At long last the answer to the million-dollar question has come. On Jan. 18, Pakistan’s Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani announced the Cabinet’s decision that Gen. Pervez Musharraf will be re-elected president by the current assemblies.
Musharraf’s present term, Durrani said, would end almost a week before the completion of the five-year term of the sitting assemblies on Nov. 16, 2007. That means the president should be elected between September and October 2007 though members of the opposition maintain that the president’s tenure ends in late 2008 and not in early November 2007.
The ruling establishment is clear that constitutionally such a step is not questionable. The constitution does not preclude the existing electoral college from casting votes a second time in a presidential election. Their calculation is that the political opposition is in disarray and cannot prevent Gen. Musharraf’s re-election by the current assemblies. What is more, the international community will favor Musharraf’s staying on because of his role in fighting terrorism abroad and extremism at home.
The opposition is against the re-election and is threatening agitation including mass resignations from all assemblies. At the London opposition parties meeting convened next month by Nawaz Sharif, the democratically elected prime minister whom the Musharraf-led military coup toppled, the issue of the president’s re-election will top the agenda.
With such growing opposition, should Musharraf stay or go? Is he, a military man, not blocking the advance of a democratic order? The truth is that Musharraf does have popular support as he has ably steered the country at a critical juncture. Internally, too, he has resolutely tried to fight the cancer of sectarianism and manage the economy better. This has earned him some support. Pakistan does need him.
Yet, the fact remains he personally remains the pivot of power ruling out a transition to democracy or popular participation in the governance of the nation. It will be unfair to blame Musharraf alone for this state of affairs. A return to genuine democracy is not possible in Pakistan without the military’s cooperation. This means even if Musharraf steps down another military general will move in.
Gen. Musharraf may pull through his re-election from the current assemblies. Yet, the current system cannot claim any political, moral or legal credibility or legitimacy. It faces no immediate risk of being dismantled, but is incapable of graduating into a credible structure which can provide lasting political stability and the healing touch an ideologically and emotionally fractured nation so badly needs.
Musharraf must begin his second term as president in partnership, not in confrontation with popular national political parties. That would signal the beginning of a “farewell to arms” in Pakistan’s political system and the launch of genuine constitutional rule.
