As lackluster Elections approach
on October 10
Pakistan hopes for some change
for the better
Special
SAT Report
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan goes to one of the most unexciting
but critically important elections of its history in just about
10 days amid a chorus of foul play by the broad spectrum of political
parties and claims of total transparency by the military ruler,
General Pervez Musharraf.
As candidates
in their areas campaign on purely local issues, the elections
have failed to generate any nation wide issue on which major political
parties could focus, except the restoration of democracy.
This one issue has brought many arch political rivals into the
same camp, with Nawaz Sharif making room for Benazir Bhutto and
Imran Khan sitting with PPP’s Amin Fahim and all the religious
political parties grouping together under one banner of MMA.
Almost
universally the election has been condemned as a “rigged”
exercise, with the National Democratic Institute, a Washington-based
pro-democracy group, voicing concern about the balloting, saying
it was worried the elections would not allow for the full participation
of Pakistanis. The group was particularly concerned with a government
ruling barring candidates who do not hold university degrees.
That prevents some 90 percent of the population and about 30 percent
of former lawmakers from running for office.
Most of the debarred political leaders, Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz
Sharif and even those allowed to 
contest
including Imran Khan, Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Farooq Leghari, have
complained about pre-poll rigging, a charge General Musharraf
dismisses with contempt. Evenb a docile person as Raja Zafar ul
Haq came out strongly and said the polls were being rigged in
favour of Musharraf’s supporters.
Musharraf and his men have also ignored criticism that his regime
has created a “King’s Party” which has some
of the most infamous and corrupt politicians of the previous years,
but whose sins have been forgiven because they support the dictator.
The
charge against the military has been that its intelligence agencies,
primarily ISI, have been actively recruiting, screening and supporting
pro-Musharraf politicians, using all the State power to make them
win the polls, by hook or by crook. Funds have been released for
some candidates, others have seen their opponents thrown in jails,
disqualified or booted out of the contest on one pretext or another.
One
serious constitutional crisis which awaits the military government
is how to fix the Senate Elections as Musharraf had dissolved
the Upper House as well, although it had never been dissolved
in the past.
The
Senate elections are scheduled one month after the National and
Provincial Assemblies and unless the Senate comes into being the
Parliament, as it is constitutionally defined, will not be complete.
Critics
say there are various levels of pre-poll rigging going on and
one direct method would be to help approved candidates through
the use of postal ballots, almost one million of them belonging
to the Pakistan Army people themselves.
Monitoring
cells and stations have been set up in the Center and the provinces
where ISI officials have been assigned to closely see how the
polling goes and which candidates needs special help to get them
elected, insiders say.
The
usual pundits predict that quotas have already been allocated
for each political party and the monitors will see to it that
none of the political parties exceeds that quota. The largest
share is expected to be given to the PML (QA) or the King’s
Party with about 100 seats, to make it the largest single political
party with a claim to the prime ministership.
Other
smallers groups will then be pushed to support the big party and
each will in turn get a quota of cabinet seats and top positions
in the House and Senate.
The
Opposition parties of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif will be
restricted to just enough seats that they do not pose a threat
to the King’s Party but also have enough numbers to act
as a credible Opposition, presentable to the outside world.
Analysts
say whatever the outcome of the elections, it will result in some
dilution of the present total powers enjoyed by the Army and that
may be the only positive outcome of the entire exercise.
If
the elections spring up some surprising results, the entire scenario
may change but few believe this would be permitted under a system
which is far tightly controlled than any of the previous four
general elections in 12 years, starting 1988.
Major
political leaders, debarred from directly contesting in the polls,
have opted to remain a part of the process as it still promises
to be a better option than straight military dictatorhip. With
their proxies in the Parliament, these political leaders, now
in exile, hope they will get a better say in the affairs, with
a chance to voice their grievances inside the houses of Parliament.
View
Pictures of Pakistan's Election Campaign
