Some more Mush-management

Sharif, however, has kept up the call, demanding that a national government be formed after Musharraf is forced to step down. He says this because both he and Zardari believe that the current caretaker government is partial to the erstwhile ruling coalition of the Musharraf-backed PML-Q and the MQM, and therefore, rigged elections under its supervision is a foregone conclusion. Sharif also wants the nationalists and the Islamists boycotting the polls to be part of a national government, but the PPP remains opposed to any such dispensation before elections. It sees it as a ruse to delay the elections, and fears it might lose the sympathy vote expected to come its way in the aftermath of the Bhutto tragedy.

Other major political parties in the fray include the PML-Q, the MQM and the JUI of Maulana Fazlur Rahman. All three have been the beneficiaries of Musharraf8217;s tailor-made dispensation. The first two were the ruling coalition partners in Sindh and at the Centre in the last government, while the JUI as part of the six-party religious alliance, the MMA, ruled the Frontier province. The MMA has all but fallen apart after the JUI decided to contest the forthcoming election, with the rest of the component parties sticking to their boycott of the polls. If their track record is anything to go by, the PML-Q, the MQM and the JUI will continue to do the king8217;s bidding, with or without a national government being a possibility. If one were to ask for a dream government these parties have in mind, it would be the three of them joining hands without a thorn in their side in the form of the PPP or the PML-N Sharif.

But this analysis was true only before Musharraf8217;s EU tour began. Now the man will not hear the idea of a national government before or after the polls because he has sold the Europeans the idea of holding free and fair elections. This was ostensibly done under American prodding, because the US found its European cousins8217; faith shaken in Musharraf after the cold-blooded murder of Bhutto. The reception Musharraf received in Europe 8212; France even banned the anti-Musharraf rallies that awaited him there 8212; now leaves little doubt that the Pakistani leader has won back the lost support of his western backers, even as he jeered their demands for democracy in Pakistan, calling it an obsession.

Once again it is clear that Musharraf continues to be seen as the West8217;s best bet in a nuclear-armed country undergoing political turmoil, and with al Qaeda believed to be knocking at Pakistan8217;s doors. Not that the extremist threat posed to the state is unreal. It8217;s the remedy suggested 8212; an army-backed, quasi-democratic order 8212; that will remain controversial with the people of Pakistan, and for good historical reasons.

Every time the democratic process was interrupted in the name of national security and the army intervened, a major disaster followed before a civilian government was put in place and expected to make sense of the mess left behind by the junta. The country has reeled under many failed political experiments with the civil-military establishment repeatedly trying to put in place a democratic order it can live with. But the people have seen through these moves, refusing to legitimise a stage-managed democracy. They only wish Pakistani autocrats8217; foreign backers also paid some heed to their hopes and aspirations. And, again, they stand disappointed.

The writer is an editor with 8216;Dawn8217;, Karachi murtazarazvihotmail.com