Asia Times: In Pakistan, the games begin


	January 10, 2002	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

In Pakistan, the games begin
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - General elections scheduled to be held in Pakistan before October of this year will be strongly influenced by post-September 11 events as political parties will form alliances according to which side of the fence they sit in terms of support or opposition to how the government handled the situation.

The military regime of President General Pervez Musharraf, meanwhile, is working to fragment the mainstream opposition through the creation of new parties, which it hopes will ensure a trouble-free parliament and pave the way for Musharraf to continue wielding his absolute authority.

According to sources, the chief of the Jamaat-i-Islami, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, who has been under house arrest for several weeks, has sent a letter to the chairman of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz Group), Raja Zafarul Haq, calling on all parties that believe there is too much intervention by the United States in the internal affairs of Pakistan to unite. The Pakistan Muslim League, led by Nawaz Sharif, is a moderate right-wing party which has ruled the country twice.

The sources say that this is part of an effort to bring together all political parties who criticized the attacks by the US on Afghanistan and Pakistan's support of these efforts. An alliance of nine religious parties has already been formed, and if right-wing political parties such as the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz group) throw their weight behind this alliance, it could become a strong force.

The emergence of this group would come at the expense of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD). Prior to September 11, the ARD was touted as the strongest alliance ever in the history of the country as all political parties were a part of it, commanding the lion's share of the vote bank in the country of 140 million people.

The alliance included all major right- and left-wing political parties, such as the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), the Pakistan Muslim League (PML, Nawaz group), the Awami National Party, the Muttehida Quami Movement (MQM) - which pulled out several months ago - and over a dozen other parties. However, no religious political parties were included.

Despite the strong membership, though, the ARD was never able to mobilize the masses against Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in October 1999 and suspended the parliamentary process. The first cracks appeared when many of its members, such as the PML, and even its chairman, Nawabzada Nasarullah Khan, voiced opposition to the US attacks on Afghanistan, and Musharraf's wholesale support for the US efforts in its war on terrorism. On the other hand, the PPP and the Awami National Party supported Musharraf's stand. In the face of such splits, Khan resigned his post and the ARD is now essentially a dead force.

Talking to Asia Times Online, the central senior vice president of the PML (Nawaz group) and once advisor to former premier Nawaz Sharif, Mushahidullah Khan, ruled out any possibility of an election alliance with the PPP. "Our alliance [in the ARD] with the Pakistan People's Party was restricted for the cause of democracy and we will take a separate strategy for sure in the elections," Khan said. He confirmed that his party is already in contact with many religious political parties.

The military regime, on the other hand, is working on plans to ensure that the absolute supremacy of Musharraf will continue even after parliamentary polls. He has already indicated that he will continue to serve as president, even though he has not set out any constitutional means to make the title a legitimate one. Clearly, Musharraf aims to overshadow parliament's role, just as former dictator General Zia ul-Haq did in the 1980s. At present, Musharraf holds the positions of chief of army staff, president and chief executive - all for indefinite terms. The state apparatus has already started working on ways to pave the way for an elected house with deeply splintered representation, which will ensure that the dictatorial designs of Musharraf are met.

In the latest development, the former chief minister of North West Frontier Province and the leader of the PPP, Aftab Sherpao, has suddenly arrived in Pakistan from exile in London. He was wanted by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in connection with a number of corruption allegations. According to sources, Sherpao was granted a safe passage by the former director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence, retired lieutenant-general Ahmed Mehmood and the former chairman of the NAB, Lieutenant-General Syed Mohammed Amjad, who is the present chairman of the Fauji Foundation, a powerful group of army businesses. The three men attended Lawarance College, Murree and have been friends since childhood. Sources say that Sherpao will soon be exonerated by the NAB of any wrongdoing.

The state apparatus has already formed a new Sindh Democratic Alliance whose general-secretary is a bureaucrat who was sacked by the present regime on corruption charges. This party is likely to affect the PPP's stronghold constituency in rural Sindh province.

In the Punjab, meanwhile, the largest province and a decisive force in parliament, the state is in the process of engineering an alliance between the pro-government Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-I-Azam) and the PPP. The parties have a common stand with the government on issues such as Kashmir and Afghanistan and they opposite the religious-political parties and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz group).

According to sources, the PPP has agreed to an alliance in this province on condition that all corruption charges against the PPP's chairperson and former premier Benazir Bhutto are withdrawn, as well as those against her spouse, Asif Zardari, who is at present in jail pending further court proceedings. Bhutto, who lives in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, favors sending her husband into exile, just as Nawaz Sharif was.

According to the latest information from Saudi Arabia, Sharif, who was sent into exile by the military regime, has decided to go to London once a date for the elections is announced. From there he too will run a campaign. He made this decision after leaders of the PML, such as the former governor of Sindh, Mamnoon Hussain, and a former senator, Khawaja Qutubuddin, convinced him that without his active participation, the PML would have no chance at the polls.

The PML-N's acting president, Syed Javed Hashmi, is under NAB custody, but no charges have been formalized against him. His arrest is viewed as an attempt to prevent his party from playing any effective role before the general elections.

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