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Musharraf’s democracy

There is a growing bizarreness about President Pervez Musharraf’s pronouncements. It is of the kind associated with insecure dictators, not leaders who claim to have been “legitimately elected with 57 per cent” of the vote. Having got what he wanted — the validation of his dodgy new presidential term by a stacked Supreme Court — he now believes he has successfully guided Pakistan to democracy, especially as he has also stepped down as Army chief. In retired General Musharraf’s book, once he lifts the virtual martial law he imposed last month and restores the Constitution (on December 16), no one should have any complaint about his leadership. He wants Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, the two political leaders who recently returned from exile, to submit to his vision of democracy. And what is this vision? A Pakistan that should match, step for step, the economic, material, and scientific advances in the rest of the world, including nuclear power for national security and energy — but by some twisted logic must not aspire to the universally accepted civil liberties and fundamental rights of citizens. In other words, a democracy in which the ‘doctrine of necessity’ is alive and kicking.

It is time Gen. Musharraf realised that the people of Pakistan are not willing to be taken for a cheap ride. He has left no one in doubt that the November 3 ‘emergency plus’ was in reality a coup against the independent-minded judiciary to ensure that the Supreme Court legitimised his new term. Is it any surprise then that people are unwilling to accept him and let him carry on as before? A countrywide lawyers’ agitation for the reinstatement of Iftikhar Chaudhary, when he was removed as Chief Justice in March 2007, has educated people about the importance of the Constitution, and the role of the judiciary in protecting it. Judicial activism is a headache for the executive branch anywhere. But in South Asia, where government has to be pushed to deliver, people tend to look upon it as a saviour. Pakistanis do not want a democracy with handpicked judges and a media kicked into submission. Mr. Sharif’s decision that his Pakistan Muslim League (N) will boycott the January 8 general elections unless the pre-November 3 judiciary is restored is an acknowledgment of this popular awareness. The pressure is growing on Ms Bhutto to follow suit. Even if all of them ultimately participate in the election, it is clear Pakistan will remain unsettled until fundamental questions over the rule of law and independence of the judiciary are resolved. The challenge to Gen. Musharraf’s legitimacy may have been wiped off the Supreme Court’s books, but it remains alive in the minds of the people. Hopefully, the Pakistan Army under its new chief will leave him to sort out his own mess.

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