Parliamentary elections are due in Pakistan very shortly. The outcome is uncertain. Yet the changes that could be expected had Benazir Bhutto, the charismatic leader of the Pakistan's Peoples Party, not been brutally assassinated in the prime of her life. Her assassination has left the situation in Pakistan highly uncertain. In fact the election has become far less exciting if not downright an exercise in futility.
The Parliamentary elections had been set following a deal in power sharing by the dictator turned politician Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto. There was an element of excitement which has vanished following the grisly death of Benazir. Sensing her imminent death, Benazir had left a will in which she is reported to have named her son, Bilawal Bhutto to be her heir and considering his young age her husband Asif Zardari, as a kind of trustee. Without wasting any time, Zardari packed his son back to Oxford and thereby attempted to a put a lid on the issue of succession. Political succession is more easily said than done. It becomes far more complicated when it is such a famous and wealthy family as the Bhuttos, who used to be a very wealthy land owner of Sind. During my long diplomatic career I have known the Bhutto family intimately, including the former President Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto. I know the nearly irreconcilable quarrel within the family. That the inheritance of the political mantle will cause severe dissension within the family can be said with near certainty. And we have heard quarrel surfacing which may be only the tip of the iceberg.
Given this background how the biggest political party the PPP, will fare is very uncertain. Indeed the charismatic Zulfiquar had built up and fashioned the PPP as the only all Pakistan party. The rest are either regional parties or some left over of the former Muslim League. The other former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Muslim League has jumped in the fray now that his arch rival Benazir is no more. Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who got himself elected to his present post by sacking the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and by virtually retiring the entire Court and replacing them by his cronies, has tried to inject some excitement to the forthcoming election by a high profile tour of some European countries. Yet the election has failed to ignite any excitement in spite of its bracketing by the CNN with the US Presidential elections. This is of course from the sublime to the ridiculous!
While Pakistan has lost Benazir Bhutto, Gen. Pervez Musharraf has lost something very valuable for him. That is his General's uniform, which is new worn by Gen. Kayani, the new Chief of the Army Staff. Since in the established pattern of Pakistan politics it is the General's uniform that change hands, the question that will be on many minds whether the old pattern will continue. The Parliamentary elections may fail to give any shine to Pakistan's democracy so much sought after by her benefactor, the United States of America.
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