Political Polarisation Continues In Pakistan
Muhammad Khurshid
April 01, 2008
President Pervez Musharraf has the credit of holding fair and free elections, but the politicians having connections with terrorists are not ready to accept him as president. They have still been hatching conspiracies to dislodge the president. The continued polarisation has endangered the very integrity of Pakistan. According to political observers, any mishandling of situation may be disastrous for the country.
According to a comment, President Pervez Musharraf took another bitter pill on Monday when he administered oaths of their office to 24 members of the Yousuf Raza Gilani cabinet, nine of them wearing black armbands to protest against the president. The ceremony, otherwise, went smoothly but the tension and bitterness was more than evident. The PML-N had already explained that they were going in for the oath– taking under protest just to expedite an unhindered transfer of power to the elected representatives. Some of the new ministers had planned that they would only swear on the constitution as it stood on Nov 2, 2007 but they restricted themselves to a vague mention of the constitution.
Nevertheless the event marked another step forward in the empowerment of the political parties which won the elections with a clear mandate against the eight year-rule of President Musharraf, who it appears, has taken all the constitutional follow-up steps very reluctantly and has invited sharp criticism for not calling the provincial assemblies quickly, specially in Punjab where his sworn rivals, the Sharif brothers, will become all–powerful. This attitude has not helped the president or his image as his power base is fast shrinking. The more he tries, in vain, to retain control over events, the more his political opponents solidify their resolve, acquire strength and cohesion. This undeclared battle of nerves is unfortunate and could consume precious time and energy of the new government, and the national coalition, and keep them distracted from focusing with full concentration on real issues that face the country.
The composition of the new cabinet has some minor imbalances which the leaders say would be fixed in the next phase of cabinet expansion. For instance Sindh and Balochistan are under-represented while Punjab has a major share. But as shrewd politics demands, most of the faces in the cabinet are diehard party loyalists of both the PPP and PML-N and almost all of them, except a couple or so, had been personally victimized and persecuted by the Musharraf regime, some even physically tortured. It was a moment of rare vindication for them to have compelled their tormentor to acknowledge their political power and induct them into seats of government, despite heaps of dirt and charges of corruption dumped at them.
Yet most of the new ministers are very experienced at governance having remained in the similar positions many times in the past. Stalwarts Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Ishaq Dar, Khawaja Mohammed Asif, Ahsan Iqbal, Naveed Qamar, Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, Shah Mahmood Qureshi and some others, know their job and would quickly get on with running the affairs of the government according to the agenda of the prime minister and policies of the coalition and not according to what the presidency may desire. Thus a real experiment of democracy will begin with a determined parliament, a reluctant president and a neutral establishment watching the players as they perform. This in essence is the crux of a democratic order as each institution has to balance the other. The only missing link in this structure is the status of the judiciary which has to be fixed within 30 days, starting today, as the reverse countdown began with the induction of the cabinet. A truly independent and neutral judiciary has thus become crucial to the success of the new system and the sooner this pillar of state is put back, with its full strength, the more stable the system will become.
The End
According to a comment, President Pervez Musharraf took another bitter pill on Monday when he administered oaths of their office to 24 members of the Yousuf Raza Gilani cabinet, nine of them wearing black armbands to protest against the president. The ceremony, otherwise, went smoothly but the tension and bitterness was more than evident. The PML-N had already explained that they were going in for the oath– taking under protest just to expedite an unhindered transfer of power to the elected representatives. Some of the new ministers had planned that they would only swear on the constitution as it stood on Nov 2, 2007 but they restricted themselves to a vague mention of the constitution.
Nevertheless the event marked another step forward in the empowerment of the political parties which won the elections with a clear mandate against the eight year-rule of President Musharraf, who it appears, has taken all the constitutional follow-up steps very reluctantly and has invited sharp criticism for not calling the provincial assemblies quickly, specially in Punjab where his sworn rivals, the Sharif brothers, will become all–powerful. This attitude has not helped the president or his image as his power base is fast shrinking. The more he tries, in vain, to retain control over events, the more his political opponents solidify their resolve, acquire strength and cohesion. This undeclared battle of nerves is unfortunate and could consume precious time and energy of the new government, and the national coalition, and keep them distracted from focusing with full concentration on real issues that face the country.
The composition of the new cabinet has some minor imbalances which the leaders say would be fixed in the next phase of cabinet expansion. For instance Sindh and Balochistan are under-represented while Punjab has a major share. But as shrewd politics demands, most of the faces in the cabinet are diehard party loyalists of both the PPP and PML-N and almost all of them, except a couple or so, had been personally victimized and persecuted by the Musharraf regime, some even physically tortured. It was a moment of rare vindication for them to have compelled their tormentor to acknowledge their political power and induct them into seats of government, despite heaps of dirt and charges of corruption dumped at them.
Yet most of the new ministers are very experienced at governance having remained in the similar positions many times in the past. Stalwarts Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Ishaq Dar, Khawaja Mohammed Asif, Ahsan Iqbal, Naveed Qamar, Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, Shah Mahmood Qureshi and some others, know their job and would quickly get on with running the affairs of the government according to the agenda of the prime minister and policies of the coalition and not according to what the presidency may desire. Thus a real experiment of democracy will begin with a determined parliament, a reluctant president and a neutral establishment watching the players as they perform. This in essence is the crux of a democratic order as each institution has to balance the other. The only missing link in this structure is the status of the judiciary which has to be fixed within 30 days, starting today, as the reverse countdown began with the induction of the cabinet. A truly independent and neutral judiciary has thus become crucial to the success of the new system and the sooner this pillar of state is put back, with its full strength, the more stable the system will become.
The End
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