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Bloody memories: Bilawal at rally marking the fifth anniversary of the assassination of his mother, Benazir Bhutto. AP Photo
The Bilawal House in Karachi is an impregnable fortress. Scores of security men with hidden guns and bulletproof vests guard the mansion, which is ringed by layers of blast-resistant walls, snipers and jammers. Unauthorised vehicles aren't allowed in its vicinity and photographs are banned. Such caution is justified as it is home to the rising star of Pakistan politics, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, son of President Asif Ali Zardari and the assassinated prime minister Benazir Bhutto. While Benazir and her father, the executed prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, ruled mostly from the legendary 70 Clifton Road residence, Zardari and Bilawal prefer the Bilawal House.
Bilawal, the latest torch-bearer of the Bhutto legacy, was born in September 1988, a month before Benazir was elected prime minister for the first time. Benazir called him “the baby who fooled the president”, because she managed to keep her pregnancy a secret from the military regime of Gen. Zia-ul-Haq. Being her first-born and only son, Bilawal was her favourite, and it was Benazir, who chose the name Bilawal, which means “one without equal”.
As Pakistan looks forward to national elections scheduled for May 11—if concluded successfully, it will mark the transition from one democratic regime to another, for the first time in the history of Pakistan—the Bilawal House is rife with political intrigue. While Bilawal's presence is ubiquitous with his handsome visage dominating the posters and the television ads of the Pakistan People's Party founded by his grandfather, it is his younger sister Asifa Bhutto Zardari, who, reportedly, has their father's ear. Sources, however, say it is their aunt Faryal Talpur, of the famous Talpur estate of Sindh, who is the real power behind the throne and makes important decisions on behalf of her brother Zardari, who is constantly plagued by allegations of corruption.
Though Bilawal has taken over as the patron-in-chief of the PPP, following his father's resignation from the post of co-chairperson of the party, his style and substance are yet to be analysed in detail as his interactions with the public and media have been limited. Most of his close friends are based in London. Having spent most of his life abroad, this Oxford graduate is new to Pakistan and has very few aides and advisers. One notable exception is Christina Lamb, a British journalist who befriended Benazir in the late 1980s, who is now a constant presence in Bilawal's life. In contrast, Asifa has given several TV interviews and has proved to be exceptionally gifted in articulating complex ideas. But at the rally at Garhi Khuda Bukhsh in Sindh last December, which marked his political debut, Bilawal displayed glimpses of the famous Bhutto spark. He castigated Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry over the delay in the trials of those who were charged with Benazir's assassination. “Can't you see the blood of Benazir Bhutto on the roads of Rawalpindi? I, as an heir of Bhutto, ask why the killers of my mother have not been punished?” asked Bilawal. He also took on the army and former president Pervez Musharraf for not giving adequate security to his mother.
Zardari mentioned that his son was being groomed for the rigours of political work. But with less than 50 days to go for the elections, it seems Bilawal has decided that he has had enough of the apprenticeship.
On March 24, when Karachi's biggest news was the return of Musharraf after four years of self-imposed exile, Bilawal left for Dubai following a heated exchange with his father and sister over his role in the party. His sudden departure turned the PPP into a butt of jokes in the run up to the elections. While some suggested that Bilawal's departure was part of a grand strategy, choreographed to portray him as the untainted prince, leaving the critics to target Zardari, the PPP said Bilawal's trip was because of security concerns. But speculation was rife in Pakistan that Bilawal was unhappy about the sidelining of Benazir loyalists and his own supporters in the PPP and also about his party's ambiguous stand on the Taliban attack on youth activist Malala Yousafzai and the increasing attacks on minorities in Pakistan.
Bilawal, however, returned to Pakistan on April 2, killing the rumours. Party insiders said he returned to chart a new course by cleansing the murky world of Pakistani politics. But his chief of staff said Bilawal would not be leading the PPP campaign, indicating that all was still not well in Pakistan's first family. However, soon after his return, Mian Mitho, a prominent pir (religious leader) who was a member of the dissolved National Assembly, was denied ticket for reelection. Sources hinted that Bilawal was behind the move as he was against the forced conversion of minorities in rural Sindh, spearheaded by Mitho. Last year, the controversy over the conversion of a young girl, Rinkle Kumari, by Mitho landed the PPP in trouble as it went against the party's ideology of religious tolerance.
Though there are doubts about the 24-year-old's political acumen, “Pakistanis see Bilawal as the grandson of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and hope that he will reflect the choices made by his mother and grandfather,” said political commentator Chaudhry Faisal Fareed. Bilawal, however, needs to wait for a few more months, till he turns 25, for being eligible to be elected to parliament and hold executive office.
The fresh-faced scion of Pakistan's most prominent political family has his eyes on support from Pakistani youth. The young Pakistanis share “a sense of frustration and lack of confidence in their leaders and the direction the country is going. The youth, while concerned with security issues, are more preoccupied with getting an education and a secure job, supporting their family and living in a country where opportunities abound,” said Rosheen Kabraji, who works with Chatham House, a prominent think-tank based in London.
Bilawal has also earned the trust of the old-timers in the PPP. They have lauded him for demonstrating that he is ideologically closer to his mother by acting against Mitho, and not following the politics of compromise which has been the hallmark of his father. Yet, given the rising intolerance and insecurity in Pakistan, Bilawal faces an uphill task.
While in Karachi, I was reminded of Pakistan's perilous security situation that Bilawal may soon be forced to confront as I received a call from my friend B.M. Kutty, a Malayali who migrated to Pakistan nearly seven decades ago. “Get a cab, but ensure that the driver is a Pathan. I don't want Indians to get shot outside my house,” said Kutty, who ranks among the original rebels of Karachi. On the way to Kutty's house through Karachi's sprawling Gulshan-e-Maymar region, I caught a glimpse of the largest Pathan slum of south Asia. “Even the cops are scared of entering this neighbourhood,” said Nadeem, my guide. The city is notorious for the gang-wars between the predominantly Pathan Awami National Party (ANP) of Asfandyar Wali Khan and the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) of Altaf Hussain, representing the Muhajirs. The arrival of the Taliban has further complicated the situation. This ongoing menace is the “biggest urban law and order challenge facing Pakistan,” said Kabraji.
Just two days after my journey through Gulshan-e-Maymar, a large cache of arms was recovered from Frontier Colony, a Pathan neighbourhood in Karachi, sending the security forces into a tizzy. Alert levels went up by several notches and as I moved around the Ismaili and the Shia imambaras in the city, I realised that they resembled heavily protected foreign missions. In view of the increasing sectarian violence, the police have placed huge road blocks to prevent suicide bombers from crashing their vehicles into the places of worship. Yet, in the midst of all the gloom and doom, several Karachiites were seen making the most of the democratic environment, a rarity in Pakistan.
As I moved around the city, my friends repeatedly advised me against using my camera. Many a fight in Karachi has started with a flash. But Khaula Jamil, the braveheart behind the famous Facebook page “People of Karachi”, appears undaunted. She and her partner Kamran walk through the alleys of the Pathans and the Muhajirs and photograph them. “This is not an easy task as photography itself is considered un-Islamic by many in my city. I think people do not resist when they understand that my intention is to portray common humanity of my country and the city,” said Khaula.
While Zardari and his party have been appreciated for safeguarding the principles of democratic governance, the worsening law and order and the economic crisis have eroded their popularity. Zardari's challengers like Nawaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Imran Khan of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf have made the twin issues the focus of their electoral campaign. But unlike Zardari, who took the support of the secular-minded Pathans and Muhajirs from Karachi to govern Pakistan, Imran and Nawaz have sought help from hardline Islamist groups like the Jamaat-e-Islami and Difa-e-Pakistan. Imran launched his campaign on March 23 with a massive rally in Lahore, which is the home turf of Nawaz. He has also chosen to directly challenge Nawaz and his brother Shahbaz Sharif by opting to contest from Lahore. In response, Nawaz held an impressive rally two days later at Mansehra in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, which is Imran's stronghold.
The real winners in the Imran vs Nawaz fight are the Islamists who are being courted by both. After hobnobbing with Imran initially, Maulana Fazlur Rahman of Jamaat-e-Islami now appears moving close to Nawaz. Rahman, who has a history of allying with the winners, will be crucial in case of a hung parliament. Observers in Islamabad said given the large number of veterans of the Afghanistan campaign of the 1980s in the Jamaat-e-Islami, its alliance with either of the two parties will have serious repercussions.
Imran has been a perennial thorn in the flesh for Zardari. He had asked the president to make his foreign investments public, a demand which found support from the judiciary. Imran's attempts to dismantle the Zardari government received the indirect support of Nawaz. But, he backed off quickly, fearing that Imran wanted to pull down the political system that was created through an agreement between him and Benazir in 2007 through the National Reconciliation Charter.
With Imran now fighting both Nawaz and Zardari, the Pakistani media is abuzz with assessments of how many seats the charismatic former cricketer will take away from the Nawaz team in Punjab, which has the largest number of seats—148—in the National Assembly. Imran, being a Pathan, is expected to do well in the 33 seats of the Pathan-dominated Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, so his real fight will be to win more seats in north and central Punjab. Imran could turn out to be the dark horse if Nawaz bungles in Punjab. But “given the massive clout of the Sharif brothers in Punjab, such an upset will amount to a miracle,” said Faisal Fareed.
Most opinion polls seem to support Fareed's argument and indicate that Nawaz has the edge, followed by the PPP, which dominates in Sindh. The initial surveys suggest that the sad state of the economy may aid Nawaz's return to Islamabad. “If Nawaz wins north and central Punjab, then no one can stop him from leading Pakistan as smaller parties will naturally coalesce around him,” said Fareed. But there are other low-key, yet influential players like Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain of the PML (Q) who can play a key role if he wins a few seats in Punjab. He broke away from Nawaz's party after Musharraf's 1999 coup and formed PML (Q). Islamabad watchers do not underestimate the capability of Shujaat and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi to bring different parties together and strike a good bargain for themselves in the process, in case of a hung parliament.
Amidst all the excitement, the threat of terrorist violence has cast a shadow over the electoral process. The memories of the last elections, conducted after the assassination of Benazir, are still raw. The government is not taking any chances. For example, the security cover given to Musharraf is unprecedented. His hotel in Karachi has turned into a fortress as his life is under threat from the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has vowed to eliminate him for the raid on Islamabad's Lal Masjid in 2007 in which many people, including women and children, were killed.
The TTP has not been subtle. It has sent leaflets across the country threatening to target key politicians and their rallies. It wants Sharia law to be enforced and considers both democracy and the army to be un-Islamic, making the army and the politicians fair game. Candidates are especially at risk as their names are being splashed in newspapers as required by the electoral rules. But despite such risks, heavy rush could be seen in all prominent party offices in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad for tickets.
With a caretaker government in place, the judiciary seems to have lost its interest in sparring with the government. As a titular head overseeing a job of transition, Zardari probably does not have any power worth the time of the Chief Justice Chaudhry. The election season, subsequently, has thrown up a new power centre, the Election Commission of Pakistan, which seems to have replaced the judiciary as the agency most feared by the government.
Apart from laying out and upholding norms of free and fair elections, the ECP is also looking at disqualifying candidates with false degrees and tax defaults, a big worry for many candidates. It could forge an alliance with the judiciary for assistance in these matters.
The ECP has been coordinating with provincial capitals and Islamabad to keep the candidates and voters secure. Under its orders, polling booths will have personnel from the army, an irony, considering the army's track record with democracy. Said Najam Rafique of the Islamabad Institute of Strategic Studies, “Extremism has made partners out of democracy and the military. This is a landmark moment in south Asian history and a tangible proof that the army and the political society of Pakistan have identified a common enemy.”
At the same time, taking advantage of the unprecedented national obsession with the elections, the army has restarted playing a major role on the foreign policy front. Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani became the first Pakistani leader to hold discussions with the new US Secretary of State John Kerry. As Kerry was unwilling to travel to Pakistan in view of the elections, Kayani travelled to Jordan to meet him and discussed the broad contours of a deal with the Taliban. He also used the opportunity to reestablish the army's old ties with the Arab armies that once relied heavily on Pakistan. Kayani's soldiers, meanwhile, shelled Afghan territory, leading to a war of words and Afghanistan's withdrawal from a joint military exercise. Kayani's revived interest in politics and diplomacy has not gone unnoticed. There are commentators who think that Kayani, fearing prosecution for his role in various military manoeuvres in the Musharraf era, is secretly backing Musharraf's return.
Another matter of interest for observers is how the elections will proceed in the troubled province of Balochistan. Interestingly, the Zardaris are of Baloch origin and so is the caretaker prime minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso, while Chief Justice Chaudhry is a Punjabi with Baloch domicile. But Balochistan has benefited very little from having so many powerful Balochis in Islamabad, according to Senator Hasil Khan Bizenjo of the Balochistan Nationalist Party. “We are going to campaign in Balochistan with a shroud tied around our head as there is a strong sentiment against the polls in different parts of the province,” Bizenjo said. However, the Pakistani establishment has invited rebel leader Akhtar Mengal of the BNP (Mengal) back from his exile in Dubai. Mengal, who arrived in Pakistan a day after the return of Musharraf, has declared that his party will participate in the polls but he also said democracy meant nothing for his province. Soon after Mengal declared that his party would participate in the elections, his party workers came under attack by the Baloch rebels.
As Pakistan was bracing for a violent, yet historic election, former information minister Qamar Zaman Kaira told THE WEEK that the election was not a moment of all out war. “This election should ideally be the election of reconciliation because we have already been through almost 12 years of violence. There is threat against Bilawal Bhutto and the entire top leadership of various political parties,” said Kaira. “How much more blood should Pakistan shed before we realise the need for reconciliation?”
the week
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Bloody memories: Bilawal at rally marking the fifth anniversary of the assassination of his mother, Benazir Bhutto. AP Photo
The Bilawal House in Karachi is an impregnable fortress. Scores of security men with hidden guns and bulletproof vests guard the mansion, which is ringed by layers of blast-resistant walls, snipers and jammers. Unauthorised vehicles aren't allowed in its vicinity and photographs are banned. Such caution is justified as it is home to the rising star of Pakistan politics, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, son of President Asif Ali Zardari and the assassinated prime minister Benazir Bhutto. While Benazir and her father, the executed prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, ruled mostly from the legendary 70 Clifton Road residence, Zardari and Bilawal prefer the Bilawal House.
Bilawal, the latest torch-bearer of the Bhutto legacy, was born in September 1988, a month before Benazir was elected prime minister for the first time. Benazir called him “the baby who fooled the president”, because she managed to keep her pregnancy a secret from the military regime of Gen. Zia-ul-Haq. Being her first-born and only son, Bilawal was her favourite, and it was Benazir, who chose the name Bilawal, which means “one without equal”.
As Pakistan looks forward to national elections scheduled for May 11—if concluded successfully, it will mark the transition from one democratic regime to another, for the first time in the history of Pakistan—the Bilawal House is rife with political intrigue. While Bilawal's presence is ubiquitous with his handsome visage dominating the posters and the television ads of the Pakistan People's Party founded by his grandfather, it is his younger sister Asifa Bhutto Zardari, who, reportedly, has their father's ear. Sources, however, say it is their aunt Faryal Talpur, of the famous Talpur estate of Sindh, who is the real power behind the throne and makes important decisions on behalf of her brother Zardari, who is constantly plagued by allegations of corruption.
Though Bilawal has taken over as the patron-in-chief of the PPP, following his father's resignation from the post of co-chairperson of the party, his style and substance are yet to be analysed in detail as his interactions with the public and media have been limited. Most of his close friends are based in London. Having spent most of his life abroad, this Oxford graduate is new to Pakistan and has very few aides and advisers. One notable exception is Christina Lamb, a British journalist who befriended Benazir in the late 1980s, who is now a constant presence in Bilawal's life. In contrast, Asifa has given several TV interviews and has proved to be exceptionally gifted in articulating complex ideas. But at the rally at Garhi Khuda Bukhsh in Sindh last December, which marked his political debut, Bilawal displayed glimpses of the famous Bhutto spark. He castigated Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry over the delay in the trials of those who were charged with Benazir's assassination. “Can't you see the blood of Benazir Bhutto on the roads of Rawalpindi? I, as an heir of Bhutto, ask why the killers of my mother have not been punished?” asked Bilawal. He also took on the army and former president Pervez Musharraf for not giving adequate security to his mother.
Zardari mentioned that his son was being groomed for the rigours of political work. But with less than 50 days to go for the elections, it seems Bilawal has decided that he has had enough of the apprenticeship.
On March 24, when Karachi's biggest news was the return of Musharraf after four years of self-imposed exile, Bilawal left for Dubai following a heated exchange with his father and sister over his role in the party. His sudden departure turned the PPP into a butt of jokes in the run up to the elections. While some suggested that Bilawal's departure was part of a grand strategy, choreographed to portray him as the untainted prince, leaving the critics to target Zardari, the PPP said Bilawal's trip was because of security concerns. But speculation was rife in Pakistan that Bilawal was unhappy about the sidelining of Benazir loyalists and his own supporters in the PPP and also about his party's ambiguous stand on the Taliban attack on youth activist Malala Yousafzai and the increasing attacks on minorities in Pakistan.
Bilawal, however, returned to Pakistan on April 2, killing the rumours. Party insiders said he returned to chart a new course by cleansing the murky world of Pakistani politics. But his chief of staff said Bilawal would not be leading the PPP campaign, indicating that all was still not well in Pakistan's first family. However, soon after his return, Mian Mitho, a prominent pir (religious leader) who was a member of the dissolved National Assembly, was denied ticket for reelection. Sources hinted that Bilawal was behind the move as he was against the forced conversion of minorities in rural Sindh, spearheaded by Mitho. Last year, the controversy over the conversion of a young girl, Rinkle Kumari, by Mitho landed the PPP in trouble as it went against the party's ideology of religious tolerance.
Though there are doubts about the 24-year-old's political acumen, “Pakistanis see Bilawal as the grandson of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and hope that he will reflect the choices made by his mother and grandfather,” said political commentator Chaudhry Faisal Fareed. Bilawal, however, needs to wait for a few more months, till he turns 25, for being eligible to be elected to parliament and hold executive office.
The fresh-faced scion of Pakistan's most prominent political family has his eyes on support from Pakistani youth. The young Pakistanis share “a sense of frustration and lack of confidence in their leaders and the direction the country is going. The youth, while concerned with security issues, are more preoccupied with getting an education and a secure job, supporting their family and living in a country where opportunities abound,” said Rosheen Kabraji, who works with Chatham House, a prominent think-tank based in London.
Bilawal has also earned the trust of the old-timers in the PPP. They have lauded him for demonstrating that he is ideologically closer to his mother by acting against Mitho, and not following the politics of compromise which has been the hallmark of his father. Yet, given the rising intolerance and insecurity in Pakistan, Bilawal faces an uphill task.
While in Karachi, I was reminded of Pakistan's perilous security situation that Bilawal may soon be forced to confront as I received a call from my friend B.M. Kutty, a Malayali who migrated to Pakistan nearly seven decades ago. “Get a cab, but ensure that the driver is a Pathan. I don't want Indians to get shot outside my house,” said Kutty, who ranks among the original rebels of Karachi. On the way to Kutty's house through Karachi's sprawling Gulshan-e-Maymar region, I caught a glimpse of the largest Pathan slum of south Asia. “Even the cops are scared of entering this neighbourhood,” said Nadeem, my guide. The city is notorious for the gang-wars between the predominantly Pathan Awami National Party (ANP) of Asfandyar Wali Khan and the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) of Altaf Hussain, representing the Muhajirs. The arrival of the Taliban has further complicated the situation. This ongoing menace is the “biggest urban law and order challenge facing Pakistan,” said Kabraji.
Just two days after my journey through Gulshan-e-Maymar, a large cache of arms was recovered from Frontier Colony, a Pathan neighbourhood in Karachi, sending the security forces into a tizzy. Alert levels went up by several notches and as I moved around the Ismaili and the Shia imambaras in the city, I realised that they resembled heavily protected foreign missions. In view of the increasing sectarian violence, the police have placed huge road blocks to prevent suicide bombers from crashing their vehicles into the places of worship. Yet, in the midst of all the gloom and doom, several Karachiites were seen making the most of the democratic environment, a rarity in Pakistan.
As I moved around the city, my friends repeatedly advised me against using my camera. Many a fight in Karachi has started with a flash. But Khaula Jamil, the braveheart behind the famous Facebook page “People of Karachi”, appears undaunted. She and her partner Kamran walk through the alleys of the Pathans and the Muhajirs and photograph them. “This is not an easy task as photography itself is considered un-Islamic by many in my city. I think people do not resist when they understand that my intention is to portray common humanity of my country and the city,” said Khaula.
While Zardari and his party have been appreciated for safeguarding the principles of democratic governance, the worsening law and order and the economic crisis have eroded their popularity. Zardari's challengers like Nawaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Imran Khan of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf have made the twin issues the focus of their electoral campaign. But unlike Zardari, who took the support of the secular-minded Pathans and Muhajirs from Karachi to govern Pakistan, Imran and Nawaz have sought help from hardline Islamist groups like the Jamaat-e-Islami and Difa-e-Pakistan. Imran launched his campaign on March 23 with a massive rally in Lahore, which is the home turf of Nawaz. He has also chosen to directly challenge Nawaz and his brother Shahbaz Sharif by opting to contest from Lahore. In response, Nawaz held an impressive rally two days later at Mansehra in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, which is Imran's stronghold.
The real winners in the Imran vs Nawaz fight are the Islamists who are being courted by both. After hobnobbing with Imran initially, Maulana Fazlur Rahman of Jamaat-e-Islami now appears moving close to Nawaz. Rahman, who has a history of allying with the winners, will be crucial in case of a hung parliament. Observers in Islamabad said given the large number of veterans of the Afghanistan campaign of the 1980s in the Jamaat-e-Islami, its alliance with either of the two parties will have serious repercussions.
Imran has been a perennial thorn in the flesh for Zardari. He had asked the president to make his foreign investments public, a demand which found support from the judiciary. Imran's attempts to dismantle the Zardari government received the indirect support of Nawaz. But, he backed off quickly, fearing that Imran wanted to pull down the political system that was created through an agreement between him and Benazir in 2007 through the National Reconciliation Charter.
With Imran now fighting both Nawaz and Zardari, the Pakistani media is abuzz with assessments of how many seats the charismatic former cricketer will take away from the Nawaz team in Punjab, which has the largest number of seats—148—in the National Assembly. Imran, being a Pathan, is expected to do well in the 33 seats of the Pathan-dominated Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, so his real fight will be to win more seats in north and central Punjab. Imran could turn out to be the dark horse if Nawaz bungles in Punjab. But “given the massive clout of the Sharif brothers in Punjab, such an upset will amount to a miracle,” said Faisal Fareed.
Most opinion polls seem to support Fareed's argument and indicate that Nawaz has the edge, followed by the PPP, which dominates in Sindh. The initial surveys suggest that the sad state of the economy may aid Nawaz's return to Islamabad. “If Nawaz wins north and central Punjab, then no one can stop him from leading Pakistan as smaller parties will naturally coalesce around him,” said Fareed. But there are other low-key, yet influential players like Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain of the PML (Q) who can play a key role if he wins a few seats in Punjab. He broke away from Nawaz's party after Musharraf's 1999 coup and formed PML (Q). Islamabad watchers do not underestimate the capability of Shujaat and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi to bring different parties together and strike a good bargain for themselves in the process, in case of a hung parliament.
Amidst all the excitement, the threat of terrorist violence has cast a shadow over the electoral process. The memories of the last elections, conducted after the assassination of Benazir, are still raw. The government is not taking any chances. For example, the security cover given to Musharraf is unprecedented. His hotel in Karachi has turned into a fortress as his life is under threat from the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has vowed to eliminate him for the raid on Islamabad's Lal Masjid in 2007 in which many people, including women and children, were killed.
The TTP has not been subtle. It has sent leaflets across the country threatening to target key politicians and their rallies. It wants Sharia law to be enforced and considers both democracy and the army to be un-Islamic, making the army and the politicians fair game. Candidates are especially at risk as their names are being splashed in newspapers as required by the electoral rules. But despite such risks, heavy rush could be seen in all prominent party offices in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad for tickets.
With a caretaker government in place, the judiciary seems to have lost its interest in sparring with the government. As a titular head overseeing a job of transition, Zardari probably does not have any power worth the time of the Chief Justice Chaudhry. The election season, subsequently, has thrown up a new power centre, the Election Commission of Pakistan, which seems to have replaced the judiciary as the agency most feared by the government.
Apart from laying out and upholding norms of free and fair elections, the ECP is also looking at disqualifying candidates with false degrees and tax defaults, a big worry for many candidates. It could forge an alliance with the judiciary for assistance in these matters.
The ECP has been coordinating with provincial capitals and Islamabad to keep the candidates and voters secure. Under its orders, polling booths will have personnel from the army, an irony, considering the army's track record with democracy. Said Najam Rafique of the Islamabad Institute of Strategic Studies, “Extremism has made partners out of democracy and the military. This is a landmark moment in south Asian history and a tangible proof that the army and the political society of Pakistan have identified a common enemy.”
At the same time, taking advantage of the unprecedented national obsession with the elections, the army has restarted playing a major role on the foreign policy front. Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani became the first Pakistani leader to hold discussions with the new US Secretary of State John Kerry. As Kerry was unwilling to travel to Pakistan in view of the elections, Kayani travelled to Jordan to meet him and discussed the broad contours of a deal with the Taliban. He also used the opportunity to reestablish the army's old ties with the Arab armies that once relied heavily on Pakistan. Kayani's soldiers, meanwhile, shelled Afghan territory, leading to a war of words and Afghanistan's withdrawal from a joint military exercise. Kayani's revived interest in politics and diplomacy has not gone unnoticed. There are commentators who think that Kayani, fearing prosecution for his role in various military manoeuvres in the Musharraf era, is secretly backing Musharraf's return.
Another matter of interest for observers is how the elections will proceed in the troubled province of Balochistan. Interestingly, the Zardaris are of Baloch origin and so is the caretaker prime minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso, while Chief Justice Chaudhry is a Punjabi with Baloch domicile. But Balochistan has benefited very little from having so many powerful Balochis in Islamabad, according to Senator Hasil Khan Bizenjo of the Balochistan Nationalist Party. “We are going to campaign in Balochistan with a shroud tied around our head as there is a strong sentiment against the polls in different parts of the province,” Bizenjo said. However, the Pakistani establishment has invited rebel leader Akhtar Mengal of the BNP (Mengal) back from his exile in Dubai. Mengal, who arrived in Pakistan a day after the return of Musharraf, has declared that his party will participate in the polls but he also said democracy meant nothing for his province. Soon after Mengal declared that his party would participate in the elections, his party workers came under attack by the Baloch rebels.
As Pakistan was bracing for a violent, yet historic election, former information minister Qamar Zaman Kaira told THE WEEK that the election was not a moment of all out war. “This election should ideally be the election of reconciliation because we have already been through almost 12 years of violence. There is threat against Bilawal Bhutto and the entire top leadership of various political parties,” said Kaira. “How much more blood should Pakistan shed before we realise the need for reconciliation?”
the week