Editorial
Zardari at the helm
Can he measure up to the task?
AFTER nearly a decade of autocratic rule of Parvez Musharraf, Pakistan has got a democratically elected president in the person of Asif Ali Zardari. He secured 281 out of 426 parliamentary votes, and won a majority vote in three of the four provincial assemblies forming the presidential electoral college. Jubilant as they are, his close aides lost no time in saying that it was a historic win, a victory for democracy. Zardari's sweeping to victory provides an occasion to reflect on 'tides in the affairs of man' in the Shakespearean aphorism. A man not having many credible years as a politician, and someone who has left an indelible trail of controversies behind, it is indeed worthy of note how he rose to the most powerful position enduring jail terms for nearly 11 years as well as a long exile. There were charges of wide-scale corruption and even murder against him. Ironically, an amnesty signed by Parvez Musharraf last year had cleared him of all the charges. And this ought to be remembered that his remarkable turn around happened only nine months after the assassination of his charismatic wife, Benazir Bhutto.
Now that Zardari has become the 14th president of Pakistan, he will no doubt have his plate full once he takes oath and begins to run the world's only nuclear-armed Islamic state, which is again a strong ally of the West in the 'war on terror.' With an elected government installed, the burning questions that will surface inside parliament and street corners are what is he going to do about restoration of the judges who had been sacked by Parvez Musharraf, or how fast he will address the issue of concentration of power in the hands of the president who can dissolve parliament with the stroke of a pen. These are the main impediments to democracy that the politicians had raised their voice against. Pakistan's friends and foes will also watch what steps his government takes against the rising spectre of militancy, with Pakistan's allies on war on terror claiming that the country's tribal areas have become a safe haven for Al-Quaeda and Taliban militants. Zardari's government will have to pay serious attention to the economic downslide that caused high inflation and 40 percent fall in the stock market since January.
Regional stability is another vital issue that will largely depend on a stable and democratic Pakistan; as such, Zardari will have to go an extra mile to measure up to the tasks ahead of him. We, as a member state of the SAARC community, want to see democracy find a deep root in Pakistan so that the government in power may finally divert attention to the development of the economic and social sectors of the country.
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