Post-elections, the top diplomats of Western countries including the United States, Britain and France have been more busy in Pakistan then the country’s politicians in making or breaking of the coalition government. The US ambassador Anne W Patterson, in particular has crossed all diplomatic norms and has been engaged in negotiations with political leaders in shaping the future government. She has met PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari, PML-N Chief Nawaz Sharif and Asfandyar Wali, who heads the ANP, after the elections and the irony of the matter is that these top Pakistani politicians have not only received the ambassadors but also called on them in the embassies. This is clear evidence that be it civilian rulers or military dictators, they will continue to play in the hands of the US and other Western powers, ignoring the wishes of the people of the country.

 The February 18 election results speak for themselves. PML-Q, the pro-Musharraf party, has been given the most embarrassing defeat by the Pakistani voters throughout the country. All the anti-Musharraf parties including PML-N, PPP and ANP were given a clear mandate to rule the country. The former military dictator’s eight years of rhetoric that he is the most popular leader in the country was given a befitting response by the voters, who exposed the real truth. The election results have had so much impact on our society that his previous allies in the army including retired generals and intelligence chief have admitted to rigging and manipulating the 2002 general elections against the wishes of the people. Musharraf had made no friends inside Pakistan and those who were associated with him for reason of interests have openly spoken against him. The hectic lobbying by the US ambassador since the election results has proved that the president has only one friend in the world. And that is the US President George W Bush. Now it is up to Musharraf whether he wants to continue as the president just because Bush wants him to or he opts to resign as the Pakistani public wishes him to do.

 The role of the foreign envoys based in Pakistan has been controversial, highly objectionable and quite immoral. No other country in the world allows foreign envoys to enter into talks with the political leaders in their countries during the process of formation of government. It only happens in Pakistan. The Foreign Ministry and the sitting caretaker government ought to be ashamed of themselves for letting this happen. Although the foreign envoys don’t admit on record that they are involved in influencing different political parties in helping the formation of government, the reality is they use all means to shape the future political structure in Pakistan. One such evidence was gathered during US ambassador’s meeting with Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad this week. The media wasn’t allowed to cover the meeting but cameramen were allowed to take shots for five minute. In one of those rare happenings, the cameraman of Online International News Network, an affiliate of Pulse, was able to capture the talk between the US ambassador and the former prime minister Mian Nawaz and his close aide Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who returned to the parliament from his constituency in Rawalpindi. For the convenience of the readers, we are producing transcript of the portion of the talks that was recorded.

VIDEO/TRANSCRIPT BEGINS: [THE DOTTED PORTION SHOWS BREAK IN RECORDING]

Ch. Nisar Ali Khan not in frame:
"Within 72 hours of notification join any of the party ... that is must ... it is a new amendment they introduced ... legal obligation ... every independent has to announce affiliation to one of the party within 72 hours ...

Nawaz Sharif [addressing Nisar Ali Khan]
"Yeh Aap Zaroor Kahain [You must mention this]

Ch. Nisar Ali Khan:
"As far as the independents are concerned ... after the independents support we will have a tally of over 90 and there are substantial ... prime minister has kept a very strong ...

Anne W. Petterson:
"right parallel ..."

Ch. Nisar Ali Khan not in frame:
“... a list, because there are certain people who are, you know, people are not well disposed to them, who stabbed us in the back ... we have ... put a bar on that we feel it will not be proper ... but in spite of that there will be a few PML-Q MNAs who, while remaining in the party, will support us.

Anne W. Petterson:
"Can I ask you Mr. Prime Minister, are you going to join the ...

Nawaz Sharif:
"... join the government, he wants us to be equal partners here although there numbers are higher yet I think ... we were opposed to the cooperation being extended to the MQM ... MQM has been ... they killed 48 people on the streets of Karachi, so I, but I am not making it a point of any ego, if Zardari ... desirable from a ... and I don't that they have any democratic contentions, they are a party who ...”

 The recorded conversation between Nawaz Sharif and the US ambassador is alarming given the fact that a Pakistani former prime minister, who gained significant number of seats in the national elections and is in a position to form a coalition government at the center and in to provinces of Punjab and NWFP is discussing the party position and government alliances. It is understandable if the envoys call on the people in government in waiting to discuss the country-to-country relations, but it sounds extremely odd that foreign envoys would be briefed on political alliances.

 This is not the first time that foreign envoys have got involved in Pakistani politics. This was seen during Sharif’s exile to Saudi Arabia in September when the Saudi government became Musharraf’s partner in crime by sending its intelligence chief to Pakistan, holding a press conference in Rawalpindi along with the Saudi envoy in Islamabad. Even then the Pakistani people strongly objected to the involvement of Saudi government in Pakistan’s domestic affairs and newspaper columnists and commentators wrote articles against it. The Saudi government got involved for a second time in accommodating Sharif’s return to the country two months later. The foreign diplomats were once again seen lobbying when slain leader Benazir Bhutto was put under house arrest twice in November when Musharraf imposed Martial Law in the country. When Bhutto was detained at Senator Latif Khosa’s house in Lahore, the diplomats of several Western countries including the US and Britain started lobbying for reviving the deal between Ms Bhutto and Musharraf.

 The events of past are evidence that the Bush administration is solely interested in keeping Musharraf in power. They are speaking with only one man in Pakistan and that is Musharraf, who has told Bush that he best can watch the US interests in Pakistan. It also shows that the Bush administration has no interest in the welfare of Pakistani people and it doesn’t respect the wishes of the people or their fundamental rights. The Bush administration never condemned or spoke against Musharraf’s move to suspend fundamental rights of Pakistani people on November 3, or curbs on media or the beating of lawyers and sacking of judges. When asked to respond to emergency rule in Pakistan, the United States administration had repeated its year-old statement that the elections should be free and fair and that it hoped Musharraf will restore the Constitution.

 Nawaz Sharif has been pretty consistent in demanding Musharraf’s resignation. The PPP has not made any commitments. In fact, lately, both Amin Fahim and Asif Ali Zardari in interviews have said that they will seek to work with the president as they do not have the two third majority in the parliament. This statement appears to be given under pressure as political observers and party sources say Zardari has been put under a lot of pressure by the Western governments to accept Musharraf as the president. Particularly, the Bush administration is insisting that it wants to see Musharraf continue in the presidency although the Democrat leaders, who monitored the elections, indicated that it was time for Musharraf to quit and there was a need for opposition parties to give him a safe exit.

 The statements by Zardari and Amin Fahim are in sharp contrast to the PPP’s struggle for the restoration of democracy. During her detention in Lahore in November, Benazir Bhutto, in a series of interviews on phone with local and foreign media, had demanded the resignation of Musharraf and had said she won’t be able to work with him in or without uniform as Musharraf at that time was still the army chief. The PPP rank and file, supporters, voters and sympathizers have opposed Musharraf tooth and nail all these years and they can’t imagine the party working with a dictator. Yet, the PPP leadership’s acceptance of Musharraf indicates the pressure they must be in from the Western governments. The PPP supporters and voters are also reminding the party’s top leadership that PPP’s previous experience of working with establishment had backfired. In 1988, the PPP supported Ghulam Ishaq Khan and voted him into presidency but 18 months later GIK kicked the party out of power.