Simply remarkable! The power of vote has outshone the powers that be. A silent revolution of the silent majority has struck Pakistan and the otherwise voiceless people have said a big but decisive “No” to the political parties loyal to President General (retd) Musharraf.
To be precise and to be frank, Musharraf has lost. If the night between Monday and Tuesday does not do any magic, the Pakistan Muslim League-N has really done the wonder and surprised all and sundry, possibly its own leadership too. A great surprise! The PML-N has emerged as the dominant force in the Punjab while the Pakistan People’s Party, as expected, has swept Sindh and got its share in the Punjab and the Frontier, confirming itself as a federal party.
The king’s party – the Pakistan Muslim League-Q – has been cut down to size. The party, which was created by the ISI to give political support to Musharraf, perhaps deserved its fate. Seeing the Q’s fate, one remembers a rhyme that we were taught in the early days of our school – ‘Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, all the kings horses and all the kings men could not put Humpty Dumpty together again’. Would you believe that Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has lost and so has Sheikh Rashid, and so many others.
The future of Pakistan is now in the hands of the PPP and the PML-N, the two major anti-Musharraf political parties, whose workers and leadership have shown extraordinary warmth towards each other on election day. Political analysts and pundits were expecting to see the PPP leading with over 100 seats in the National Assembly but now the PML-N seems to be racing to be number one.
There can be no two opinions about the fact that it was Nawaz Sharif’s no-compromise posture towards Pervez Musharraf and his top election slogan seeking the restoration of the pre-Nov 3rd judiciary, which have paid him dividends in the polls.
The PPP was lacking on these counts and suffered, particularly in the Punjab because of the same reasons. It was giving mixed and confused signals to Musharraf when the latter was all-powerful, and backtracked from the demand of the restoration of the deposed judges. Despite the sympathy factor, the party did not get the seats it anticipated in the largest province.
“Democracy is the best revenge,” the well-said quote of Benazir Bhutto has been reinforced today and really fits in the case of Nawaz Sharif. The PML-N chief has taken his revenge for all that he had faced since the day – October 12, 1999 – when he was removed from power by President Musharraf in a military coup. Now Musharraf’s fate is to be decided by Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari.
Already reports have appeared in the media that the two leaders might ask Musharraf to quit. Options now remain limited for the president. Credit though goes to him for holding fair and free elections and also for accepting the results, still there are slim chances of PPP-PML-N accepting him as the president unless he decides to undo what he did on Nov 3, 2007. And this undoing precisely includes restoration of the deposed judges, which is the demand of the people and now a great possibility and not an optimistic view.
The two parties are also determined, as they have been saying in the past, to restore the 1973 Constitution as it was on Oct 12, 1999 when Musharraf first arrived in the political arena. In that case, the president’s powers to dissolve the assemblies and remove the government would go besides his authority to make key appointments, including the military.
The National Security Council will also be abolished. In such a situation, President Musharraf would be reduced from an all-absolute ruler to the likes of Fazal Elahi Chaudhry. Only time will tell if he would agree to this fate.
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