Pakistan’s political clock is running at ‘fast forward’. Events that used to take weeks are happening in days. Even so, the first two days of October were exceptional. Firstly, General Musharraf nominated General Ashfaq Kayani as Chief of Army Staff, to take over on General Musharraf’s retirement from the army.
Secondly, on the orders of the Chief Justice, the federal government suspended the IG Police, DC, and SSP Islamabad for using excessive violence on the lawyers and media men outside the Election Commission. Next, as many as 163 legislators belonging to the All Parties’ Democratic Movement (APDM) resigned from the different assemblies, including 85 from the National Assembly, 46 from Punjab, 25 from Balochistan and 7 from the Sindh Assembly. This may not prevent the presidential election from going through. However, it will definitely dent the credibility of the whole exercise.
Benazir Bhutto has been trying her best to clinch her deal with Musharraf. However, the efforts of PML-Q have, till the time of writing, prevented this coming about. The members of the king’s party are in a very peevish mood, and with some justification. After all, they allowed him to rule as king for five long years, arranged huge public gatherings for him to address, and even more than that, provided him with a ‘Parliament’ and an appearance of democracy. During this time all important decisions, whether concerning national or international affairs, were taken by him alone. Chaudhry Shujaat arranged an agreement with Akbar Bugti and again at the Lal Masjid. However, the boss rescinded the agreements, did as he pleased, and the rest is history. The PML-Q accepted all that.
They also withstood the taunts of their rivals that they were a rubber-stamp parliament. But when the time has arrived to reap the harvest, the general wants to share the spoils not with them but with Benazir, just because America wants him to do that. That is why they are allergic to the ordinance being prepared to acquit her of all criminal charges and to allow her to become prime minister for the third time.
That is why, despite the fact that Nawaz Sharif is also their rival in the fight for power, they have said that if Benazir is to be forgiven for her crimes, Mian Sahib must also be allowed a similar concession.
In her quest for America’s backing of her politics, Benazir is quite oblivious of the effect her statements are having on the Pakistani public. First she stated that she would allow access to Dr Qadeer for the IAEA, forgetting that 160 million Pakistanis regard him as their saviour, and are willing to die for him. As if that was not enough, she has now said she would allow the American armed forces to bombard Pakistani territory in search of Osama bin Laden.
Dear reader, if we were not slaves of a superpower, there would have been no occasion for either statement.
The government has declared that cases against Benazir and Asif Zardari have been withdrawn. If the cases were false, why did Musharraf’s government spend millions of dollars pursuing them in Swiss and Pakistani courts over the last many years? If they were genuine, why are they being dropped now? Incidentally, according to the latest news on TV, the Swiss court has convicted her and her husband, and sentenced each to a fine of fifty thousand dollars.
The ordinance about forgiving everyone from 1988 to 1999 is actually Benazir-specific, but meant to give the impression that it is done for national reconciliation. If that is the case, why choose only big politicians and bureaucrats for this special favour? Why not extend this clemency to all crimes committed during those eleven years, not only by those in high places, but by each and every citizen?
The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) announced it had decided to dissolve the NWFP Assembly. It knew very well that if the matter leaked out, the opposition would bring in a vote of no-confidence against the chief minister, and as soon as the motion was admitted, the chief minister’s power to dissolve the assembly would be held in abeyance. This has in fact happened.
It is for the first time in the history of the country that a chief minister has taken the bizarre step of publicising his intention to recommend dissolution of the assembly one week ahead of time, giving the opposition all the time in the world to thwart his move. The MMA has shown duplicity before also: once when they announced they would resign if the Women’s Protection Bill was passed and did not resign; the second time when they seated the army chief on top of the Parliament through the much-maligned 17th Amendment, yet refused to give him a vote of confidence. So this is nothing new for them.
It is possible that from now on the MMA, or even the PPP, will stand solidly by the opposition. But when the history of these times is written, these two parties will be remembered for having taken one step after the other designed to scuttle the united struggle of the opposition against the military chief sitting on top of their Parliament. One only hopes that by that time it will not be too late.