Pakistan’s poll track

It’s a reality television show, but in many ways the ongoing search for the “perfect prime minister” on a popular channel in Pakistan mirrors the innate desire of ordinary Pakistanis for a stable democratic system, one that has eluded the country for six decades. As those who conceived this TV show put it, the challenge is really to find someone who can “shepherd a nation of activists, not police a fold of huddled sheep”. Of course, given the endemic instability that Pakistan has been experiencing — Swat has again just seen another terrible spurt of violence, even as three PPP supporters were killed in a Baluchistan village over the weekend — not just the perfect prime minister, but even an imperfect election process appears tragically elusive.

The move to boycott the January 8 election called by Pervez Musharraf, in order to expose its very hollowness, may have had some justification if there was a modicum of unity among the various political parties opposed to the Pakistan president. In the absence of such coming together, a boycott of this kind would only have strengthened the Musharraf loyalists, and the king’s party, the Muslim League-Q. Today, none of these parties are on the same page. The Nawaz Sharif-Benazir Bhutto talks on a boycott plan failed to achieve any consensus — with Bhutto deciding to take part in the election and flying off to Dubai. Others like the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl) had decided to contest the election right from the beginning. Nawaz Sharif, who was pushing for a boycott, therefore, really had no choice in the matter. Sunday’s decision of the Sharif-led All Parties Democratic Movement to participate in the election was almost a foregone conclusion.

The manoeuvres of the various political actors over the last few days indicate that Musharraf’s challengers are not just confused but have widely differing interests and priorities. This lack of a collective strategy to take on the former general could seriously undermine the country’s democratic project. This is not good news for those who have courageously come out on to the streets over all these months, first in protest against the treatment accorded to Chief Justice Iftikar Chaudhry and then against Musharraf’s emergency. The only beneficiaries of these developments are, of course, Musharraf himself, and the all-powerful army.