People have spoken, they deserve to be honored

It was like a refreshing, cool breeze in a sweltering hot summer. The pall of gloom that had overtaken the wretched masses, gave way to the hope of a new morning. Years of machinations were undone in a day. By voting against the ‘king’s party’ and the religious right, the people of Pakistan in general and those of the NWFP in particular, shattered many a myth. What the guns of the U.S. and the men of Musharraf could not do in years of bloodletting the poor people did it joyfully in a single day on February 18: empowering the liberal and secular forces of the country and dislodging the obscurantist forces.

The message was loud and clear that the people of Pakistan can make a good choice once given a chance. The results of the general elections may be flabbergasting for Musharraf and his masters, but this is what the common man/woman had on her/his mind while trekking to the polling stations on a sunny Monday. And that they turned out in such an impressive number (43%) shows how they longed for this day and time to register their faith in ballet and show their disdain for the bullet.

It also showed that even the illiterate can make a decent choice, but our educated ones are not decent enough to honor their mandate by stepping out of the way to let people’s leaders in. It was a referendum against Musharraf who failed to see the reality and kept bathing in the illusion of ‘silent majority’s’ support. If still the president thinks that he enjoys even a modicum of popularity, it is a plain case of delirium that needs hospitalization. And if the U.S. and the West still think that Musharraf can deliver in their ‘war on terror’, they need to refashion their line of thinking on democracy and the public will.

What else could be more soothing when television screens flickered with images from Wana in that ‘wild’ Waziristan where women, undeterred by the Taliban and the ongoing war against them, flocked to the polling stations to exercise their right to universal suffrage. Not to be left behind, the better half of men in Jamrud and Landikotal also voted unhampered to elect their representatives. Is it not a slap in the face of extremism and fanaticism? If yes, then why helicopter gunships and the dreaded drones haunt the skies of the tribal belt?

This much for the euphoria: the hard reality is that the new government has already inherited piles of problems: to top it all, the war against terror, which is straining the very social fabric of our society. One fails to fathom it at all: the more they rain bombs, the more the resistance stiffens. So much so that the militancy spills into the city centers. Our armed-to-the-teeth soldiers find it difficult to set foot on the militant’s land; for militants even the brims of the GHQ are not no thoroughfares.

Militants and terrorists need to be isolated from the larger society. Nothing can isolate them more than empowering the common man. To vote freely is the exercise of power. This s what the people of Frontier, especially in Swat, did. Till recently in the spot light as the bastion of militancy, the people of Swat proved everyone wrong by voting for the secular ANP in toto. Guns and bombs may have dislodged the mediaeval-minded Fazlullah and his combatants, the people of Swat defeated them on February 18 by simply voting against them.

This much for the militancy: Next is the question of restoring the judiciary. The relentless struggle that was spear-headed by the lawyers’ community and aided by the civil society won votes for three parties—the PPPP, the PML (N) and the ANP. To vote for one of these parties was in fact voting for the ‘deposed’ judges as well. The quest for an independent judiciary has woven the three popular parties and the civil society in a common thread. If any of the parties falters in restoring the 60-plus judges, it is going to send the whole movement helter-skelter. So far Nawaz Sharif is forthright on this issue, but the PPPP seems to be having second thoughts.

This is what dampens the euphoria and makes one cynical. But this time round there is a realization that the gaze of media and an intense interest of the outer world in a democratic Pakistan may keep the power brokers and wielders in check. It is the last chance for the democratic forces to deliver. No time is more opportune than the present one. Political parties and their leaders may have squandered many opportunities, but still people have more confidence in a democratic dispensation than a dictatorship, howsoever benign it may be.

If the civil society can empower political forces, they can also confine them to the dustbin of history—the way they did it with Q-League and the MMA. In this age of a pluralist media environment, political leaders may find it hard to take the common man for a ride. And for President Musharraf no time is more opportune than the present to step down honorably and let parliament take the reins of power. The U.S. can easily pressurize a single person, howsoever powerful he may be, than a parliament, howsoever weak it may be.   

A lacklustre election that may not happen

Still many things are standing between the lackluster elections and a weary public to meet on February 18. To vote or not to vote is a riddle that has numbed the public psyche. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto and the disqualification of Nawaz Sharif dimmed the already flickering zeal of the public. The ensuing violence took away the steam from the electioneering that had never gotten on a popular note.

Blasts in public rallies, topped by the one in Charsadda on Saturday where 27 people were killed while attending a corner meeting of the ANP, are making the election a bloody drama. If this level of law and order remains, people are more likely to stay at home instead of risking their lives to cast vote. This atmosphere of terror and uncertainty, which otherwise should have been a festive time, cast aspersions at the rhetoric of President Pervaiz Musharraf that the elections will be fair, free and peaceful.

The president and his coterie of sycophants à la the Chaudhries, Durranis and others of their ilk wanted from the day one to have an election without public meetings. And their ‘wisdom’ was understandable: none of them are street-smart to pull a sizable crowd of supporters around them. While a charismatic Benazir Bhutto and a re-anointed Nawaz Sharif were capable to swell their ranks in rallies and public meetings.

Big public meetings in a free environment win over the floating votes, which decide the fate of the contesting parties. That’s why political parties vie for the floating votes who have no political conviction but still hold the key in deciding the fate of a candidate or for that matter a whole party. Public rallies also make positions of the political parties known before the votes are polled. Since no one wants to vote a losing candidate or party; in other words, everyone wants to be on the winning side, parties that hold the largest rallies win over the indecisive votes.

In short, free campaigning before the elections make projections for the media as well as the public to have a guess on who or which party is going to win here and lose somewhere else. This makes rigging a bit difficult, if not altogether impossible. Now that there is no electioneering with the prospects of a low turnout, stuffing the boxes or engineering results is no more a risky business. Since most of the people are likely to stay at home on the election day, because of fear or no interest, whatever results may the Election Commission announce would be no surprise for the people.

But the way things are moving and shaking, especially in the NWFP, yet another postponement of the election in imminent. No election is a win-win situation for the embattled president who has a lot more bizarre tricks up his sleeves than his antic of electing himself for the second time from the same, but truncated, electoral college. With a hand-picked judiciary it is not difficult for him to validate an election even if a dismally low turnout itself is a no-confidence in President Musharraf and his select government which is an extension of the PML (Q).