The Hindu : Benazir, Nawaz Sharif can't stand for election: Musharraf

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 14, 2002

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International

Benazir, Nawaz Sharif can't stand for election: Musharraf

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, March 13. The promised general election in Pakistan in October this year could well turn out to be much ado about nothing as the military Government of Pervez Musharraf is determined not to allow the two former Prime Ministers, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, to take part in the process.

Addressing a news conference at Tokyo, Gen. Musharraf, currently on a four-day visit to Japan, ruled out any possibility of the leaders being allowed to stand for election. "Well, the answer is very short — no,'' he said in reply to a question, on the first full day of his official visit to Japan.

Though there have been several hints by the Musharraf regime in recent weeks about not allowing the two former Prime Ministers to take part in the election process, it is for the first time that Gen. Musharraf has made such a categorical announcement on the subject.

His announcement, that too in a foreign land, is bound to stir the proverbial hornet's nest in Pakistan. To begin with, it puts a question mark on the whole election process, as the two former Prime Ministers happen to head the two largest political parties in the country. It is to be seen how the international community, particularly the United States, would react to the decision.

The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) headed by Mrs. Bhutto has already declared that it would not take part in the election if its leader was going to be barred. The Pakistan Muslim League (PML) led by Mr. Sharif cannot be expected to take a different path though it is vulnerable to manipulation by the establishment.

While Gen. Musharraf has not spelt out the grounds on which Mrs. Bhutto and Mr. Sharif are going to be disqualified from contesting the election, there have been enough hints from the establishment that it is working on a strategy to keep them out of the electoral arena.

The Musharraf Government has enacted legislation under which all persons indicted by any court of law, irrespective of the state of appeal against the indictment, stand debarred from contesting elections. Besides being disqualified from contesting any public office, such individuals cannot even hold party offices. Despite the law, both Mrs. Bhutto and Mr. Sharif, who are indicted by courts in separate cases of corruption, continue to preside over their respective parties.

There are also speculations in a section of the media that the Government is contemplating another law under which a person cannot become Prime Minister for a third time. Both Mrs. Bhutto and Mr. Sharif have already had two terms as the Prime Minister.

A number of political parties and individuals in recent days have charged the Musharraf regime with trying to create a `King's party' in a bid to manipulate the forthcoming election and get a National Assembly of its choice. The idea, according to critics, is that such an Assembly would be useful in ensuring a five-year term for Gen. Musharraf.

The PPP has alleged that "the process of rigging the forthcoming elections has already started with the regime backing the King's Party, seeking to break the PPP and forcing to keep out of elections the genuine representatives of the people through politically motivated cases, perversion of justice and blatant manipulation of the so-called accountability process for political purposes''.

In a statement here, the former Interior Minister and senior PPP leader, Naseerullah Babar, contested the Government claim that it was not taking sides in the elections.

An official spokesman on Monday claimed that the Government was under no pressure to take sides in the coming elections, and was committed to ensuring that the elections were free and transparent.

Gen. Babar said that the regime's attempts to manipulate the elections with a view to achieving the "desired" results was also evident from other steps taken by it after the King's Party's failure to take off. These included promoting the PPP renegades Farooq Leghari and Aftab followed by Imran Khan. The latest press reports that the military regime is contemplating to hold a referendum and elections on non-party basis is also part of the same manipulative tactics to rig the elections, he added.

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