International   

End of a democratic experiment, says Pakistan Opposition

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, JUNE 27. Why was the Pakistan Prime Minister, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, ousted from office? This is the question uppermost in the minds of Pakistanis the day after Mr. Jamali put in his papers.

The Opposition parties, media and even a section of the ruling party are trying to find reasons that could have prompted the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, to replace Mr. Jamali. And, Gen. Musharraf added to the mystery when he showered praise on Mr. Jamali by describing him as a "person of sterling qualities of grace, dignity, sincerity and loyalty" while accepting his resignation on Saturday.

`Worst constitutional crisis'

The Opposition sees it as beginning of the end of Gen. Musharraf's "democratic experiment" after the October 2002 general election.

Qazi Hussain Ahmed, acting president of the Muttaihda Majlis Amal (MMA) — which helped Gen. Musharraf to get his controversial constitutional amendments ratified by Parliament after he promised to quit the post of Chief of Army by year-end — accused the President of pushing the nation into the "worst constitutional crisis."

Mr. Jamali's resignation was a "conspiracy" against the budding democracy in the country and a "dangerous threat" to national security, Mr. Hussain said. And his tenure showed that there was "one-man rule" in Pakistan and that the elected Prime Minister carried no weight.

The chairperson of the Pakistan People's Party, Benazir Bhutto, demanded that the people be taken into confidence about the real reasons behind Mr. Jamali's resignation. She said that his "unceremonious and abrupt departure" confirmed the PPP conclusion that the problem lay with the establishment rather than the political leaders.

`Looming uncertainty'

A hard-hitting editorial — "Dispensing with Poor Mr. Jamali" — in the Daily Times, perhaps, sums up the general mood. Someone is giving Gen. Musharraf bad advice, it said. "Mr. Jamali's sacking will certainly breed uncertainty and may even lead to instability. We shall have an interim prime minister in Chaudhry Shujaat and then General Musharraf will move heaven and earth to get Shaukat Aziz elected from a `safe' National Assembly seat so that he can become Prime Minister and dance to his tune."

Pakistan will be saddled with not one but two "leaders" who will be thrust on the nation by reason of the brute force that Gen. Musharraf enjoys because Mr. Aziz will be even more of a party "loner" than Mr. Jamali ever was.

Gen. Musharraf was reportedly unhappy with Mr. Jamali's inability to deliver and reduce the level of political opposition to him. If this is true, the paper said, then the President's reasoning is flawed. "First, he created a system where the Prime Minister is less than even a figurehead; then he handpicked Mr. Jamali because the latter was thought to be most pliable; now he was peeved at Mr. Jamali's seeming inability to deliver. And pray, how might Mr. Aziz be better at delivering General Musharraf's political agenda where Mr. Jamali failed because Gen. Musharraf was not prepared to give to the Prime Minister what is due him in a parliamentary system?

According to Ms. Bhutto, Mr. Jamali's exit is the beginning of the collapse of the "artificial edifice" raised by Gen. Musharraf. Whenever a Prime Minister was forced out of office, his exit was followed by an equally unceremonious exit of the President, she said citing the examples of Gen. Zia, Ghulam Ishaq and Farooq Leghari. Mr. Jamali's exit, therefore, meant that the Musharaf regime was in its last days.

The political structure raised by the military regime was primarily designed to perpetuate dictatorship in Pakistan under the guise of a democratic order. The present dispensation was not based on the will of the people and was doomed to collapse, she said. "The first pillar has fallen and other pillars will follow soon."

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International

News: Front Page | National | Tamil Nadu | Andhra Pradesh | Karnataka | Kerala | New Delhi | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Updates: Breaking News |

Stories in this Section

• Bush pleads Turkey's E.U. cause
• Allawi offers amnesty to resistance fighters
• CIA suspends torture techniques
• Saudi crackdown raises internal tensions
• End of a democratic experiment, says Pakistan Opposition
• U.K. inquiry focus on Niger uranium claim
• China to reprint Buddhist encyclopaedia
• Recognition, after 60 years
• Russia warns NATO ahead of summit
• Ascendancy of the U.S. Right under threat
• Editor killed in bomb attack
• MMA `peace march' thwarted
• `Coffee cure for cancer'
• Iran to resume nuke programme
• Where IAF pilots will learn air force grammar

Copyright © 2004, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu