Adil Najam
I was in Chicago all weekend for Human Development Foundation (HDF) of North America’s Convention celebrating the HDF’s 10 years of service. It was an intellectually stimulating event with a host of thoughtful presentations various issues related to Pakistan’s development coming from Dr. Tariq Banuri, Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy, Dr. Sania Nishtar, Arshed Bhatti (‘Civil Junction’ Cafe), Zobaida Jalal (Minister of Social Welfare), Ahmed Bilal Mehboob (PILDAT), Khalid Mirza (former SEC Chairman), Nasir Ali Shah Bukhari (KASB), Dr. Nadeem ul Haque (PIDE), Beena Sarwar, Munizae Jehangir (NDTV), Ethan Casey (PakCast), Syed Talat Hussain (Aaj TV), and others. The event also featured the music of Josh, Munni Begum and Jawad and the poetry of Ahmed Faraz.
As interesting as the formal presentations were the many many side conversations amongst the participants. The current political situation in Pakistan, including Elections 2007, were a hot topic. I learnt much in talking on this to people like Syed Talat Hussain from Aaj TV, Ahmed Bilal Mehboob of PILDAT who had been instrumental in getting the ‘open letter’ to Gen. Musharraf written, and also with Ahmed Faraz. On the elections question the common response was that ‘anything could happen’ and it is no longer clear what is most likely to happen, or even if elections would be held.
I was reminded of my conversation with Imran Khan last year where he had said that the 2007 elections would ‘either be like 1970 or like 1977.’ That may still be true; but it would depend on whether elections happen at all. What do you think? Will they?
[Poll=8]
MQ:
It’s true that MMA have backed out of their threat to resign in the past, but that was probably to maintain their government positions in NWFP and Baluchistan. But now that the 5-year terms of these assemblies are expiring anyway, resigning a month or so earlier won’t be such a big loss for them. On the contrary, they could actually gain public sympathy and improve their votes in the next election by resigning to block Mush’s reelection. Alternatively, they could make an underhand deal with Musharraf and hope that the military will return the favour with some rigging/engineering in their favour in the elections.
But my question in the previous post was different. I was wondering if the govt can still go ahead with the presidential election even if two of the provincial assemblies are dissolved. That would be against the spirit of the constitution, but I don’t know if there is any constitutional clause that explicitly prevents such a possibility. If the govt tries to hold the election anyway, this could be another issue for the courts to decide.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007 61\story_1-6-2007_pg13_5
LAHORE: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) activists on Thursday felt embarrassed during the rally as other parties’ workers and lawyers had been accusing them of making a deal with General Musharraf. The PPP workers participated in the rally in a good number. The PPP workers, however, had to face anti-deal slogans, “Baat karo na deal karo, Musharraf ko zaleel karoâ€
Aqil Sajjad,
One sure way to thwart the re-election of PM by the current assemblies will be for the chief minister of NWFP to dissolve his assembly just before the election date, which he can do under the law. But MMA is highly unlikely to do it. Remember, how they backed out of their commitment to resign last time?
[quote comment=”49754″]We have a corrupt top army brass. (people working as army contractors know)
We have the most corrupt politicians.(see what happened to this country during democracy after Zia)
We have the most hippocratic religious leaders.(match their previous claims with today’s)
We have the most corrupt bureacracy.(people dealing with Govt departments know)
We as a nation are corrupt. It is only a power game, whoever wins or loses the person on the top would be corrupt no matter what.
So anybody knows who is the lesser evil??
I have no hopes for this country.[/quote]
We have good lawyers in the country who are willing to stand up to a brutal dictator. We have people like Ali Ahmad Kurd, Aitzaz Ahasan, Muneer Malik and above all a chief justice who refuses to be bullied by goons in uniform. As Tanveer Ahmad said, “Pakistan has simply outgrown the era of civilian and military dictatorships”, thanks to the struggle of the lawyers.
In no2 above, I meant distribution of the seats between the various political parties in all the assemblies plus senate, which constitute the electoral college for the president.