Mushahid calls for APC

Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed has called upon President Pervez Musharraf to convene an All Parties Conference (APC) to help evolve a consensus on ways and means to put in place an interim set-up which should pave the way for free and fair elections.
Speaking on the federal budget in the Senate on Wednesday, he also asked the government to set free PML (N) leader Makhdoom Javed Hashmi who is presently in jail on sedition charges. Looking askance at the way the government handled Chief Justice Chaudhry's visit to Karachi last month, he said heavens would not have fallen had the top judge's rally been allowed.
Mushahid set great store by President Musharraf's democratic 'mindset', conveying that, although in uniform, the President is more democratic than most of the so-called champions of democracy. Last year too, speaking in the Senate on Balochistan he had made a passionate appeal for political solution to the Nawab Akbar Bugti-centred crisis. He was ignored and the result is before us.
Given the all-pervasive confrontation between the government and the opposition on many fronts, Mushahid's call for an APC is not a day late. In fact, it should have come earlier and from many quarters, because the things at stake are not merely political and a jostling for the front seat; at stake is the very future of this polity.
The window of opportunity for a possible interaction between various centres of power, political and others, to evolve a national consensus is not expected to remain open endlessly. The Constitution mandates a certain timeline that has to be adhered to in setting up an interim arrangement and hold general elections. And, before the interim dispensation is put in place President Pervez Musharraf would like to seek a controversial re-election from the existing assemblies. There is also the burning question if he can keep his uniform after his re-election without a constitutional amendment.
In fact, there is no shortage of opinion to the effect that he would need to amend Article 63(1)k that debars a person "who has been in the service of Pakistan or of any statutory body or any body which is owned or controlled by the government or in which the government has a controlling share or interest, unless a period of two years has elapsed since he ceased to be in such service" from being elected to the Parliament.
Whereas article 41(2) of the Constitution states that "a person shall not be qualified for election as President unless he is a Muslim of not less than forty-five years of age and is qualified to be elected as member of the National Assembly". This and many such critical issues of national importance beg early resolution in order to put the state back on rails.
There are no readymade solutions to these questions; even the Constitution is silent in some cases. Then, there is the issue of credibility of elections, for, if the results are not accepted by the losers, which is very likely unless an impartial election commission enjoying full confidence of all sides is tasked to carry out this duty.
Rightly, then, Mushahid's call for an All-Parties Conference hosted by the President is an idea whose time has come. Setting aside bloated egos and bitter legacies let the President invite leaders of all the political parties, including those presently in exile. It would be naïve to think that without the presence and participation of Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and Altaf Hussain it would be possible to hold a meaningful national dialogue. Here, time is of essence. The follow-up to PML (Q) secretary general's proposal must happen as early as possible.
The issues confronting the country's leadership are highly contentious, very complicated and require a lot of sacrifice from all sides to get resolved. At the same time, the government should guarantee intensive, live coverage of the conference, so that the entire nation gets involved with the leadership and force the outcome of the APC. After all what is democratic process if its various stakeholders do not interact with each other and do not move forward in a 'give and take' manner.