Editorial
Disturbing run-up to Feb 18 Pak polls
We wish the Pakistanis peaceful transition to democracy
With only a week to go before the parliamentary elections in Pakistan, there has been yet another suicide bombing attack in Charsadda in North West Frontier Province snuffing out 20 people and wounding 25 others. Just how haemorrhagic the wave of suicide blasts has proven since before the dastardly assassination of Benazir Bhutto can be gauged from the number of casualties claimed -- around 220 so far.
Thus while political leaders are targeted and struck down as in the case of Benazir, the death toll among common people is extremely high. This public demonstration of lethal violence by religious extremists seems aimed at creating social disorder to foil the general election. The election rallies in Pakistan's factious politics are prone to danger, as it is, and the extremist elements have their own violent agenda, so that the two mix into a dangerous brew.
The Pakistani law enforcers seem to be resigned to the desperado acts of the suicide bombers saying that if one were prepared to die there could not be any stopping him anyway. Indirectly, it is an admission of intelligence failure.
The whole world looks forward to a reasonably free and fair election in Pakistan as a way of restoring democratic foundations of the country which have been systematically destroyed by general Musharraf's wily devices to cling to power. In his machinations to hold on to power, his so-called war on terror received at best secondary importance. All the political parties have a great stake in the elections because if they can through alignment get a two-thirds majority they become a power to reckon with as far as the all powerful president is concerned who has already got himself elected for the second term. The power to impeach the president then would lie with the victorious political forces. That again increases the chance of rigging the polls. In all, it is a very crucial phase that Pakistan politics is going through.
As a friendly co-traveler of Saarc, we wish Pakistani people a smooth journey towards a truly representative government that has eluded the country for much of its 60-year long history.
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