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| Democratic process's sanctity is missing | | Musharraf wants to confine opposition to drawing rooms | | From B L KAK
NEW DELHI: Gen. Parvez Musharraf has set his country in motion. Not a day passes without a Pakistan Muslim League (Q) big wig or someone else chipping in with what one would call the products of warped minds about how things will go next year. And Gen. Musharraf seems enjoying the growing confusion and contradictions in Pakistan's political class.
The one value that is missing in all this is the sanctity of the democratic process. Basically, this talk revolves round the possibility of a postponement of the general election by a year, filling the vacant Assembly seats through by-elections if the opposition chooses to resign en bloc, and the existing Assemblies re-electing President Musharraf for another term. If opposition parliamentarians resigned, the PML(Q) would win all the vacant seats through by-elections and confine the opposition to drawing rooms.
To add to the prevailing confusion, Gen. Musharraf himself contributed his bit by saying that being a soldier he could not contest an election. He is right. But then the same rule held true in 2002 when he held a referendum which turned up a 98 per cent Yes vote legitimising his rule. The same can be said about his seeking — and getting — a vote of confidence from the Assemblies to have himself declared an elected head of state.
In fact, “re-election” assumes that Gen. Musharraf has already been elected as President. Speaking at a public rally in Gilgit on July 5, he said that he would quit if the people stopped supporting him adding that if they wanted him to stay in power, they should vote for the PML(Q). The speech obviously shows the confusion and the contradictions inherent in the present situation. The point is that if President Musharraf wants to stay at the helm of affairs, he must seek a re-election by shedding his uniform and contesting the election as a civilian along with other candidates.
But Gen. Musharraf loves his uniform — as he said the other day — and would like to remain both head of state and Army Chief. It is this contradiction that is now being sought to be sidelined or circumvented by means that may be constitutionally permissible but certainly morally and politically questionable. It is significant that a section of the Pakistan media, too, has begun to find fault with Gen. Musharraf's moves and machinations.
If President Musharraf wants to stay on in power, he should discard the uniform and contest the presidential election as a civilian. A law bars a government employee from entering politics before the expiry of two years after retirement. This hurdle can perhaps be overcome by means of one of those legal contrivances for which Pakistani constitutional experts are quite famous.
This will be a far better of way seeking a re-election than the devices now being talked about by the PML(Q) leaders: postponing the election by a year and asking the existing Assemblies to re-elect President Musharraf. If the move to extend the Assemblies’ tenure is meant to counter the opposition’s threat to resign, then perhaps the PML(Q) leaders’ utterances could be taken as political posturing. But what causes concern is that they often sound serious about their constitutional scheming. President Musharraf was appointed to the post of army chief in October 1998 and given that such appointments normally -- unless extended -- last three years he should have retired from the army some time back. However, one of the things that sometimes tend to happen in Pakistan is that military chiefs often ended up overstaying the initial duration of their appointment, taking power in the process.
It has to be said that many of those who support the president do so not because of any obligation towards their constituents or electorate but because of their own motives and reasons. Besides, one knows how election results can be manipulated and moulded, and also how alliances can be made and manoeuvred, after Parliament has been elected for the purpose of propping up a particular dispensation.
For Gen. Musharraf to say that he is a soldier and hence cannot participate in politics sounds a bit disingenuous. The fact of the matter is that soldiers -- at least those who happen to be generals -- have played a very political role in the history of Pakistan, and continue to do so.
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