Asia Times: Musharraf jockeys for poll position


	March 15, 2002	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

Musharraf jockeys for poll position
By Muddassir Rizvi

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's military government has ordered the country's Election Commission to start preparing for national polls scheduled for October and political parties are beginning to make their moves as well.

But despite the government's promise that the elections will restore "true democracy" to Pakistan, all the preparations seem to be geared toward ensuring that President General Pervez Musharraf will have more powers than ever. Then again, this is not a surprise as Musharraf has often said that he will continue to be president even after the October elections.

The polls are being held largely because the Supreme Court gave the military only three years to rule, starting on October 12, 1999 - the day that Musharraf ousted the Nawaz Sharif government in a bloodless coup.

Indeed, even the various political parties seem resigned to having Musharraf at the helm of government for at least five more years and are thus concentrating their efforts in ensuring that they are on the good side of the military government. This only means more backroom political wheeling-dealing, not only among the parties themselves, but also between these political groups and military officials.

In other words, the military government will not only get what it wants, it can also expect little opposition, at least in the run-up to the elections. Already, many parties are proclaiming their loyalty to the military government and throwing broad hints that they have the support of the military rulers. A press report last week even quoted members of the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-i-Azam), a breakaway group of Nawaz Sharif's party, as having claimed that they are the "favorites" of the military government.

Also in the race to proving their loyalty to the military rulers, or at least their reform agenda, are former president Farooq Leghari's Millat (Nation) Party and ex-cricket great Imran Khan's Pakistan Justice Party. Another new party, the Qaumi Jamhoori Party (National Democratic Party), formed by former non-governmental organization (NGO) guru Omar Asghar Khan, who was Musharraf's minister for environment and labor until he recently resigned, is declaring its loyalty to the military government's reform package. Interestingly, the government is neither affirming nor denying the claims by the parties and individual political leaders about their "winning chances" in the elections by virtue of their closeness to the rulers.

One way that the present government has managed to keep political parties on the leash has been to keep mum on whether or not the elections will be held on a party basis. Many believe that the government will opt for non-party polls if it does not feel that any party is "strong and loyal" enough to guarantee continuance of Musharraf as president. This is what General Zia ul-Haq did in 1985 so that he could draw support from a party-less parliament.

Recent media reports have also suggested that the government has also ordered its accountability apparatus to hold off any action against politicians who have been involved in corruption. Apparently, say some observers, the accountability lever is among the government's main tactics to gag any naysayers among the political parties.

The present rulers say that the main reason they want to stay in power is to make sure that the political reforms they have implemented - and continue to implement - will not be dismantled. Musharraf, who seems more confident than ever about remaining in power after recent praise by US President George W Bush, even said last week, "I will make sure that the prime minister does not reverse the process of reforms and restructuring the we have done."

Conveniently, a package of new constitutional amendments being put together by the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) is said to include a provision empowering the president to dismiss a "dissenting" prime minister. According to the government, this is essential to ensure the continuance of the democratic process, and so that the military does not have to step in to restore the system again.

The crux of these amendments, though, is said to be more powers to the president. Still, there are talks that the new power-sharing scheme envisioned by the NRB will include the chief justice and the army chief, in addition to the prime minister and the president.

Political analyst Mir Jamilur Rehman, however, says that while the balancing of powers between president and prime minister is understandable, enlarging the group in this balancing act to include the army chief and the chief justice would be impractical and against the principles of democracy and good governance. He also argues that the parliament should be the hub of powers and all reforms should be aimed at a more vibrant role for parliament to act as a check on the government.

But the military government does not seem to be in the mood to listen to such suggestions. It is even standing pat on a recently released electoral-reforms package that has been criticized by many for a new condition that says those who want to run for public office at the level of provincial and national assembles and the Senate will have to be graduates, meaning those with 14 years of school study. Some political parties say that this would be denying even several veteran politicians from running again. They also note that in a country with more than 60 percent illiteracy, the new condition essentially bars millions of Pakistanis from hoping to ever go into public office.

In the meantime, members of the media and some political analysts are throwing up their hands in frustration over the coming elections, the results of which they say appear to be already a foregone conclusion. Many intellectuals ask, if it is already known who will be president even months before the polls, then what is the use of holding these at all?

The English-language Dawn newspaper also observed in a recent editorial, "If President Musharraf really wants to give his country a stable democratic setup, he will have to make a clean departure from past practices." It added, "Constitution and democracy cannot be strengthened by unconstitutional and undemocratic means."

(Inter Press Service)