Pakistan Elections

 

The five-year term of the incumbent parliament in Pakistan completes in March, 2013 and the president’s tenure in September.  Preparations are a foot for the next general elections in May, with a highly regarded ex-chief justice as chief election commissioner who is committed to holding free and fair elections and a yet to be announced caretaker government which is anybody’s guess. However, most serious observers of Pakistani politics are skeptical about the fairness of the coming election while Mr. Zardari who is also the co-chairman of the ruling People’s Party and effectively the man who pulls all the strings remains in office. Unfortunately Mr. Zardari is involved in a money-laundering case in Switzerland and is cited in a number murder and other criminal cases in Pakistan which cannot be tried due to presidential immunity.  If his party which is extremely unpopular due to gross miss-governance, rampant corruption, power and fuel shortages and spiraling inflation over the last five years loses the next election, life may become very unkind for Mr. Zardari. Anyone in his shoes would try to rig the elections in favor of his party and there are indications to that effect. The office of the Federal Ombudsman was kept vacant for the past two and a half years and thousands of complaints against civil servants were allowed to pile up. Recently a friend of Mr. Zardari who is being tipped as the second or third most corrupt man in the country has been appointed as Federal Ombudsman. There is common speculation that he would be used to persuade the erring civil servants to influence the election results in favor of PP and its allies.

In this backdrop the sudden appearance of the Canadian resident Pakistani Muslim scholar Dr. Tahirul Qadri and his campaign of a long march to Islamabad to press for electoral reforms seems to be really an effort to create circumstances in which Mr. Zardari may be forced to quit the presidency and allow free and fair elections to be held. One expects considerable turmoil in the coming weeks but it would be a small price to pay if the desired result is achieved. If PP wins the next general elections by foul means it may plunge the country into a bloody and bitter civil war and revolution that may see many landlord families under the guillotine.

Perhaps the best course would be for Mr. Zardari to resign voluntarily. If he does that paving the way for free and fair elections, continuation of democracy and new opportunities for progress and prosperity, the nation may feel grateful to him and forgive and forget his past actions.