Walking past the past & moving forward

AFTER meeting the key players of Pakistani politics, as it tends to evolve in the wake of Elections-2008 - President Pervez Musharraf, Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari - the visiting US senators had something to say which bears repetition. At a news conference, they described the Monday elections’ outcome a decisive moment for Pakistan and said, “It is now up to the leaders to seize the opportunity while putting their grudges in the past and think about the future”. These words coming as they do from the United States’ three influential legislators, who discussed with the host country’s leaders expected to play crucial roles in the coming days and months, are not merely empty talk. With the elections over, as we said in these columns the other day, only half the distance to the goal of a fully functional democracy has been traversed. It was an arduous journey, but the other half that has yet to be trekked may be equally difficult if not more. The issues that the new government is likely to face - from restoring the Constitution to its 1973 position, to securing the independence of the judiciary and to regaining the economic momentum - are no mean challenges. The political past of Pakistan has never been very glorious, but the last few years were really problematic, and should they be allowed to hold us back it would be a great misfortune for the country and the people. The February 18 elections have thrown up a hung parliament. None of the parties has been able to win a simple majority to be able to form a government on its own. But forming a coalition government should be no problem. Multiplicity underscoring our socio-political milieu breeds a host of ideologies that in turn encourage growth of multi-party national politics. This does help appreciate the logic of federalism that is so essential to the basic scheme of our constitution. So there is no reason why coalition governments at the Centre and in the provinces do not come into being in the next couple of weeks. But what we are talking about here is the agenda that these governments would be expected to take up and various plans and programmes the new rulers would be required to undertake. The fact is that not too infrequently, governments in the past, initiated actions against their political rivals and imprisoned them for months and years, often without trial.
Sometimes, political policies were framed only to create problems for the adversaries. Who would be better acquainted with such actions than Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari? Not only their families suffered deprivation but also the country’s international image was tarnished and the people’s trust in civilian politicians took the beating. When we talked about the inadvisability of racking up the past we were speaking of personal scores being settled on coming to power. Seeking restoration of sacked judges of superior courts does not fall in this category, however. Of course, during campaigning the parties do make many commitments in order to win electoral support but on coming to power practical difficulties pose serious hurdles in meeting those commitments. One such commitment the PML(N) made to the voters, particularly activists belonging to civil society, was that if elected to form government the party it would restore judiciary to its pre-November 3, 2007 position. The PPP-P was a little less enthusiastic, but the fact remains that its late leader Benazir Bhutto is on record having stated that from her party’s point of view Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is the Chief Justice of Pakistan. The fact that the main crusader for reinstatement of the sacked judges, Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, is a senior member of the PPP-P also gives credence to the party’s commitment of support to the sacked judges.



Obama’s chances

IT is certainly not over yet, but after this week’s victories in Wisconsin and Hawaii, Barack Obama is stretching his lead over Hillary Clinton to be the Democrat candidate for the White House this November. John McCain, who looks to have the Republican nomination in the bag, has seemed to indicate who he thinks will be challenging him, by launching a tough attack on Obama, pointing up his lack of experience compared with his wealth of rhetoric. This may, however, be politicking, with McCain actually preferring to take on the arguably more vulnerable Hillary than having to cope with a Kennedy-style tidal wave of hope for political change and renewal from Obama. American politics, however, can get dirty. The Hillary camp’s attempt to show up Obama for plagiarizing the words of his friend Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick was a mild shot compared with the muckraking in candidates’ personal lives that has distorted the hustings in past presidential primaries. As it was Obama was able to parry the blow by saying he shared Patrick’s views and his friend was on his campaign team. Obama’s people also pointed out that Hillary had herself stolen lines from his campaign. The pundits agree that everything depends on the March 4 contests in Texas and Ohio. If these turn out to be the 11th and 12th consecutive wins for Obama, then the Hillary campaign is dead in the water. If, however, the former first lady can win just one of these states, with their big delegate tallies, she is still in with a chance. Nevertheless, analysts are already trying to work out just how radically an Obama presidency would transform American policy and the country’s place in the world.
But even if he may almost have the nomination sewn up, the outcome of the election in November is still uncertain. This is because McCain is no Bush clone. Indeed his liberal outlook makes many traditional Republicans distinctly uneasy. Because he is aged 71, McCain’s vice-presidential choice will be particularly important and Republican bigwigs may well want to see a conservative on the ticket. That backroom tussle before the Republican Convention in Minneapolis on Sept. 1 will be the next big battle that McCain will have to fight. He will doubtless argue that simply because of his age, the vice president who would be “a heartbeat away from the presidency” will need to share his liberal views. That way the McCain campaign could go up against either Hillary or Obama with a clear agenda for change. And if it is Obama that has to be defeated, McCain’s liberal sentiments and well-worn air of experience and quiet confidence could play well with Americans. It should not be forgotten that though the rest of the world is focusing on the future of US foreign policy, it is domestic policies that will win the White House. America is heading into economic hard times. Will Americans turn to an untried, charismatic and eloquent Obama or a steady, nondoctrinaire old man with a wealth of years?

—Arab News