Poll commentator Pervez

Who would have suspected that among General Pervez Musharraf8217;s considerable range of natural gifts is a talent for psephology. He has j...

Who would have suspected that among General Pervez Musharraf8217;s considerable range of natural gifts is a talent for psephology. He has just pronounced that voter participation in the first phase of polling in Jammu and Kashmir was between 2-10 per cent and has dismissed as 8216;rubbish8217;, India8217;s claims of a 47 per cent turnout for this phase. We could have bowed before the general8217;s superior wisdom if he had revealed the methodology behind his arrival at these figures. But since he did not care to do this, we may conclude that they emanated from the same source that gave Pakistan Television that wonderful story last week about voters being dragged out of their homes in the Lolab assembly constituency and made to vote. As we all know, the election in Lolab had been countermanded after the killing of NC candidate Mushtaq Ahmed Lone. The only conclusion then that can be drawn from these 8216;general8217; facts and figures is that Pakistan8217;s propaganda machinery seems to be working at full tilt.

But let us put this aside and ask ourselves why the general is so anxious to rubbish the J038;K elections. After all, remember that he even had it as one of the important themes in his address to the UN general assembly not so long ago. He had pronounced on that occasion that 8216;India8217;s planned elections in Kashmir will once again be rigged. Such elections, under Indian occupation, will not help peace; they may set it back, in fact. The people of Jammu and Kashmir must be allowed to exercise their right to determine their own future in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council8217;. Here, in fact, is the answer to the riddle raised earlier. A successful election in J038;K would demolish the general8217;s carefully constructed thesis that there is a popular insurgency raging in the state, with 8216;freedom fighters8217; leading the way. It hasn8217;t helped Pakistan8217;s case that US ambassador to India, Robert Blackwill, has had words of endorsement for the election process in the state thus far.

What Musharraf will not acknowledge, of course, is that if any election process is under a cloud it is the one he plans to preside over on October 10 in Pakistan. So dismal are his democratic credentials and so deliberate his 8216;preparations8217; for it, that to this day Pakistanis are not quite sure whether their tryst with the ballot box will indeed materialise. Given this state of affairs, we would urge the general to address the crisis of confidence over his own electoral project rather than raise doubts about the credibility of the J038;K polls.