10-19-2007, 01:37 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Benazir's back </b>
The Pioneer Edit Desk
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With the return of Ms Benazir Bhutto - twice Prime Minister of Pakistan and supreme leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) - after an eight-year exile, her country seems poised for changes. Ms Bhutto's arrival in Karachi, amid threats by the Taliban and others, has been facilitated by the National Reconciliation Ordinance issued by President Pervez Musharraf, withdrawing corruption cases against her and other senior politicians. The ordinance has been issued at a time of intense speculation about an American-brokered power-sharing arrangement between Gen Musharraf and Ms Bhutto. While the deal is not yet confirmed, the ordinance does, however, meet one of the conditions for such an arrangement - that of dropping of corruption cases against Ms Bhutto. Changes in the law that would allow a Prime Minister a third term, another of Ms Bhutto's conditions, are still to come. Even so, Ms Bhutto's decision to participate in the parliamentary election, to be held early next year, allows General Musharraf - whose victory in the Presidential election has yet to meet the Supreme Court's legal test - a way out of the political mess. He will now be able to retain a role for himself and the Army while apparently initiating a shift to democracy and civil society. Yet, the forthcoming democratic exercise would remain limited and downright tainted if Mr Nawaz Sharif - the other former premier in exile - is not allowed to participate. As will be recalled, Mr Sharif was deported to Saudi Arabia on September 10, hours after he landed in Islamabad.
Happily for Mr Sharif, Pakistan's Supreme Court has, in a detailed judgment this week, reiterated the point made earlier in a short order, that Pakistani citizens could not be restrained from returning to their country. Mr Sharif is keenly interested in another attempt at coming home. If he succeeds, it will add another twist to Pakistan's political drama. In any case, whatever the shape of the next Government, it will not mean a restoration of democracy in its entirety. The military, always powerful, has further entrenched itself during Musharraf's raj.
As for Ms Bhutto, the bookies' favourite for the Prime Minister's job, she laid down her priorities at a pre-departure Press conference in Dubai, calling for a Pakistan where people would have opportunities for "employment, economic well-being, the primacy of civilian rule and a society free of extremism". These are nice words but the problem with Ms Bhutto is that she has often gone back on political commitments and betrayed her so-called liberal image. Her two stints in power, full of promise but short on performance, were controversial because of corruption charges. <b>In the early 1990s, the PPP rule coincided with a hardline against India, encouragement of terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir and state-sponsored promotion of the Taliban occupation of Kabul by Ms Bhutto and her Interior Minister, the infamous Nasrullah Babar. Till a year ago, she was meeting Mr Sharif in London and proposing a joint effort at restoring democracy. Today, she has discovered the virtues of Gen Musharraf and is presenting herself to the Americans as an opponent of the Taliban and the Islamists. Like her father, she is attempting to be all things to all people. When it comes to the Bhuttos, hypocrisy is a way of life</b>.
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The Pioneer Edit Desk
Minnie Mouse in a Disneyland democracy <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> With the return of Ms Benazir Bhutto - twice Prime Minister of Pakistan and supreme leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) - after an eight-year exile, her country seems poised for changes. Ms Bhutto's arrival in Karachi, amid threats by the Taliban and others, has been facilitated by the National Reconciliation Ordinance issued by President Pervez Musharraf, withdrawing corruption cases against her and other senior politicians. The ordinance has been issued at a time of intense speculation about an American-brokered power-sharing arrangement between Gen Musharraf and Ms Bhutto. While the deal is not yet confirmed, the ordinance does, however, meet one of the conditions for such an arrangement - that of dropping of corruption cases against Ms Bhutto. Changes in the law that would allow a Prime Minister a third term, another of Ms Bhutto's conditions, are still to come. Even so, Ms Bhutto's decision to participate in the parliamentary election, to be held early next year, allows General Musharraf - whose victory in the Presidential election has yet to meet the Supreme Court's legal test - a way out of the political mess. He will now be able to retain a role for himself and the Army while apparently initiating a shift to democracy and civil society. Yet, the forthcoming democratic exercise would remain limited and downright tainted if Mr Nawaz Sharif - the other former premier in exile - is not allowed to participate. As will be recalled, Mr Sharif was deported to Saudi Arabia on September 10, hours after he landed in Islamabad.
Happily for Mr Sharif, Pakistan's Supreme Court has, in a detailed judgment this week, reiterated the point made earlier in a short order, that Pakistani citizens could not be restrained from returning to their country. Mr Sharif is keenly interested in another attempt at coming home. If he succeeds, it will add another twist to Pakistan's political drama. In any case, whatever the shape of the next Government, it will not mean a restoration of democracy in its entirety. The military, always powerful, has further entrenched itself during Musharraf's raj.
As for Ms Bhutto, the bookies' favourite for the Prime Minister's job, she laid down her priorities at a pre-departure Press conference in Dubai, calling for a Pakistan where people would have opportunities for "employment, economic well-being, the primacy of civilian rule and a society free of extremism". These are nice words but the problem with Ms Bhutto is that she has often gone back on political commitments and betrayed her so-called liberal image. Her two stints in power, full of promise but short on performance, were controversial because of corruption charges. <b>In the early 1990s, the PPP rule coincided with a hardline against India, encouragement of terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir and state-sponsored promotion of the Taliban occupation of Kabul by Ms Bhutto and her Interior Minister, the infamous Nasrullah Babar. Till a year ago, she was meeting Mr Sharif in London and proposing a joint effort at restoring democracy. Today, she has discovered the virtues of Gen Musharraf and is presenting herself to the Americans as an opponent of the Taliban and the Islamists. Like her father, she is attempting to be all things to all people. When it comes to the Bhuttos, hypocrisy is a way of life</b>.
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