrontation.
This applies to President Musharraf more than to anyone else. He must take a back seat, watch his words, stop being an intrusive president and leveraging his position via the agencies and let the democratic forces get on with the job of building coalitions and making them work. Meanwhile, the issue of the independence of the judiciary should be decided by parliament and parliament alone with as large a consensus as possible.