Emergency:
Boon or Bane?
By Sadiq Mehdi
Long Beach, CA
Pakistan is a great nation,
but plagued with selfish leaders, corrupt politicians
and religious extremists. Its political system
is dominated by landlords, manipulated by military,
influenced by western powers and hijacked by religious
extremists.
Musharraf took on the reins of power in 1999 and
became the guiding force. That was the time when
Pakistan was on the brink of bankruptcy and on
its way to being declared a failed state. He gave
freedom to the press and other media, encouraged
foreign investment and took a lead role in the
war on terror. Under Musharraf Pakistan flourished
for the first time in decades.
Benazir Bhutto has emerged as a beacon of light
in the present time of crisis. Keep in mind her
two turns as Prime Minister gave Pakistan its
worst decline in Human Development and an unprecedented
rise in corruption at all levels in the country.
She has already been convicted by a Swiss Court
on corruption charges. The Taliban were launched
and organized as a formidable force during her
tenure. She truly is known as the "Mother
of Taliban". She is very clever and an opportunist.
She left Pakistan and went on a 'self imposed'
exile to avoid corruption charges and the matter
was never put to the courts.
She was the PM of Pakistan twice and both times
failed miserably. Now she is back and wants the
constitution changed so that she can be PM again!
It is unrealistic to think that if brought into
power, she can bring true democracy to Pakistan,
improve the situation in the tribal areas or control
the rising threat of militant mentality amongst
the masses.
Unfortunately the fact of the matter is that desperate
times call for desperate measures and declaring
emergency rule was the only option to clean house.
Pakistan cannot aspire to democracy when the judiciary
is corrupt, politically motivated and biased towards
militant and terrorists entities.
Democracy can be imposed on the people of Pakistan
but it will never thrive under the current circumstances.
The world is asking for free and fare elections.
But what we should fear is something of the sort
that we saw in the last election of the Palestinian
Authority. A group with extremist ideology got
elected because it gained short term sympathy
from the masses. There are many similar groups
thriving in Pakistan waiting for the opportunity
of clean elections so they can come to power by
arousing anti western, anti American sentiment.
This sentiment is clearly present amongst the
masses but it is kept in check by the secular
whip of Pakistan Army.
Democratic institutions need to be built from
grassroots levels. Most importantly, there needs
to be a separation of church and state. The imposing
of emergency rule is Pakistan is just another
step Musharraf had to take towards his struggle
to uproot the trouble makers from the seat of
authority. Musharraf's dedication in bringing
democratic reforms and President Bush's support
for him is by far the only viable option available
to see the birth of progressive, secular and democratic
Pakistan.
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