Bits and Pieces
of Democracy Restored, NA Revived
President agrees to quit Army
NA to give him 2/3rd
Vote, deal almost done
Special
SAT Report
ISLAMABAD:
General Pervez Musharraf has agreed to quit the post of Army Chief
if the new Parliament validates and indemnifies most of his constitutional
amendments and accepts him for the new 5-year term, but the sticking
point now is not if, but when, he should do so.
As
Pakistan returned haltingly to Parliamentary democracy with the
Constitution partly restored, and assembly back in session, the
real back room deals were being made on the amendments and how
much to accept or reject. Hardliners on both side have shown some
flexibility as Musharraf is now ready to dump the National Security
Council, compromise on presidential powers to sack the Assembly
as against the Government and send the army back to the barracks.
He
wants enough time to remove his uniform, like 24 to 30 months,
but the MMA is prepared to give him only 2-3 months and Qazi Hussain
Ahmed has been pressing that by March next year he should become
a civilian President, duly validated by the Parliament.
The
MMA in turn will get the powers of the Parliament back, get legitimacy
as a political force and will be allowed to run provincial governments
in NWFP and Balochistan, together with top positions in lower
and upper houses.
But
the most reassuring thing for MMA and the politicians would be
that they would get back the power to change the President, if
and when they felt the need, without the fear that he would impose
military rule as any new Martial Law would then be considered
by the new Army Chief and now General Musharraf, who will become
dependent on the same “corrupt and crooked” politicians
against whom he staged the coup and ran his three-year government.
The
Politicians are playing it cool and with maturity so that they
cross each hurdle, one at a time, without ringing alarm bells
and pressing panic buttons in the Rawalpindi Army GHQ.
General
Musharraf’s problem is that he has to depend on a set of
elected people who have the most tainted past but who have been
pushed into his lap by his own mistakes and misjudgments. The
breakaway Muslim Leaguers from Nawaz Sharif, all the Q’s
men, are doing his bidding right now but they are known turncoats
and the moment they find that Musharraf’s powers have diminished
and he needs their votes to survive, these opportunists will change
their eyes and attitude as if they do not know the General at
all.
On
the other hand, Musharraf knows the religious lobby is much more
trust worthy and packs men of their word, but it is politically
and diplomatically incorrect for him to align with those very
forces he has been physically battering while doing Washington’s
bidding in its war against terror, Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden,
now resurrected as a live force and kicking.
The
politicians, on the other hand, have a much more difficult task
at hand. They have different interests but the over-riding factor
is to keep the revived parliamentary system alive and not push
Musharraf or the Army to get so panicky, scared or frustrated
that they scrap the entire process before the politicians get
their chance to clean up their much-sullied and tarnished image.
