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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