• English Site
• > World
• > Pakistan

Bhutto's Quandry

Pakistan's Opposition Mulls Election Boycott

Pakistan's Supreme Court dismissed the last challenge to Musharraf's re-election as president, forcing the opposition to face a difficult decision. Should it boycott elections in January?

Pakistan's opposition parties are facing a tricky dilemma. Do they boycott forthcoming elections and risk giving President Pervez Musharraf a walkover or take part despite the current constraints of emergency rule and the questionable way Musharraf has ensured his continuation as president?

While Musharraf claimed his imposition of the state of emergency on Nov. 3 was due to the threat from Islamists, his first move was to crack down on the legal profession and opposition parties. He also packed the Supreme Court with friendly judges, who on Thursday obligingly dismissed the last of six challenges to his October re-election as president. Assured that he can continue to rule, he may now quit as army chief.

Pakistan Attorney General Malik Mohammed Qayyam said this could happen as soon as Saturday. He told reporters Thursday that the court's ruling means "there is no challenge to his eligibility (to serve as president) and to the election." Pakistan's Election Commission is expected to ratify the Oct. 5 election in the coming days.

Reacting to pressure from abroad and from the opposition, the authorities began to relax the state of emergency on Wednesday, releasing thousands of lawyers and opposition activists, including the cricket star-turned-politician Imran Kahn.

However, the ham-fisted way in which Musharraf has held onto power -- by declaring emergency rule, throwing activists and lawyers into jail, and banning political rallies -- means he may have to do more to overcome the widespread international condemnation directed his way over the past few weeks.

Commonwealth Threatens Suspension

Islamabad has even had to appeal to the Commonwealth, meeting in Uganda on Thursday, not to suspend Pakistan. The 53-nation group, consisting of the United Kingdom and most of its former colonies, had given Pakistan until Thursday to end emergency rule. On Wednesday Pakistan's caretaker prime minister, Mohammedmian Soomro, called for a "short postponement" to the Commonwealth's decision. According to Farzana Shaik, an expert with the British Chatham House think tank, suspension would be regarded as a "huge embarrassment" by Musharraf. She told the Associated Press: "Pakistan does value its historical links, and it would compound its international isolation."

Western governments, particularly the US, which has backed the general as a key ally in the war on terror, are eager for him to find his way back to some semblance of democracy and are still hoping for a rapprochement between Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto, the head of the country's most popular political party.

Musharraf had been hoping to form an alliance with the former prime minister and her Pakistan People's Party (PPP). Corruption charges against her were dropped, allowing her to return to Pakistan after many years in exile. However, she struck a more confrontational posture than he had expected, insisting Musharraf quit as army chief. With legal challenges to his election and a number of hostile judges, including former Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudry, likely to rule against him on the issue, he opted for the state of emergency option.

All eyes are now on Bhutto to see if she will go ahead and participate in the Jan. 8 elections. If she does not, then Musharraf will find it difficult to claim any democratic legitimacy.

Another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, has insisted on boycotting the elections, which he told Reuters were going to be "a farce." He has, however, failed to persuade many other parties to make the same decision. Fazl-ur-Rehman, head of the country's largest Islamist party, Jamiat-e-ulema-e-Islam (JUI), has vowed to contest the elections. Bhutto is expected to do the same after Sharif failed to convince her to join the boycott during a telephone call on Wednesday.

Talat Massod, a Pakistani analyst and former general, told Reuters: "It's a very difficult decision for a political party to stay away from the electoral process and it seems the People's Party is not likely to do that."

Bhutto has faced a similar dilemma before. In 1985 she boycotted the election called by President Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq, the general who had overthrown and executed her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. She later regretted the decision, saying she should have heeded the words of her late father who always told her: "Never leave a field open."

smd/ap/reuters