Now they want a popular Prime Minister to assist an unpopular President in the unpopular war. But in locating the prime minister they could dislocate the President.
For the past eight years they just didn’t bother about a Prime Minister in Pakistan. Frankly, they had no requirement. While the Supreme Court gave a three-year holiday to democracy the White House kindly extended the same to eight years. Taking advantage of their flexibility, at the end of holiday General Pervez Musharraf opted for yet another Constitutional detour he calls Emergency. But the Americans are unwilling to extend the holiday. Their emphasis on a prime minister of popular (as well as their) choice does not allow the show to be deferred any more.
Why are they so inflexible this hour? In other words, what are they up to, pure democracy or something else? Essentially they may prefer the majority in Pakistan to support the war and they assume the magic can be performed by a popular prime minister than a Military President. What can a prime minister possibly or practically do to popularize a bloody and endless war is not their immediate concern. Surely, they are not looking for a second opinion or re-diagnosis by a lady doctor. The lady in question of course is dropping hints about the mess up in the hospital in her absence but she can’t put the house in order overnight if she assumes the charge and authority. The Americans are more interested in her clout than capability, public image than governing ideas. This time she need not do her homework because the Americans have done their homework well in advance. So as soon as the Prime Minister is in the saddle, they may give their agenda. This hour, they are just concentrating on the process to find a Prime Minister. In other words, all they seek at the moment is a fair election.
The election, obviously, is not an end in itself. It is only a means to install a democratic government. But the Americans are not interested in democracy, as they prefer it at home. They just need a Prime Minister in Pakistan who can legally and rightfully split the authority that has found a nucleus in one person.
The American double standards do not require a magnifier. They are naked to naked eye. Washington has two different yardsticks for the President and the Prime Minister in the same Republic. The two, we know, have to be chosen by two different methods but the
Americans would prefer two different labels as well. In the end, they would prefer the Prime Minister to wear the popular look and place the President in the security cordon. This moment the Prime Minister is still to be chosen while the President has only to take oath a second time. They did not interfere with his election from a worn out Electoral College and remained tight lipped as it was questioned before the Supreme Court. They are seldom in a rush to interrupt a game because they can give a judgment much after the final whistle. You may have noted that as well because they simply ignored the timing of the Presidential election knowing they did not accredit the five assemblies as legitimately elected bodies.
Intelligently they did not poke their nose in the affair until the Chief of Army Staff proclaimed victory through Emergency. Now they do prefer the Emergency to be lifted but are unwilling question the fair victory. The Prime Minister in waiting has no different approach on the Presidential election. She is not inclined to question election to an office from which she has to recover a lot of powers as soon as she secures the confidence of the next National Assembly. That is the time when the American’s would be poking their nose and we may not have a local arbitrator to decide the dispute of Constitutional powers between the President and the Prime Minister.
In the Eight-Year Holiday, we had no such dispute but at the end all the political forces are one voice about the powers of the Prime Minister. The main reason is that there are no candidates for the office of the President this hour and that office has earned a lot popular displeasure this year by extra-constitutional steps. The game is visibly tilted in favour of political parties and their Western backers. The two major parties now see eye to eye on the division of powers between the Premier and the President and thanks to experience they would prefer to hand over the Presidency to an equivalent of Rafiq Tarar than Ghulam Ishaq Khan or Farooq Leghari. And as soon as General Musharraf is no more a General, the American’s too will be inclined to review the script as far his role in the anti-terror theatre. Attention would focus on the characters who can boldly express their views on nuclear proliferation, a chapter Musharraf has rudely and crudely closed to keen international readership. This week General Musharraf is unable to read all that Americans are reading in a democratic Pakistan. They don’t make headlines of their bottom-lines and they cross the bridge when the time comes.
Visibly the political leadership can’t do much about the popularity of the war on terror. That war is being fought through the muzzle than by reason. And the restoration of democracy to match US specification is not going to make much of a difference. Some one ought to convince the excited allies that even a fair election in the plains would not solve the spreading problem in the mountains.
