Mother of All Elections
By Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd.)
Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Mr. B A Malik – a one time PPP ambassador and now teaching philosophy – writing in a newspaper seems to have been carried away by his steadfastness against the military and says that, “Military rule and fair elections as well as enlightened moderation do not go together” (I don’t know what does he exactly mean) and then again says, “No military ruler in Pakistan has held fair elections in the past”.
Having said that probably his conscience pricked him and he added, “Even the so-called fair elections held by Yahya Khan was a myth because the commander-in-chief supported his favourite candidates, although he did not have the capacity to gauge the mood of the electorate of his tumultuous times”.
Well done, Malik Sahib. Bravo, the world acknowledged that the only fair elections ever in Pakistan were those held by General Yahya Khan, but Malik Sahib is the only one to think it otherwise. By the way, what kind of elections were held by the PPP in 1977? If the aging Malik Sahib has any memory problem, he is advised to look at the Newsweek of the time in which a picture shows a huffing and puffing Hafeez ud Din Pirzada clad in shalwar qameez and grabbing the ballot box under his armpit in the company of many Jialas. The picture was captioned: “The law minister takes law into his hand”. Wasn’t there a countrywide agitation for holding fresh elections which was the main reason for ZAB’s undoing and leading him ultimately to the gallows?
Malik Sahib, blissfully people do not have that short a memory. Contrary to what you think, most are convinced of the sincerity of Musharraf and when he says that the elections will be fair, they will be fair. Period.

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