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| Zardari: Democracy or dictatorship? | | | Allabaksh
Asif Ali Zardari, the co-chairman of the Pakistan People's Party has outsmarted the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) chief, Nawaz Sharif by deciding to appoint himself as the successor to the military dictator, Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf. Sharif, miffed with Zardari for reneging on the judges' reinstatement issue and unwilling to pardon Zardari, has walked out of the coalition which had helped the PPP form the government after the February polls and saw a Zardari puppet installed as prime minister.
Sharif as an opposition leader probably poses no immediate danger to the government in Pakistan, even if the breakaway group (PML-Q) returns to him and is supported by the defiant PPP leader who is at the forefront of the lawyers' agitation in the country. Pakistan's political theatre will remain alive with turbulence and cries of 'betrayal' by principal actors. The country has witnessed many a thriller in the past; the trend continues.
During his nine-year rule Musharraf had given 'assurances' to his countrymen and the outside world without meaning to honour most of them. He promised but did not doff his uniform in 2004; till almost 10 minutes before his resignation his spokesman insisted that Musharraf will not quit and will fight the threat of impeachment. Musharraf lulled Atal Behari Vajpayee when the latter was prime minister into believing that the jehadis and terrorists in his country would neither be trained nor exported to India; the truth about it is well known in India and now the US too.
Vajpayee was not the only one taken in by glib talking Musharraf who effortlessly and constantly lied before his American patrons. Pakistan will go full steam after the likes of Taliban and Al Qaeda, said the general but they are operating from their safe hideouts within Pakistan, much to the despair of Afghanistan, NATO and the US.
Zardari has only been copying the Musharraf style of double-dealing politics. Maybe it comes with the benefit of hindsight but it was clear from day one that after the assassination of his wife, Benazir Bhutto, Zardari had one clear goal before him: get into power. Democracy and reinstatement of judges came second. He was aware that the 'martyrdom' of his wife would make it easier for him to realise his ambition to rule the land of the pure. Another helpful factor emerged when the popular mood turned intensely against Musharraf after the latter sacked 60 senior judges, including the chief justice of the Supreme Court, and ordered his army to open fire on religious extremists holed up in an Islamabad mosque.
Zardari did foresee a little problem, though. The popular mood wanted the judges reinstated. But there was every possibility that the reinstated chief justice would, following the due process of law, upturn a Musharraf era order that gave Zardari (and his late wife) immunity from facing corruption charges. Only after immunity was assured to her and her husband did Benazir Bhutto end her self-imposed exile and agreed to work with Musharraf, as desired by the Americans.
Zardari and Nawaz Sharif did not and could not have an identical view on the issue of reinstatement of sacked judges. Smarting under the humiliation brought to him by Musharraf and conscious of the likelihood of the reinstated chief justice going against Zardari, Sharif was not ready to settle for anything less than the recall of Iftikhar Chaudhary, the chief justice, and other senior judges. Zardari and Sharif are competitors not partners in Pakistan's power game.
To get over Sharif's obduracy Zardari took recourse to a charade, giving him written 'assurance' to bring Iftikhar Chaudhary back as the CJ when he really had no such intention. Zardari could not be really keen on doing something that could smash all his dreams and, maybe, see him back in jail.
Former Prime Minister, despite all his political experience and familiarity with the betraying ways of politicians, failed to realise that Zardari would never want to see an independent-minded judge like Chaudhary back as the CJ. Sharif also refused to read the more clear signals from Zardari when the latter started seeking extensions on his assurances about reinstating the sacked judges.
By parting company with the PPP and Zardari, Sharif may have gained a high moral ground but he cannot cash it unless the country goes to the polls again and in the shortest possible time. Zardari would make sure that does not happen and he can perhaps count on support from the smaller parties on this. And even the army. This will be a matter of more worry for Sharif. He cannot launch an agitation against Zardari straightaway unless he is ready to see the country plunge into chaos raising chances of 'restoration' of the army rule, instead of the judges. Zardari would not have put himself up as a candidate for the highest post in the land if all he wanted was dilution of the sweeping powers of the president. Musharraf had amended the constitution to acquire for himself, as the president, the power to dissolve parliament, sack the elected government and appoint the services chiefs.
A day before he formally put himself up as a candidate for the president, Zardari might have spoken of the need to dilute the powers of the president. But with Sharif shifting his party to the opposition benches, he will not take any risk by surrendering the controversial powers of the president. It will be naïve to expect Zardari to become just a figurehead president. If that were his intention he would have surely agreed to the candidacy of any other figure suggested by Sharif or anyone else. He decided to take on the job himself because, as he sees it, his interest can be safeguarded only if the president remains strong and powerful; a civilian dictator, one might say.
With army in a tactical retreat from the civilian affairs of governance--because of the bad name it earned during the last days of Musharraf-- Zardari does not expect the men in uniform trying to depose him in the near future. During the two terms of his late wife's rule he was dubbed as 'mister ten percent', an allusion to alleged commissions that he got in every big deal cut by the government. Within the extended Bhutto clan itself he is suspected to be behind the murder of one of his two brother-in-laws. As president he escapes prosecution.
Publicly Zardari may not have shown much fondness for Musharraf. But it is evident that he does not want to see Musharraf persecuted by way of an impeachment proceeding or court trials on possible treason charges. This would make him, as a civilian ruler, acceptable to Pakistan's army. He obviously cannot share Sharif's aversion towards the just-retired army dictator of Pakistan. There may be some other reasons for Zardari to follow in the footsteps of the previous dictator. Given the unrest and chaos that prevails in Pakistan, the popular mood swiftly turning against the civilian government, the economy totters and the militants and fundamentalists taking over 'settled areas' Pakistan may need a strong ruler to stem the rot. Sharif will certainly not be sitting quietly, brooding over the 'betrayal' by Zardari but he cannot opens a front against Zardari before his wavering democratic credentials have been exposed. |
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