Editorial
Democracy in Pakistan
The expectations, despite the questions
PRESIDENT Pervez Musharraf plans to call Pakistan's new national assembly into session in the next ten days. That should lay to rest all speculations about his intentions. He has promised to lend his support to the coalition government to be formed by the Pakistan People's Party and Nawaz Sharif's Muslim League. For the first time since the February 18 elections, therefore, Pakistanis can tell themselves that the mist is about to lift and that they can look forward to a new beginning. With everyone today getting in line behind the call for democracy, prospects for pluralistic governance look pretty bright. Even the new army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, has reassured people that the military will support the efforts for a democratic change in the country.
For all the positive signals coming out of Pakistan, though, there are yet some nagging questions which remain about the shape of things to be in that country. The pressure on General Musharraf remains, particularly with Nawaz Sharif repeating his message that with the people now having spoken, it is time for the president to quit. Unhappily for him, the PPP's Asif Zardari does not appear to be in much of a hurry to push Musharraf out. And within the PPP, a silent conflict goes on around the future of the respected party vice chairman Makhdoom Fahim Amin, who everyone had thought would take over as prime minister in the PPP-PML coalition government. But that possibility seems to have stalled, at least for now, with the suspicion growing that Zardari and his loyalists may not after all back Amin as Benazir Bhutto's widower may be developing ambitions of his own regarding the top job. The recent quashing of corruption cases against Zardari is a good pointer to the kind of future he means to build for himself. There is too the brooding thought of the projected coalition government itself coming under strain, sooner than anyone can imagine, owing to the traditional differences between the PPP and the PML.
Pakistan certainly needs a quick, purposeful return to democratic government. But for democracy to become enduring instead of the half-hearted affair it has regularly been, its leading political figures (for want of a better lot) must recognise that the reputation and the baggage they carry over from the past need to be jettisoned quickly.
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