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EDITORIAL: Bhutto and Musharraf should think long and hard

The PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto said in New York yesterday that the Taliban must be defeated in Pakistan this year, otherwise the country risked falling under the sway of extremists as much as Afghanistan did before 9/11. Her next observation was equally telling: “The Taliban have actually established a mini-state in the tribal areas of Pakistan. My fear is that if these forces are not stopped in 2007, they are going to try to take on the state of Pakistan itself”.

Ms Bhutto could have taken the easy course of simply denouncing President General Pervez Musharraf to an American audience that is increasingly becoming keen to hear such words, but she did not. She focused instead on the real threat that General Musharraf has failed to confront adequately. She has thus indicated that she grasps the big picture and is not seduced by the foreshortened current perspective.

The PMLN and other opposition leaders have protested at Ms Bhutto’s refusal so far to fully join the opposition parties to exploit the widespread popular anger against the treatment meted out to the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Chaudhry, by General Musharraf. That would have been easy to do. But we should know that neither the MMA nor leaders like Imran Khan think that the Taliban are any threat to us. Equally, the PMLN is too joined at the hip with the religious groups and parties to realise the nature of the ungovernable hiatus in the event of a sudden and unplanned departure by General Musharraf. An upheaval led by the clergy at this point would not lead to peace and normality.

An all parties’ struggle for “restoration of democracy” could be recommended unequivocally if all the participants, especially the MMA, Imran Khan and the PMLN, were agreed on the precise situation obtaining in the country as well as on what they wish to do with his policies of peace with India, business with America, moderation in life, women’s emancipation, etc., after they have removed General Musharraf from the scene. Thus it is disquieting that the PMLN has not thought it necessary to discuss the post-agitation scene with the MMA in the light of the MMA’s manifesto. One reason could be the PMLN’s uncertain attitude towards the kind of order it would like to prevail. It may be recalled that before General Musharraf overthrew the PMLN government, Mr Nawaz Sharif seemed bent upon establishing shariah and becoming Amir ul Momineen, standing above the parliament and lording it over everyone and everything, including the judiciary.

The MMA now stands for restoring the constitution to the state before the MMA agreed with President Musharraf to pass the 17th amendment. It wants to revert to the separate electorate system and it wishes to abolish the special women’s seats in parliament. But, as is well known, joint electorates are in the manifesto of the PPP which also remains in favour of women’s special representation. Indeed, the PPP has defended the reform of the Hudood Laws in the country and would not like to undo them.

There are cogent reasons for the PPP to chart its course carefully and deliberately before deciding to become a part of any mass agitation against the current dispensation. Ms Bhutto should know that Pakistan will be impossible to rule if the politicians fail to agree that the country is under threat from extremism and that they must carefully examine the mistakes made by General Musharraf and try to rectify them instead of simply doing the opposite of what he has been doing. Note: the MMA says there is no extremism in Pakistan, there are no Taliban in Pakistan and that Taliban governance of the 1990s should be replicated in Pakistan.

The agitation now going on in Pakistan is led by lawyers across the political divide. That is why they are reluctant to allow the political parties to “usurp” their struggle to defend the institution of the supreme court exemplified in the unlikely candidate of Iftikhar Chaudhry. But, at the end of the day, their political affiliations are bound to surface and colour the direction of any mass movement. The problem is that all mass agitations give rise to radicalism, which is not very different from extremism. Would that suit the PPP?

Yet it is the PPP which has the largest vote bank in the country. It is also the party with a significant presence in Punjab and Sindh. With the PML in the hands of General Musharraf, and Maulana Fazlur Rehman ready to negotiate with the government at all times, no mass agitation will succeed in the real sense unless the PPP leads it or is a dynamic part of it. This much has been accepted as a fact also by Qazi Hussain Ahmad, the president of the MMA. But it then stands to reason that if all the opposition parties are agreed about the role and position of the PPP, then they should listen to the opinion of Ms Bhutto and not force her to join the agitation without regard to the kind of situation it might bring about.

On the other side, it is clear that after the recent fiasco, General Musharraf’s key PML ally is discredited and cannot hope to win the next general elections fairly. Nor can the judiciary be counted upon to stand with the PML and risk being tarred with the same brush. In other words, General Musharraf cannot blithely bend the constitution and civil society to his tune, rig the elections and expect to be both army chief and president for another five years. So he will have to either democratise and share power with the PPP or become more repressive. The current mid-way house of guided democracy without the mainstream PPP in tow and the MMA up in arms is coming to an end.

Under the circumstances, General Musharraf, no less than Ms Bhutto, would do well to think long and hard too about which way to go. He must not succumb to the hardliners and impose an emergency or martial law. She must not let the MMA hijack the protests. *

SECOND EDITORIAL: Shame on Inzi and his men

The renowned Pakistani cricketers who came on TV before the grand opening of the Cricket World Cup in the West Indies and predicted Pakistan’s ability to surprise the best team in the contest should disappear from sight. Hardly had the joy of India’s defeat at the hands of Bangladesh been registered than Pakistan’s defeat at the hands of an Irish team of mostly part-time cricketers has sent fans back home reeling from shame.

Pakistan’s batting has always been brittle. No coach has been able to steady it, even at the risk of making it less flamboyant and more predictable. But the bowlers have been particularly prone to crises this time. It has got so bad that the world is now looking at us with suspicion. Shoaib, the paceman, was caught taking banned substances, and young fast bowler Muhammad Asif, who was sure to be one of the match-winners in the Cup, too has been tempted to use steroids. But it is not the bowlers who have let us down this time. It is our famed bearded wonders like Inzimam and Yousaf. What happened to their great inner resolve and faith? They should beg Allah for forgiveness. *

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