On the face of it, President Pervez Musharraf's reelection should have been a done thing by now, but that does not seem to be the case as the question of its constitutionality breathes so much fire into the pre-election national debate.
His person and his politics continue to deeply impact the policies of the government, equally strong reaction to which tends to split the body politic into two diametrically opposed for-Musharraf and against-Musharraf segments.
Unfortunately, this polarisation dominates the ongoing election campaign, almost to the exclusion of all other national issues. Rightly then the results of International Republican Institute's polls that cast President Musharraf in relatively negative light would only accentuate that trend of increasing polarisation. According to the survey that was carried out in the second fortnight of November after the proclamation of emergency rule, 67 percent of Pakistanis want President Musharraf to resign immediately, as full 70 percent judged his government did not deserve to be reelected.
His rationale for imposing emergency was rejected as 66 percent said it was to prevent the Supreme Court from overturning his re-election for another term. Intriguingly, the Washington-based IRI is funded by the US government and has some leading members of the Republican Party on its board of directors.
However, the President's spokesman has rejected the survey as invalid, saying some 3000 people cannot speak for 160 million Pakistanis. What else should one know evaluate opinion polls? Interestingly, almost coincidental to the release of IRI survey findings, a group of 23 former ambassadors and foreign secretaries of Pakistan jointly demanded immediate lifting of emergency rule, restoration of sacked judges, formation of neutral caretaker cabinets at the federal and provincial levels, reconstitution of Election Commission and immediate release of all political prisoners, particularly judges and lawyers.
At the same time, a signature drive 'Save NWFP, Save Pakistan' has been started. And should Nawaz Sharif, the political nemesis of President Pervez Musharraf, be elected he vowed not to work with the President.
In sum, the forthcoming elections are expected to be a straight fight between the pro-Musharraf and anti-Musharraf political forces, and other areas of public concern like higher cost of living, long hours of blackout due to energy deficit, absence of law and order, lack of job opportunities and rampant corruption have taken the back seat.
Of course, only of late some of the parties have issued their election manifestoes, but the exercise has hardly been taken note of both by the media and the people. It looks as if the politicians and the general public live on two different planets unaware of each other's existence. In a country where there is so much of social and economic injustice, the elections are going to be fought on issues absolutely unconnected with masses - that is a tragedy of apocalyptical dimensions.
Not surprisingly, there are no big election rallies and political meetings as the common man prefers to sit back and watch the blood-letting power grab theatre from a distance. Holding elections is an enormous exercise involving huge finances, open and hidden. It cannot be undertaken so casually. Those who go into it must justify their participation by explaining to the people as to what prompted them to join the electoral race.
But, as we go to January 8 general election do we really know anything beyond the romantically semantic gimmickry of 5-Ds and 5-Es that catapulted the country's two main parties into the fray? The people would like to hear Benazir Bhutto telling them what she would do as prime minister with the stalled privatisation of Pakistan Steel Mills. And Nawaz Sharif, if elected as prime minister, how would he react to the on-going co-operative alliance with the United States in the War on Terror?
And, can we predict with some degree of certainty how Maulana Fazlur Rehman as prime minister would tackle the sensitive issue of religious militancy? In circa 2008 when Pakistanis will go to polls their problems would be mainly of economic nature and militancy but there is no debate about them. Unfortunately, the entire electioneering is being held hostage to one issue - the political future of President Pervez Musharraf.
There is the need to expand the scope of the electoral debate, with the people's economic future at the centre. Or, is it that we are planning another round for issues concerning the masses because the present one is monopolised by power seekers?
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