[Analysis] Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf was center stage at a military ceremony on Wednesday that moved his country from a military dictatorship to a presidential democracy – at least in theory.
Under intense domestic and international pressure Musharraf resigned as head of the military, exchanging his army uniform for a business suit. As a result, he purports to head a country with an elected executive and legislature, and an independent judiciary.
However, anyone examining the facts on the ground any more closely than a cursory glance will see gaping holes in that claim. For, as long as the country is in a state of emergency, Musharraf and his military successor can largely do as they please: limiting freedom of movement and assembly, arresting citizens at will and gagging the media – all things they have done this last month.
The idea of an independent judiciary is something of a joke. When the courts ruled against the imposition of the state of emergency, Musharraf simply fired the chief justice and replaced him with a yes man.
With elections scheduled for January, one may be forgiven for thinking they will be fully free and fair given Musharraf’s new role. Yet that is highly improbable. The president has already made it clear that the state of emergency will remain in place at least for the duration of the campaign and quite likely on voting day itself.
This makes it impossible for campaigners to organize their traditional mass rallies, and their usual vehicle of public expression – the independent electronic media – is all but paralyzed, which means the electorate, particularly in the more remote rural areas where a majority of Pakistanis reside, will not be fully informed of its choices in order to fulfill their democratic right.
If all of this were not enough, one need only look back over the last month to see one of Musharraf’s main political rivals, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, being placed under house arrest twice and prior to that, the refusal to allow entry into the country of his other foe, Nawaz Sharif.
True, Pakistan is in a state of crisis, with terrorism spreading through the state. Bombings are the order of the day in several cities and the threats from Al-Qa’ida, Taliban fighters and tribal rebels are increasing close to the Afghan border. These may need to be met with military might and that was Musharraf’s argument for retaining his army regalia.
One could also legitimately say that his quitting the armed forces will do nothing to help the battle against extremism. But, to claim that Wednesday’s ceremony has brought newfound democracy to one of the world’s largest Muslim countries would be nothing short of naïve.