The Presidential election , it has been announced, will be held on October 6th. On October 8th 2005, an earthquake brought death and despair to parts of the country. It remains to be seen as to whether there will be a political earthquake on October 6th 2007 but the statement of Benazir Bhutto in this regard is educative. She states, “ “The Pakistan People’s Party wants to support Gen Musharraf if he takes the country towards democracy but we do not want to bail out a military dictatorship” In other words , an individual who usurped the constitution is acceptable to BB as long as he doffs off the uniform. If he doffs of the uniform and wants to rule as the President for another seven to nine years, should the Pakistani public accept it? This statement of BB indicates that we should.
Mohtramma Benazir Bhutto further states, “ “We are not going to compromise on our democratic principles. We want democracy in its true spirit. She further stated that her support for President Musharraf would hinge on him accepting proposals she had made, including immunity from prosecution for civilians who ruled between 1988 and 1999 and the lifting of a ban on a prime minister serving a third term.”
For the record , perhaps BB should enumerate the “democratic principles “she is referring to. Is the “true spirit of democracy” accepting Mr. Mushraff instead of General Mushraff if he paves the way for BB’s personal gains as indicated by the demands she has put forth?
Looking at the proceedings in the courts in the last 3-4 days, the signs are that the court could well rule in Musharraf’s favour. I hope it doesn’t happen, but the rejection of Imran Khan’s petition and the remarks by the judges don’t sound that encouraging.
Indeed… looks like it. Apparently, from the statement below this is what Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman the government’s opposition leader is hoping for also . …. “Maulana Fazl said the opposition parties heaped praise on the Supreme Court when it gave some judgments against the government. All leaders said the court had come out of the government’s pressure and was working independently. But now that there were signs the Supreme Court might not give a judgment of the opposition’s liking on some petitions against Gen Musharraf, the same parties had started holding demonstrations.” ( Dawn.Sat,Sep 22nd 2007.
I feel that resignations by the opposition will only going to help Musharraf. He will shamelessly go ahead with the election and claim that he has been elected by the majority of parliamentarians. The opposition will cry fowl but that won’t make any difference to Mush.
If I were in the opposition, I would have supported the candidate by the lawyers, tried to convince all the MNAs in the opposition parties to vote in his favour in addition to wooing a few ppl in PML-Q and PPP-patriots by urging to vote in favour of the lawyers candidate in return for some carrots. PPP, PML-N, MMA and the nationalists, along with a few lotas from PML-Q and PPP patriots, and who knows, Mush could even lose the election. But for that we would need the opposition to be fully united behind a single candidate. In my opinion, short of full street protests, this is the opposition’s only hope of threatening Mush since resigning by itself will achieve nothing.
What we are instead seeing is that PPP is trying to put up its own candidate rather than backing justice Wajihudin. Clearly, this is going to accomplish nothing except dividing the opposition votes. Mush should really be thankful to BB and MMA for helping him out here.
Am I the only one thinking that PPP is fielding Amin Fahim as a presidential candidate instead of backing Justice Wajeehuddin only to divide the opposition?
BB is going to deal with Gen.Musharraf for the sake her own benifits not for the country. Her father hung,but not had deal with military. So she is going against her father’s principles. The rest of the PPPP know it but ithey are no more than spectators.
And now the MMA topy drama of resigning from the assemblies. They have deliberately delayed it enough to allow the govt to table a no confidence motion. The president’s loyal opposition, BB and MMA.