Pak’s back to normal

If there were any expectations that a change in Pakistan for the better would take place under global pressure to restore democracy, this must now be laid to rest after the sad sight of floor crossings and horse-trading which could ensure the election of the leader of the house, and the new prime minister, only by a margin of one vote in a house of 342. As many as ten members of the National Assembly reportedly crossed the floor to make it possible for the king’s party to win the crucial vote. A coalition government was very much on the cards after the process of election started and the two earlier prime ministers were debarred from fighting the elections in a process unambiguously designated inside Pakistan as ‘pre-poll rigging’. But what Pakistan has got is even less than that.

Some would say that this is nothing new. Pakistan’s democratic government, when it holds power, does so under the shadow of the army’s unquestioned power, and its cynical persistence to hold on to that power. Nawaz Sharif committed many mistakes in governance. But his real crime was that he tried to break out of the iron hold of the army, and was not wise enough to manage the fall out. The army has just ensured that such things will not happen in the future, and it will not become a ‘normal’ army. A series of steps by

General Pervez Musharraf have

ensured the continuation of the army as the institution decides all key policies even while an elected government faces responsibility without authority.

Whatever else happens, it is clear that the new government in Islamabad would at best be a fragile one, lacking in legitimacy even for a country like Pakistan. The world would have no option but to deal with this reality where the US war on terrorism had fizzled out in the badlands of Pakistan’s frontier regions and cities. The Islamic parties, who now have an influential presence in the National Assembly, besides their street power in a society that has been drifting toward right wing jehadi extremism, would now appear to be poised to possess greater legitimacy in pursuing their agenda. The developments, therefore, could have far reaching consequences for the future.