Pakistan is a country that is currently lost in transition from the military rule to the civilian rule after the general elections of Feb 2008 and the 'forced' resignation of the former president General (r)Pervez Musharraf in Aug 2008 who had earlier got him elected from the outgoing parliament for another term of five years ending 2012.
General (r) Pervez Musharraf had assumed power in Pakistan by overthrowing the democratically-elected government of the former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif in a military coup on Oct 12, 1999 in a reaction to his dismissal by the former prime minister as the Chief of the Army Staff.
President Musharraf struck a deal with the former chairperson of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), late Benazir Bhutto whereby she and her husband Asif Ali Zardari were allowed to return to Pakistan under the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) aimed at absolving them of all the pending cases of massive corruption, maladministration and criminal acts in the previous two stints of Benazir Bhutto as the prime minister of Pakistan.
Benazir Bhutto was assasinated on Dec 27, 2007 and the investigation of her murder was hushed up swiftly. After her tragic death, the PPP contested the elections and emerged as the largest single party at the federal level and in its home province of Sindh.
Asif Ali Zardari who had assumed the office of co-chairperson of the PPP after the death of her wife Benazir Bhutto contested the presidential election and won it by striking deals with other political parties after the then president Pervez Musharraf resigned per force.
The former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) received a majority vote in the provincial assembly of Punjab. It also turned out to be the second largest political party in the National Assembly.
Former president Pervez Musharraf-backed ruling party Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) emerged as the third largest party in the National Assembly but could not get a majority in any of the four provinces of Pakistan, though it has the second largest position in the Punjab provincial assembly.
As the situation stands today, the PPP is in power at the Centre in coalition with the Awami National Party (ANP), Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F Group) and Motahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM). It heads the government in Sindh in coalition with the MQM. In Punjab, it is a coalition partner in the government headed by the president of PML-N, Mian Shahbaz Sharif, a younger brother of Mian Nawaz Sharif. In Balochistan province, it heads the provincial government in coalition with other small parties. It is also a coailition partner in the NWFP province headed by ANP.
The worst losers are the PML-N and PML-Q. Both factions were once part of a single party headed by the former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif. The party split into two factions after Mian Nawaz Sharif opted to go into exile in Saudi Arabia along with his brother Mian Shahbaz Sharif and other family members under a deal negotiate with the then president General Pervez Musharraf. The new faction called PML-Q was headed by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain who joined hands with the then president Musharraf and formed the governments at the Centre and the provinces after the engineered elections of 2002 to give a civilian facade to the military rule of the then General Pervez Musharraf.
Both PML-N and PML-Q, the second and the third largest in the National Assembly are out of the federal government. PML-N is confined to the home province of Punjab. PML-Q has smaller presence in the provincial assemblies but does not occupy the treasury benches.
In Pakistan, it so happened that whenever the party in power lost the confidence of the people, there was no alternate leadership available to step in and form the government except in the 80's and 90's when the PML-N and PPP alternated in power. As a result of the vacuum, the military had the temptation and the backing of the stakeholders to step in and assume power in 1958, 1977 and 1999. The longest tenure of office has been that of the military rulers, each governing for 9-11 years at a stretch. more by force than mass popularity or genuine democratic elections.
Over the last six decades of its independence, Pakistan has remained devoid of democratic political institutions reaching out to the people at the grass-roots. The parliament and judiciary remained subservient to the executive in both civlian and military governments. The media remained under duress under almost all governments with a few exceptions.
Today, the president Asif Ali Zardari is practically the head of the State, head of the government as well as co-chairperson of the PPP. He has not relinquished the dictatorial powers of his predecessor Pervez Musharraf nor the office of the co-chairperson of the PPP. The prime minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani is there to implement what the president wants. The parliament is a lame-duck. The judiciary is filled with loyalists. The civilian bureaucracy is under siege. The military has accepted the PPP per force. There has never been healthy relations between the military, particularly the army, and the PPP right from the first PPP government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who was overthrown by the then Chief of the Army Staff, General Zia-ul-Haq in 1977.
Pakistan has been ruled by the military for 34 years of its chequered history of 61 years. Democracy could not flourish primarily because of the palace intrigues, military rule and the failure of the political parties to strengthen them and reach out to the people at the grass-roots by setting up their offices at the various levels in the country to interact with the people, particularly the 70% rural population. The parties were more than happy to get into power through the backdoor, most of the time, and remain in power through wheeling and dealing and the use of coercive power against the opposition.
The present government of the PPP, inducted in March 2008, is still unsettled. It has failed to come up with major innovative policies to bringabout a major change in any sector of the country. It is embroiled in intra-party conflicts as well as inter-party disputes. Inflation has shot up to 25% on the average and 35% in food items. The growth in the key economic sectors like agriculture, manufacturing and services has slowed down. Exports stand at half of the imports. Poverty is raging at more than 33%. Unemployment and under-employment is rampant. Law and order is in bad shape. Terrorism and militancy are going sky high within the settled areas of the country. Povery alleviation program of the previous regime is yet to take off and demonstrate its success. Social and legal justice for the have-nots remain a dream unfulfilled.
In a nutshell, the people of Pakistan, by and large, are losing confidence in the government of the PPP and hope in the future. It is high time the two factions of the Pakistan Musim League join hands and sit on the opposition benches in the National Assembly and the provincial assemblies of the Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan to exercise checks and balances on the ruling PPP governments and force the PPP federal and provincial governments to meet its constitutional obligations and create a social welfare state in peace. In the absence of a strong opposition party, it can be safely assumed that the country will have to face another decade of military rule, sooner than expected.
Comments are closed for this post.
