Another Step Toward a Truly Democratic Pakistan

The United States is riveted on its upcoming November election. But in Pakistan, all eyes are on Saturday, September 6th when the Parliamentarians of Pakistan will select a democratically elected President to succeed a decade of military dictatorship, and generations of manipulation by supporters of authoritarians who do not easily relinquish their unlimited power. The power elite of Pakistan has been spoiled by their domination of our Nation. February 18th was a huge step in our transition to democracy. The election of a democratic President will seal that transition.

Pakistan's political history can best be understood as a struggle between democratic political forces from all parts of the country and an establishment belonging to the power corridor geographically located between Lahore and Rawalpindi-Islamabad. The PPP's decision to nominate its co-chairman Asif Zardari for the presidency is aimed at ending the monopoly of the undemocratic establishment over the highest office in the country. Mr. Zardari would be Pakistan's first national political figure to become president since the post replaced that of governor-general in 1956.

If Pakistani democracy is to be strengthened and consolidated, it is important that the office of president should be different from that of governor-general as envisaged under the colonial era. The British did not trust the natives and, therefore, wanted real power to be wielded by serving or retired military officers or civil servants. At independence in 1947, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah refused to accept Lord Mountbatten as governor-general of both India and Pakistan to establish the principle that the highest office in the land should be occupied by the political leader with most support from the people's representatives.

After the Quaid-e-Azam's death a year after independence, another politician, Khawaja Nazimuddin from East Bengal, served as governor-general who struggled to give the country its constitution. But the civil-military bureaucracy took charge soon after the assassination in 1951 of Pakistan's first prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan and since then the position of head of state has remained in the hands of unrepresentative individuals. This continuation of non-political dominance by the establishment has harmed national integration and caused unrest in Pakistan's smaller provinces and ethnic minorities.

The PPP is the only political party with support in all four provinces of Pakistan as well as Azad Kashmir and the Northern areas. Regional parties from the smaller provinces have all supported Mr. Zardari's candidacy. After the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Mr. Zardari represents the unity of the Pakistani federation. Indeed, after Shaheed Benazir Bhutto's murder, it was only Asif Zardari's courage and leadership that blocked the disintegration of the Pakistan federation. We were that close.

The federation will continue to come under strain if the voices of the smaller provinces are not heard and the Lahore-Pindi power corridor continues to insist on its monopoly over power. Of the two parties that have fielded candidates against Mr. Zardari one was created by General Ziaul Haq and the other spawned under General Pervez Musharraf. Although both now profess democracy as their political philosophy their past coupled with their being limited to one geographic region makes them unsuited to unilaterally lead the country into a democratic phase.

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The PPP and Mr. Zardari have articulated a clear vision for a democratic, progressive Pakistan and this has received support from other political forces. National unity and reconciliation can only be achieved under a president who is able to bring disparate political parties to the table. Anyone who insists on flying solo cannot unite our nation. Mr. Zardari has demonstrated the ability to forgive and to forge coalitions. Those calling for a so-called neutral or bureaucratic president are missing the important requirement of consensus and coalition building that must be fulfilled by Pakistan's next president. Only a President Zardari would fulfill that requirement.

To ensure continued international support for Pakistan, his views on the war against terrorism are also very clear. His positions on various issues reflect the stance of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto who loved and respected her husband through long periods of trial and tribulation until her tragic assassination. The Pakistani establishment has demonized Mr. Zardari just as it demonized all popular democratic leaders in the past, including Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who was sent to the gallows and Ms Bhutto, whose murder is now being investigated by the United Nations .

From the outset, Asif Zardari was held hostage to his wife's political career. Those who brought charges against him and his wife have now admitted that they were politically motivated, bargaining chips in a power play against democracy. None of the charges against Mr. Zardari have ever been proven and the current round of fabricated allegations and rumors will also be rejected by the people. Countless times during his years of solitary confinement freedom was dangled before him if he betrayed his wife, his party and his principles. He refused, time and time again. He demonstrated great character by accepting to remain in prison for eleven years including eight-and-a-half years consecutively without being convicted of any offence. Many Pakistani political leaders in the past have accepted early release as part of some deal, including Mr. Sharif who went into exile instead of staying in prison.

The recent spate of negative stories about Mr. Zardari makes it clear that someone is executing a hatchet job against him. It is no coincidence that confidential medical statements made to an English court were leaked to a British newspaper and unnamed officials have come out of the woodworks to talk to (primarily) British journalists. The beneficiaries of the vice-regal system of the former Raj clearly do not like the idea of a true Pakistani native son to become president.

As is always the case whenever the Bhutto-Zardari family enters a new phase of their political struggle, certain individuals have become overactive in their outreach to the media. One of these is a gentleman who has nothing in common with the party of Ms Bhutto, the modern Pakistan People's Party, than anyone with the last name of "Brown" would have as a spokesman for Britain's Labour Party. The gentleman has been estranged from the PPP for decades and was a bitter opponent of Ms Bhutto. He consistently fought against her in her campaigns for prime minister and during her two terms as prime minister. Indeed, he and some other members of his branch of the Bhutto clan repeatedly have run for office against PPP candidates, and have repeatedly been thrashed at the polls. But that does not prevent him and others like him from holding forth, and receiving publicity, completely out of proportion to their political significance in Pakistan, from British newspapers. These non-entities are being given space to condemn the PPP's co-chairman.

One of the oft-repeated charges against Mr. Zardari these days is that he did not keep his promise of restoring the judges unlawfully removed from superior courts by General Musharraf. The truth is that Mr. Zardari is fulfilling his promise of restoring the judges but as he had said earlier, the PPP disagrees with some people on the modalities of the judges' restoration. Clearly, it is unfair to say that he has not kept his promise since not agreeing to some people's view - on how to restore the judges - does not amount to a breach of promise. The judges will be restored as part of a broad package of judicial reform and innovation that will be brought before the National Assembly.

Asif Zardari's election would bring a democrat and a politician into the presidency, the last bastion of the philosophy of elite-guided democracy in our country. The only people who are uncomfortable with the idea of a Zardari presidency are those with a history of supporting dictatorship or those who favor dominance of the establishment. Products of Generals Zia and Musharraf, they refuse to let go over their strangle hold on Pakistan. The people have a very different idea. In the words of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto, "time, justice and the forces of history are on the side of democracy."

Comments

[mergina]

Are you kidding me? Pakistan is about 6-12 months away from being overrun by Islamic Fundamentalists.

[Rog49Thomas]

An interesting definition of a "democracy" when one thinks that political parties that are the personal creatures of the kleptocracy represent the people.

[FKhan]

Ms Ispahani, though it is wonderful to have an educated and young woman like yourself involved in Pakistani politics, I feel that your opinions are heavily biased along party lines. I dread the day that Mr Zardari takes oath for the office of president of Pakistan... for that day I will stop feeling like a Canadian immigrant but instead feel like a refugee. Any hope of returning to Pakistan will be firmly crushed... I refuse to return to a country ruled by an individual whose past is fraught with corruption and nepotism and whose present rings of hollow promises and rhetoric. I hope you will champion the cause of the Pakistani women who have no voice and restoration of the judiciary. Pushing party propaganda will only detract from your own credibility.

[skshinwari]

True bro, n there is going of Pathans genocide, what a shame. I will always be loyal to the country and people but for politicians n the forces....finger up.

[Zenobius]

Welcome to Huffpo

Agreed that the Presidential election is a step toward democracy for Pakistan. After all, the alternative was to keep Musarraf.

That said, how good it will turn out to be for Pakistan depends on things like:

* Can Pakistan's economy, current headed for a crash, be turned around before an IMF "rescue" has Argentina like consequences. If not, democracy could be so bad people end up wishing for another military dictator

* Whether Asif Zardari can manage to make peace with the lawyers movement, or whether he ends up having to jail half the democrats in the country when the lawyers movement, which believes the corruption charges against Zardari, pushes for restoration of the judges without limiting their power to overturn the NRO

* The implications of the deals he makes with the army to make sure it does not launch another coup. Benazir, in her book, said she made a deal to leave foreigh policy to the army. If that happens again, Pakistann might end up in another war with India.

But I'm glad to see Pakistan represented by an actual Pakistani in HuffPo. Now if we could only get some Indians, and maybe a little coverage of India?

[karthik]

The author states that the corruption cases against Zardari were politically motivated. He just whitewashes the shady shenanigans of "Mr. Ten Percent" without compunction. Some of Zardari's past misdeeds are too well documented to be hidden from inquisitive eyes.

In 1995, a leading French military contractor, Dassault Aviation, agreed to pay Mr. Zardari and a Pakistani partner $200 million for a $4 billion jet fighter deal that fell apart only when Ms. Bhutto's Government was dismissed. In another deal, a leading Swiss company hired to curb customs fraud in Pakistan paid millions of dollars between 1994 and 1996 to offshore companies controlled by Mr. Zardari and Ms. Bhutto's widowed mother, Nusrat.

In the largest single payment investigators have discovered, a gold bullion dealer in the Middle East was shown to have deposited at least $10 million into an account controlled by Mr. Zardari after the Bhutto Government gave him a monopoly on gold imports that sustained Pakistan's jewelry industry. The money was deposited into a Citibank account in the United Arab Emirate of Dubai, one of several Citibank accounts for companies owned by Mr. Zardari.

Mr. Zardari went on a shopping spree in the mid-1990's, purchasing among other things a $4 million, 355-acre estate south of London. In 1994 and 1995, he used a Swiss bank account and an American Express card to buy jewelry worth $660,000.

All these are form a New York Times article (January 9, 1998). Does NY Times have a vendetta against Zardari?

[Heyman]

With American soldiers attacking Southern Pakistan today? I doubt if there's going to be an election.
When will this aggression end? When we see mushroom clouds?