Opinion - Editorials

A flawed `mandate' in Pakistan

THE PRESIDENTIAL REFERENDUM held in Pakistan on April 30 has certainly produced a definitive result but only a deeply flawed mandate. Of no surprise at all is the fact that Pervez Musharraf has secured an `yes' vote for his continuance as the Head of State for another five years. The actual size of the positive vote is still a matter in political dispute. With the Pakistan Supreme Court having endorsed the legality of the latest opinion-call, ahead of the controversial exercise itself, Gen. Musharraf's unmollified critics at home may now find themselves with little or no real scope for a constitutional remedy against this new reality which negates the quintessential spirit of genuine democracy. It is no solace to the pro-democracy forces across the world, inclusive of some political sections within Pakistan itself, that the relevant ruling by the Supreme Court was specifically linked to the peculiar constitutional dilemmas of India's estranged neighbour. If, in a sense, the international community has by and large remained ambivalent, almost to the point of being unconcerned, about Gen. Musharraf's political gamesmanship at home, the reason has much to do with his present friendship with the Bush administration in Washington. However, it remains open to doubt whether Gen. Musharraf can cite the outcome of the one-point plebiscite on his rule as President of Pakistan to erase a fact that did no credit to him. He had, in the first place, sinned against democracy by ousting an elected Prime Minister in a military coup in 1999, however bloodless his surgical move might have been. Now, by winning the issue-based referendum, which did not therefore provide for the basic democratic principle of a free and fair contest of persons for a high constitutional office, Gen. Musharraf has still left himself exposed to another wave of charges of usurpation if not worse.

Two important controversies do not seem to have died down despite the strenuous efforts of the Musharraf administration's spin doctors in regard to the issues at stake in the opinion-vote on April 30. First, the issue of the President's political legitimacy has not ceased to be a question of debate. The relevant reasoning goes beyond the fact that the present "appeal" to the people's will was not an affirmative restoration of democracy. If, therefore, the referendum were intended to demonstrate Gen. Musharraf's popularity, the result can hardly be equated with the legitimacy that accrues to any reading on a barometer of truly competitive democratic politics. More significantly, the quality of his victory is eroded not only by the dispute over the actual turnout of voters but also by the pervasive allegations from civilian politicians of Pakistan that a massive rigging in many different forms has been resorted to by the Musharraf administration. The second aspect of the new controversies pertains to the steps that Gen. Musharraf might now contemplate in regard to the parliamentary and provincial elections that he should hold under the terms of a judicial order that in fact squared up his coup with the country's constitution.

In a comment, which seems to mark a sense of resignation concerning the current developments in Pakistan, the Commonwealth is reported to have said that the entrenchment of any undemocratic form of government in that country would be unacceptable in the future. At another level of international awareness, Gen. Musharraf's decision to go in for a referendum was itself out of line with his record of courage in dealing with Islamic fundamentalism and other political issues within Pakistan since the terrorist outrage that shook America and the world last September. Nonetheless, an American school of thought has it that the size of Gen. Musharraf's pluses in this plebiscite will reflect the extent of support within Pakistan for his present pro-U.S. foreign policy.

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