The post-poll blues

EERILY, no apparent hurry is being shown by the victors of the February 18 polls to form government at the Centre. Neither is there any strident call by the newly-elected members for an early inauguration of the National and Provincial Assemblies, although there could be serious objections to delayed notification of the results of the electoral exercise. Compare it to the post-1988 election scene when President Ghulam Ishaq Khan had to face severe public criticism for his perceived moves to delay calling the inaugural session because Benazir Bhutto was to be installed as prime minister, no such urgency is detectible now. Why? One apparent reason behind the sluggish pace could be the confusion, following indecision, about the question as to who should be the next prime minister. While everywhere in the world political parties head for the polls behind a leader who in case of achieving numerical majority become prime ministers. In fact, in functioning democracies there always are prime ministers in-waiting. But that is not to be now in Pakistan, because the Pakistan People’s Party which has emerged as the largest group from the recent elections is beset by inability to announce who would be its nominee for the office of prime minister. The nomination of Makhdoom Amin Fahim, who was declared as the post-Benazir Bhutto consensus nominee in the PPP’s cabal at Naudero soon after her burial, is no more the front-runner. For various considerations, some as diabolical as accusing him of meeting unnamed government interlocutors without the prior approval of Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, his name is said to have been bracketed with three others as potential nominees. The Makhdoom’s relegation is being explained as the PPP high command’s perception that the Punjab, where the Nawaz Sharif party has come from behind and emerged as the first electoral choice, should be sharply focused at. The names of Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Yusuf Raza Gilani and Ahmad Mukhtar are being mentioned as potential nominees for the prime ministerial slot, with a rider added that this arrangement would remain in place for four months after which Asif Ali Zardari, having been elected in the meanwhile, would take over.
The party’s would-be coalition partners, particularly PML (N), have no objection to whatever comes from the PPP. But given the tentativeness surrounding clearance of Asif Ali Zardari’s candidature for election, the uncertainty about the party’s nomination for the post of country’s chief executive refuses to abate. An equally strong factor inhibiting the PPP from urgently clinching nomination of its future prime minister and to set the ball rolling is the stark realisation that delivering on problems as intractable as restoration of sacked judiciary and combating the yawning deficits plaguing every sector of the life would be an uphill if not an impossible task. The most menacing, however, is the challenge of arresting the rapid deterioration of national economy. Of course, a significant economic turnaround had come about during the last eight years, but there were these dangerous fault-lines coming in between various economic surges, which were overlooked by the government of the day. In no uncertain words and not so infrequently we had warned the economic managers of the perils of promoting unequal distribution of economic gains.





A Gazan correction

ISRAEL, not Hamas, is responsible for the rockets flying into its territorieTHE Hamas leadership is right in refuting Israel’s excuse for the brutal onslaught on Gaza that left more than 100 dead and many more injured, pointing out that rockets firing into Israel are the result of Israeli aggression, not the other way round. Most funeral processions Gazan streets witness as fighting recedes temporarily comprise women and children, even babies, begging a much needed wake-up from an international community still shy of coming down hard on Israel, preferring not to come in the way of the traditional Washington-Tel Aviv equation. Despite the unfairness and intensity of the long Israeli occupation, post Jan ’06 developments have been extraordinary. The West’s economic embargo that punished Palestinians for voting in Hamas, the economic collapse and humanitarian catastrophe, embarrassing Hamas-Fatah civil war, and unprecedented choke on everything Gazan since Hamas ousted Fatah and took over last summer have created a situation far worse than any in the last half-century. Israel’s latest vicious assault on Gaza has vindicated the international media, which dubbed George Bush’s Annapolis peace drive ‘unsustainable’ for engaging with the West Bank while punishing the 1.5 million population in the Gaza Strip. Israel’s commitment, too, found favour only in Washington despite Tel Aviv’s go-ahead to settlement expansion as soon as George Bush and Co returned to Washington. Mahmoud Abbas’ move of suspending all negotiations is as understandable as inevitable, as it forces an unavoidable combination that plays into an eager Israeli lobby’s game plan. Already, Israel’s foreign ministry is ‘regretting’ Fatah’s suspension of dialogue, putting the blame for turning away from peace negotiations once again squarely on the Palestinians.
There has never been a more pressing need for the US to shift stance on the Middle East’s most pressing problem than now. Israel’s unfairness owes to the need of protecting an illegal occupation, a stance that always banks on brute force to quell opposition. Since Washington is Tel Aviv’s perpetual veto leverage at the United Nations, it is not going too far in holding the White House responsible for much of the blood spilled on the Palestinian street. With the peace process again dead and Israel’s brutal “Holocaust” imminent, there is not much reason for optimism in Palestine. Most Israeli troops may have withdrawn from Gaza but surely there is more to come as the military assault will prove just as unsuccessful in subduing Hamas as the sanctions following the Jan ’06 landslide win, both torturing only the common Palestinian people. So the hostilities will go on. Hamas will keep firing rockets till something budges far away in Washington, and Israel will continue to fall on an oppressed people’s legitimate fight for survival to justify its terrorism. All this while, those providing Israel the cover for its atrocities will bear responsibility for the misery inflicted on a helpless lot. The international media has already taken the Palestinian plight to the American people. It is time they realise the disgusting oppression being carried out in their name, and leverage the world’s strongest democracy to stop the madness.

—Khaleej Times