Ahsan Waheed Analysts, both in the print and the electronic media, look to usher in a new democratic era in Pakistan with the end of tenure for Pervez Musharraf as the President of Pakistan. Only a few see him invoking Article 58-2b of the constitution: the right of the president to dismiss parliament and call for fresh elections. Most subscribe to the thought this simply can't be done with the military having distanced itself from the political arena. That then leads to question of the president's impeachment, which parliament appears to feel would be the only recourse left, should Musharraf be persuaded by his civilian political supporters to remain glued to his post. There is little indication there are many who would stand with him. There are, however, still some who would support him.
Aitzaz Ahsan, the Supreme Court Bar Council president was recently heard saying in an TV interview while in the US, that for the US "Musharraf comes first, second and third" leaving all else in fourth place. This response came notwithstanding the US administration on last count had been reported to have said that the impeachment affair was internal matter for Pakistan. It indeed is or, at least it should be. But then stability in Pakistan is the cause of concern the world over, not least as Pakistan's establishment is confronted by a state of affairs that comes close to a civil war in its troubled Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), which has already begun to spill over into the North West Frontier Province's settled areas. And, the turbulence could easily travel down-country as far as Karachi, if the extremist threats of being in a position to penetrate Pakistan's giant commercial port metropolis are to be taken seriously. There is no gainsaying that the lawyers led by Ahsan and the Musharraf-dismissed chief justice, Chaudhry Mohammad Iftikhar, stand on the high moral ground with their ongoing crusade for an independent judiciary. So too do the Pakistan People Party's (PPP) guiding light, Asif Ali Zardari and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's (PNL-N) head, Nawaz Sharif on the sovereign parliament paradigm, despite their motives being considered suspect. And, while public opinion visibly favours an independent judiciary and parliamentary supremacy, it remains fairly wary of these two leaders, bearing in mind their having financially advantaged themselves in the past, to the determent of the country's advance to say nothing of Pakistan's fallen image that came as a disturbing corollary. Most in the establishment share this view. At the same time the people of this country are known to be magnanimous - even to a fault - and ever ready to forgive and forget. They are also politically conscious, much as some might make it a point to deny this. In the prevailing circumstances, the impeachment of the President is not too high on their priority list. What they are primarily concerned about is the spiraling inflation along with the rising crime rate (a thought reflected by nearly every political analyst), which has by far the greater segment of society in desperate search for stability. They are also quite aware that the "war on terror has" in Afghanistan has opened the doors to clandestine activity for those who brazenly seek to diminish the country's standing internationally, while it is equally well understood that it is only the Pakistan's military, backed by the country's sensitive agencies, that stand in the way of these foes. If then there has been a measure of sympathy for the Taliban in anonymous quarters, it is for this reason, although the empathy is rapidly eroding with the extremists' bid to capture power by the show of arms. Where President Musharraf, for all his good intentions arguably erred, was in allowing the extremists as much latitude as he did. And he suffered the consequences in his February 18 electoral defeat. But, for all his faults, the man in no way deserves the treatment being meted out to him at this juncture, as his policy pursuits are almost unanimously acknowledged as having been in defence of the state of Pakistan. Those urging safe and dignified passage to the former army chief, should he elect to abdicate, or even should he choose to defend himself before parliament, are therefore to be commended. For, at the end of the day it is imperative that Parliament minimize Pakistan's political fault lines if the dangerous genie that is extremism is to be pushed back into the bottle.
