The Opposition Parties have agreed to issue a Charter of Demands as a pre-condition for their participation in elections, while disagreeing on the principal issue of judicial restoration
Former Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, the two bitter rivals of the past, may not have agreed to boycott the national elections due next month but they have chosen to slow down their agitation against Pervez Musharraf for next two weeks, sources close to the two leaders said. The reason: Don’t give Musharraf an excuse to postpone or delay his decision to lift emergency on Dec. 16.
The prime target of the two main opposition leaders, after their historic meeting last week, was to, firstly, ensure that Musharraf doesn’t delay the lifting of emergency plan and then to go for a joint struggle for the restoration of democracy. While the former part remains on course, the latter hit snags on the first day of the meeting of the committee that was constituted to prepare draft demands to present to Musharraf. Sharif and Bhutto during the midnight news conference after their meeting announced that an eight member committee was being formed to prepare `charter of demands’ to present to Musharraf to accept or face boycott of elections by the opposition group.
Charter of Demands
According to sources Charter of Demands being drafted by an eight-member committee, four each from ARD and APDM may suffer the same fate as the `charter of democracy’ that was signed between Bhutto and Sharif in 2005 in London. The charter of democracy, which revolved on one point agenda of restoring democracy, failed to achieve its objective. The most crucial point remained restoration of the judges including the deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry at the charter of demands. While other points in the charter, that were discussed on the first day of the meeting, were common between the two groups the restoration of judges remained the bone of contention.
People having knowledge of political developments in past confided to The Pulse that current Supreme Court Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar is the perfect man for the PPP as he was picked a judge by Asif Ali Zardari and he appointed at the Sindh High Court. By sheer luck, he rose to the position of being a Supreme Court judge and the Nov. 3 emergency rule helped him to be elevated as the Chief Justice. Therefore, the PPP is not in favour of return of Iftikhar Chaudhry, who may pose trouble for any coming political government, given his approach towards controvertial issues. Similarly, the new army chief Ashfaq Kayani, also remained as Bhutto’s deputy military secretary, when she was the prime minister from 1988 to 1990 and Kayani, as the former ISI chief was involved in deal talks with Bhutto, so Bhutto feels at ease dealing with Kayani and Dogar.
These sources said the two groups in the committee will agree to all the common demands barring restoration of judges that maybe left to be discussed and be pursued after the general elections. The constitution of the committee also indicated that there were a few people who will make sure the two sides didn’t reach a common agenda.
Safdar Abbasi and Naveed Chaudhry, both from ARD, are believed to be strong advocates that the PPP should contest the forthcoming elections with or without the other opposition groups. They also advocate reviving the infamous deal with Musharraf of power sharing after the elections. They were also in favour of the infamous national reconciliation ordinance, which in effect, was a document to relieve Bhutto and her party members of the corruption cases.
“They will make sure that the APDM and ARD alliance doesn’t mature and issues remain unresolved between the two groups,” one source said.
Political Struggle
Meanwhile people like Raza Rabbani, of the PPP, and Ahsan Iqbal and Ishaq Dar, from PML(N), remain committed to the opposition’s joint struggle and they will try to make sure that the committee comes up with a consensus charter of demands, the source said. The committee also intends to propose Dec. 15 as the deadline for Musharraf to accept the common demands of such as sacking the federal and provincial caretaker governments and to ensure measures for free and fair elections. The committee will present its report to the heads of the respective groups, who will then fine tune the demands, the sources said.
While the two sides deliberate on the charter of demands, one things is clear that the ARD and the APDM agreed that once the emergency rule is lifted then the opposition parties can up the ante by agitating against Musharraf and press for demands including holding of free and fair elections, these sources said.
Bhutto and Sharif, on Dec. 3, had their first ever face-to-face meeting in Pakistan. In past they had been meeting in London and Dubai while both were in exile. The Dec. 3 meeting of political foes turned allies at Zardari house in Islamabad marked a historic event as two major political parties agreed to launch a joint struggle against Pervez Musharraf’s bid to manipulate the parliamentary vote.
Though, as expected, the two leaders did not agree on jointly boycotting the elections but the after-meeting news conference by Bhutto and Sharif gave a signal that both were ready to move forward to stop the return of the Musharraf-backed Pakistan Muslim League(Q) back into power. They agreed to build pressure on Musharraf to ensure free, fair and transparent elections and provide level playing field to opponents. They delayed an announcement to jointly boycott the elections and announced to form a committee to draft proposals of demands for Musharraf to accept. Otherwise, the two major political alliances, ARD and APDM, may jointly announce boycotting of elections, thus, jeopardizing the credibility of the polls.
Boycotting the Polls
Leaders close to Bhutto and Sharif said the two leaders also agreed to delay the boycott decision until after the lifting of emergency so that Musharraf is not given any excuse for delaying the polls date or take extra-ordinary measures to counter the opposition move.
The meeting between Bhutto and Sharif also revived the political stalwarts and puts a final signature on the death of political pygmies like Shaukat Aziz, who has already announced that he won’t contest the elections and according to reports is vying for the top post at Citibank in New York. He has a strong rival from India, who also wants the most prestigious banking job in the world.
Most of the members of the King’s party Pakistan Muslim League(Q) are looking to jump the fence and are approaching either Sharif’s party or the PPP for their political survival. While many have already jumped the boat leaving the Chaudhry’s in trouble. Sources said that depending on the election result, the PPP may want to revive its deal with Musharraf.
The exact details of the political deal between Musharraf and Bhutto is still being kept secret though there is speculation that the issues of president’s power to dismiss the parliament under 58(2)b and third time prime minister issue will be worked out between the camps of Musharraf and Bhutto after the elections. In the first phase of the deal, all corruption cases against Bhutto were withdrawn and she was allowed to return to the country without any hindrance. At least half a dozen different versions of the deal have been reported in the media.
Establishment’s Victory
The sources said that Bhutto will be the beneficiary of any opposition alliance because then she can build pressure on Musharraf and dictate as many terms as possible before and after the elections. Nawaz Sharif on the other hand, while he has been ousted from the election race along with his brother Shahbaz Sharif, would be seeking to secure as many seats as possible in the forthcoming elections and act as a strong opposition group.
The king’s party run by the Chaudhry’s from Gujrat does not appear anywhere in the future political equation apart from the fact that the military establishment will back them to provide some kind of safety to Musharraf, who without his military uniform, becomes an extremely vulnerable target of the opposition.
The pre-election process suits them as without election campaigning because of emergency rule and with the help of Nazims, the PML(Q) will be given enough seats to make sure that a hung parliament comes into existence in January. That means no political party will have a clear majority to form a government and at least three parties have to join hands to share power. It is an ideal script written by the civil and military establishment and in the post election scenario, the only and final winner will be the establishment.
