There are less reasons to be confident about the prospects of democracy in Pakistan
As a junior officer in the army, Musharraf must
have yearned to become a general, so that he doesn’t have to obey orders from above. On becoming a general, he realised that the president & the political class were still above him. So he went on to grab total power in Pakistan to fulfil his ambition of being the absolute boss. However, little had he appreciated that even after being uncrowned king of Pakistan, he was not free to decide on his own. Now, he has the US President Bush, constantly breathing down his neck, leaving Musharraf almost no room to be an independent leader. Such is the condition of Musharraf that he had to renege on his 8-year-old decision to shunt out from the country Nawaz Sharif & Benazir Bhutto. So intense is the US pressure on Musharraf that he has no option but to hobnob with the politicians he hates to love. With both Nawaz & Benazir back in Islamabad to spearhead their election campaign & Emergency still intact, the Pakistani politics & its polity are in doldrums. Whatever the outcome of the January 8 elections, Musharraf is living with the self-belief that he would remain the President till eternity. It is indeed a sad story that intelligent people like Musharraf simply refuse to learn from history, which clearly informs that the days of a dictator are always numbered. And more often than not, the dictator meets a tragic end. But ferociously ambitious general is blissfully unaware of the ground realities. The moment he relinquishes command of Pakistan army & becomes a true-blue civilian president, the new army chief may treat the President with almost same disdain with which Musharraf used to deal with the political tribe.
The world may feel that democracy is returning to Pakistan, but one thing is clear, this is a democracy, which is being opposed by many, including the army. This democracy is being imposed by the Americans, who are not only deciding, which leader will enter the country on which date, but also determining the final outcome of the elections with army’s help. Therefore, to expect such a flawed democracy to last long will be as foolhardy as to expect communist take-over of America. “Pakistan today stands at the crossroads; everything is in a state of flux. The short-term picture is clear, but to imagine long-term sustainability of democracy in Pakistan, where the civil-military relations have hit an all time low, could be gross misreading of the situation,” Dr. Smriti Patnaik, a keen Pakistan watcher and a fellow at IDSA told B&E.
The biggest mistake, which Musharraf committed eight years ago was to dismantle the mainstream political parties, paving the way for fundamentalists to take control of the political capital and hold the nation to ransom.
As a junior officer in the army, Musharraf must
have yearned to become a general, so that he doesn’t have to obey orders from above. On becoming a general, he realised that the president & the political class were still above him. So he went on to grab total power in Pakistan to fulfil his ambition of being the absolute boss. However, little had he appreciated that even after being uncrowned king of Pakistan, he was not free to decide on his own. Now, he has the US President Bush, constantly breathing down his neck, leaving Musharraf almost no room to be an independent leader. Such is the condition of Musharraf that he had to renege on his 8-year-old decision to shunt out from the country Nawaz Sharif & Benazir Bhutto. So intense is the US pressure on Musharraf that he has no option but to hobnob with the politicians he hates to love. With both Nawaz & Benazir back in Islamabad to spearhead their election campaign & Emergency still intact, the Pakistani politics & its polity are in doldrums. Whatever the outcome of the January 8 elections, Musharraf is living with the self-belief that he would remain the President till eternity. It is indeed a sad story that intelligent people like Musharraf simply refuse to learn from history, which clearly informs that the days of a dictator are always numbered. And more often than not, the dictator meets a tragic end. But ferociously ambitious general is blissfully unaware of the ground realities. The moment he relinquishes command of Pakistan army & becomes a true-blue civilian president, the new army chief may treat the President with almost same disdain with which Musharraf used to deal with the political tribe.The world may feel that democracy is returning to Pakistan, but one thing is clear, this is a democracy, which is being opposed by many, including the army. This democracy is being imposed by the Americans, who are not only deciding, which leader will enter the country on which date, but also determining the final outcome of the elections with army’s help. Therefore, to expect such a flawed democracy to last long will be as foolhardy as to expect communist take-over of America. “Pakistan today stands at the crossroads; everything is in a state of flux. The short-term picture is clear, but to imagine long-term sustainability of democracy in Pakistan, where the civil-military relations have hit an all time low, could be gross misreading of the situation,” Dr. Smriti Patnaik, a keen Pakistan watcher and a fellow at IDSA told B&E.
The biggest mistake, which Musharraf committed eight years ago was to dismantle the mainstream political parties, paving the way for fundamentalists to take control of the political capital and hold the nation to ransom.
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