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Pakistan: An election of
sorts
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
ISLAMABAD - The huge banner hanging in front of
the National Assembly, Pakistan's lower house of
parliament in the capital city, boldly proclaims:
"National Assembly: Voice of People's Desire".
Nothing could be further from the truth. After
weeks of horsetrading and backstage maneuvering since
the October 10 national elections that have stretched
the boundaries of legality, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali,
a man strongly loyal to President General Pervez
Musharraf, was on Thursday elected as the country's 20th
prime minister.
Jamali, sponsored by the
pro-military Pakistan Muslim League-Qaid-i-Azam (PML-Q),
secured 172 votes, defeating Maulana Fazlur Rehman of
the Islamic religious party alliance Muttahida
Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) and the candidate of the Pakistan
People’s Party-Parliamentary (PPPP) Shah Mahmud Qureshi.
Fazlur Rehman, known for his pro-Taliban stance, secured
86 votes, while Qureshi managed 70 votes. In all 328
members voted and one abstained.
But
the story does not lie in the bare figures, which do
not reflect the bitterness and dissent that already exists
in the assembly. The omens are not good for a smooth
passage of the revived legislature, suspended when
Musharraf seized power in a coup in 1999.
Allegations of vote-rigging and
under-the-table payments to buy the allegiance of parliamentarians
abound to such an extent that the credibility of the
house is seriously in question. Jamali's PML-Q group had
won the post of Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the
National Assembly in elections held on November 19,
which were tainted by fake votes being cast. These were
exposed, and rejected, but the issue threw a shadow over
the whole process.
And the heaviest shadow falls
on the 13 members of the PPPP who voted against their
party leadership to side with the pro-Musharraf bloc,
which includes a number of independents in addition to
the PML-Q, and who proved the decisive factor in giving
Jamali exactly a simple majority in the house.
At the heart of the issue is the question of the
constitution. Under the 1973 constitution, which
Musharraf had suspended along with parliament, any
politician crossing the floor automatically loses his
seat. And with Musharraf having restored the
constitution the day before the voting, it was assumed
that this would be the case. But in a deft sleight of
hand, it was revealed that the entire constitution had
not been revived; the crucial sections relating to
defections were left in abeyance.
When
pressed about the matter, the Federal Minister for
Information termed the floor-crossing a "moral" issue, and observed
that "if any member of parliament casts his vote against
the will of his leadership, he instead listens to the
voice of his zamir [conscience]."
"Not
so," retorted Fazlur Rehman. "This is not the case," he
said, speaking from the floor of the assembly on
Thursday. "This cannot be the voice of their
zamir, but in fact the voice of General Zamir [referring
to Major General Ehtesham Zamir Jafery, the chief
of internal security, Inter-Services Intelligence, who
is said to be the main driver in the political games
before and after the general elections]."
The
controversy over the constitution has created
uncertainty in the assembly. Is it governed by the
original 1973 document, or by the partially revived one
that also includes a number of Legal Frame Orders
inserted by Musharraf without the approval of any
parliament?
"The day when the members took their
oaths, they were shown the constitution and told that no
Legal Frame Orders had been imparted and it was the
original 1973 constitution. Later, the newly-elected
Speaker of the National Assembly declared in a press
conference that the orders had become a part of the
constitution, and the members had endorsed it by taking
their oath," commented Liaquat Baloch of the MMA.
"The Speaker is partial and has no right to run
the affairs of the House," agreed Syed Javed Hashmi, the
parliamentary leader of the Pakistan Muslim League
(Nawaz) group.
Clearly, what Pakistan now has is
a sharply divided assembly. There was no outright winner
after the elections of October 10, with the three
largest parties being, respectively, the PML-Q, the PPPP
and the MMA. They tried desperately to cobble together
various coalition combinations, and at one time it
looked as if the MMA and the PPPP would be able to form
a government under Fazlur Rehman, but negotiations broke
down.
According to political analysts, this
failure reflects the very divergent positions of each
party, and gives an indication of how events might
unfold in the near future.
The PML-Q has emerged
as a party that does not have any political agenda or
program. It will merely serve to represent the interests
and the will of the military establishment in
parliament. Any changes in thinking or new initiatives
among the military establishment are guaranteed to be
translated into policies of this party.
The PPPP
represents those in the country who believe in a strong
friendship with the US, and its members will conduct
themselves in line with this belief, and many of them
still maintain that, with the help of US pressure, they
will be able to play a more pivotal part in government.
The MMA, meanwhile, an alliance of six religious
parties which have in the past espoused a strong anti-US
position, will likely concentrate on local politics, and
in extending its base.
In addition to these
three main groups, two others may have a part to play in
the longer term.
First, there is the new face of the
Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), led by former premier
Nawaz Sharif, which before the military coup was the
largest political party in the country with an overwhelming
majority in parliament. But it was broken by
the military establishment, and whereas the old party used
to represent the rich classes of Pakistan and most of
its leadership were capitalist or feudalist, the PML-N
is now represented by 19 moderate faces in the assembly
who come from the middle class and who are mostly party
workers.
Second, there is the Pakistan
Tehrik-i-Insaf led by cricketer-turned-politician Imran
Khan, which, although it won only one seat, is being
tipped as a party for the future. It draws its strength
from the 18- to 21-year-olds and has allied with the
MMA. Kahn was even offered membership in the federal
cabinet, but he refused and stayed with the MMA bloc.
Two recent events in Pakistan are important in
this context.
On Tuesday, in the face intense
pressure from within segments of the army, and pressure
from the public across the country, the government
released Dr Amir Aziz, a prominent physician who was
alleged to have links to al-Qaeda and who once treated
Osama bin Laden, from a month in detention.
Also
on Tuesday, tens of thousands of people attended the
funeral of Mir Aimal Kansi, who was executed in the US
last week for the 1993 murder two CIA employees. The
funeral was held in a sports stadium in Kansi's hometown
of Quetta, the capital of southwestern Balochistan
province. Most of those in attendance were youths, and
anti-US rhetoric was widespread.
With the MMA
and potential allies now turning all of their attention
to strengthening their voter base, these are the very
people that they will be tapping. Maybe there is still a
chance that Pakistan will get a National Assembly that
truly does represent the "Voice of People's Desire".
(©2002 Asia Times Online Co Ltd. All rights
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