Guest Post By Syed Ahsan Ali.
President Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto have been in dialogue for sometime now. The dialogue has so far yielded nothing. As external forces are increasing pressures on both of them to find a way to from an arrangement that can fight greater challenges of militancy in the region, things are moving towards an alliance of moderate and liberal forces in the country.
Pakistan People’s Party is facing risk of losing huge public support by entering in this kind of dialogue. Polls are clearly showing that PPP’s popularity is dwindling as this dialogue is getting towards its eventuality. Why PPP is doing this? Is there only external pressure or is there any real ideology behind these meneavours.
Benazir Bhutto may not have proven herself a successful Prime Minister in the last two chances she got, but certainly she has a far broader insight into international and national politics. She clearly holds an opinion that it is better to persuade Army to detach itself from the politics in Pakistan than to force it out of this whole set-up. She has two options. One is to create an atmosphere of bargain where she can offer an easy exit to Pakistan army from Presidency and accept democracy in return. Option number two is to launch full-fledge movement of confrontations, rallies, congregations, arrests and protests. Interestingly option two may be what Mian Nawaz Sharif will adopt in next few months if he gets back to Pakistan. Benazir thinks that after what happened in CJP episode it is a lot more easier now to involve Army in a table-talk where for the first time in the history of Pakistan, establishment felt tremors under its feet as a result of civil protests. Some in the Army may also be thinking that they have to find ways to get back to the barracks gracefully.
Now the million dollar question remains what is the most suitable way to find democracy in Pakistan? Protests and agitation or agreements and talks. Benazir’s option has one bigger risk that Army can get back to the politics any time they want by breaking any kind of agreement and control the reins of governance. Nawaz Sharif’s thinking on the other hand may be dangerous in this volatile situation of Pakistan but can be lot more fulfilling in the years to come. Public is certainly against any kind of agreement or deal with the establishment by democratic forces but they are missing a point here that it will not be easy at all to send Army back to its barracks by force. Some kind of negotiations with the Army have to bring in to avoid any kind of clashes in these precarious law and order conditions where Army has strong reasons to stay in control.
About the Author: Syed Ahsan Ali holds a masters degree in Economics and is a writer by profession. He occasionally writes for the daily News and the daily Dawn also.
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This definitely is not. This dealmaking is morally and legally wrong because it is an effort to bypass the 160 million people of this country when elections are only months away. It would have made sense only if we have had elections already and PPP and Q league had mustered the 2/3rds majority together to add amendments to the constitution. Just like Mush’s reelecetion by this assembly is illegal, any amendments to the constitution to decide his future for the next 5 years by the current assembly are illegal too. Why do we even care for elections if the “lame duck” assembly will make all critical future decisions of this country.
Overthrow of the present regime through mass protests can establish the importance of the masses in the power equation and set a healthy precedent. Future rulers might not ignore the people completely. For example, BB’s mindset is that the people are fools and will vote for her regardless of what she does and that all she has to do is to make Washington and GHQ happy. If her talks with Mush succeed and she gets a good thrashing in the polls, that will teach her and other politicians to focus on the masses as the main constituency rather than striking deals with outsiders.
Another thing to keep in mind is that a deal between Mush and BB in the name of uniting ‘liberal’ forces is one of the most ridiculous and dangerous ideas being pushed by Washington and some Pakistani liberals. Lets say that they are even able to bring BB into power. Will it weaken extremism? What will happen when the anti-incumbency factor turns against her (most probably due to a repeat of large scale corruption) and the other forces like MMA join hands with NS against her to come to power in the next elections?
Lastly, whichever way democracy is restored, if the politicians don’t deliver on providing good governance, the system will remain vulnerable to army take-overs. Today, there is a strong desire for democracy among Pakistanis, but this can quickly evaporate if the post-Mush elected govts are like the BB-NS ones in the 1990s. Raising slogans about democracy without talking about reforms aimed at making the political system reach out to the people is rather short-sighted and can come back to haunt us.
Naseem’s comments are amusing…and sad. No wonder democracy has difficulty flourishing in Muslim countries. It is not only because of external forces but an extremely rigid, inflexible and literalist mindset that exists among so many “believers”.
“Islam for over a 1000 years has successfully been run on shariat lines”
You obviously are not aware of history. Sahriat based system was replaced in only a few decades by malookiat. We haven’t seen shariat in more than 1400 years minus a few decades at the beginning.
>> Benazir Bhutto may not have proven herself a successful Prime Minister
hello, she is a proven successful corruptionist already
I cant understand why PPP does not find an alternative to BB? the reason of its downfall.
Assalamau Laikum,
As a peace loving but devout muslim I am ashamed that we are discussing this question.
Islam for over a 1000 years has successfully been run on shariat lines.
To be blunt Islam and democracy are incompatible. The values of democracy simply don’t fit our way of living and indeed the way we want to live in Pak.
Why then are we so hell bent on decomacracy, to adopt it means that we do not trust the rules laid down by Prophet Muhammed PBUH which are ultimately passed on from Allah SWT.
Does this mean that we do not trust these words?….is this this the sad state of affairs we are at?
Look peoples, we need to trust….have faith ….Muhammed SAW lived by shariat ….why is this not good enough?
Pak is a young state, in a competitive world, and we think that we cannot compete with the Amreeki and the Russ. Well this is wrong, we need more time certainly (they have been around for hundreds of years) but PLEASE …let us not lose our nerve…this is like selling our soul to the kafir.
Stick with it….prefer shariat …everytime….this is our country with our religion…. Islam and thefore must be run on time tested divine laws.
I cant understand , why are we so stupids to give these two people another go, why cant’t we elect Imran. Apni ziuban me kehte ahi ‘Aazmai huwe ko nahi Azman chahiya’. He at the moment seems to be the only soln, who can deal with the problem in a just and fair manner, if she comes back she will bring along Zardari who is the biggest culprit of all, like we all know this and despite that we are thinking of calling these people back these hopless sharifs , it looks like we are reaching a dead end situation.
We need eductaed people not waderas, feudal lords, industrialists, who just know how to loot the country, we need people like Aitizaz Ahsan, educated people.
Hmm. Lets wait and watch what happens.