Emergency and Musharraf Elections

Source: www.nation.com.pk

Negroponte's Disappointing Mission	22nd November 2007
by Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

It appears now that Deputy Secretary Negroponte's visit was aimed at advising General Musharraf how to steal the elections without annoying his critics back home rather than putting pressure on him to hold free and fair elections. General Musharraf has already achieved major benefits from the state of emergency.

By sending home over 100 judges and packing the courts with justices of his choice he has ensured that the judiciary is no more breathing down his neck. He has appointed caretaker governments comprising loyalists and an Election Commission which the opposition has reasons not to trust. Since emergency, over five thousand activists have been bundled off to distant jails after being maltreated and in cases severely beaten up by police. Near foolproof arrangements for stealing the elections are in place.

After being declared elected president by the reconstituted Supreme Court Musharraf can announce the doffing of uniform, order a staged release of the political prisoners, and finally announce the end of emergency. This would help President Bush declare triumphantly that his strategy for an orderly and peaceful transfer to democracy has been successful.

What is happening on the ground is a different story. The government which had previously claimed it had only arrested 2,500 activist's has now suddenly announced the number was over 5,000 out of which it has announced the release of 3,400 and says it is poised to set free 2,000 more 'soon'.

Major opposition leaders like Imran Khan and Javed Hashmi and prominent lawyers like Aitzaz Ahsan, Munir A Malik and Ali Ahmad Kurd are still languishing in jail. While some of the political activists and lawyers have been released, others continue to be arrested. On Tuesday, over 100 protesting journalists were severely beaten up by police in Karachi causing injuries to some and were subsequently herded into police stations. In Islamabad about 300 persons were rounded up to stop them from taking out protest marches. The elections are being held in an environment characterised by widespread harassment by law enforcement agencies.

Ground has already been prepared for getting the erstwhile ruling alliance back into power and if that can't be done for having a hung parliament like the one in 2002 which the offstage players can subsequently manoeuvre according to their will. While Bhutto was debarred from holding a public meeting in Rawalpindi and taking out a rally that would have passed through the major towns of Punjab, the ruling PML was given a free hand while it gave final touches to its election campaign. Despite the enforcement of Section 144 that does not allow public gatherings, Ch Pervaiz Elahi was holding large gatherings every other day all over the province.

And now comes the elections schedule. Nomination papers have to be submitted by the latest by Monday personally by every contender. The condition debars both Nawaz and Shahbaz, the top leaders of the mainstream PML-N who are living abroad in forced exile. Opposition leaders kept in distant jails will also face difficulties in turning in the nomination papers on time. The opposition candidates, some in jail and others on the run since the imposition of the emergency have been given three weeks to canvass while General Musharraf's party has already conducted an election campaign that was spread over for months.

Keeping in view what continues to happen after Negroponte's visit in Pakistan, many are forced to conclude the brave words he used at his Sunday press conference demanding Musharraf to doff the uniform, lift the emergency and release political prisoners were no more than an attempt to hoodwink the people. Bush administration is least concerned about human rights violations in Pakistan and still considers Musharraf an indispensable ally. What President Bush said in his ABC channel interview corroborates the perception. Showering praises on Musharraf as a man who keeps his word and a ruler who has worked for democracy more than anyone else in the world of today he said he had full confidence in him. Some would interpret these as diplomatic remarks aimed at encouraging Musharraf to lift emergency and shed his uniform. The words would however encourage Musharraf to continue to take actions that make a mockery of the elections to install a government of his choice that will have no legitimacy. If this happens the elections will fail to bring stability to the country.