Wardi Special: Presidential Elections 2007 - A Nation at Gun Point?
Understanding Pakistan Project Team September 25th, 2007
By: Athar Osama
[Note: While this editorial was being written, Justice Wajihuddin Ahmed has announced his candidacy for the President of Pakistan as a consensus candidate of the judicial community. If nothing else, this makes a bold and daring statement that men of principle are still willing to take on the mighty and the uniformed. A man of integrity and principles, we wish Justice Wajihuddin best of luck of luck in his endeavor - Ed.]
With the date for the Presidential Elections now being announced for Oct 6, 2007, the year-long speculation about whether or not General Musharraf will (or will be able to) seek another term in office is coming to an end. Barring any fresh legal or political challenges which are likely, but not certain, Presidential Elections WILL be held on Oct 6, 2007 and in all likelihood, General Musharraf, in violation of the Constitution of Pakistan, WILL still be holding another “office of profit”, namely, his position as Chief of Army Staff at the time of his re-election.
Whether or not he will give up his uniform after–and only if–he is re-elected as President of Pakistan for a second term is really immaterial. Having used every potential trick under his sleeve to first usurp power from its rightful owners–the people of Pakistan and their democtracally elected representatives–and then legimitize his rule through farce–and perhaps rigged–Presidential Referendum and then a democratic facade, the General is now well on his way to using his uniform to threaten, bully, and harrass all his political opponents and to-be defectors from his own party–but most importantly, the people of Pakistan–to “elect” him to office once again.
If one decides to discount the increasingly irritated and hostile public opinion, as evidenced by the Lawyer’s Movement earlier this year, and the increasingly independent Supreme Court as a result, the election of the President on October 6th seems like a foregone conclusion. It would, however, be rather unwise and shortsighted to discount these recent developments so easily. In this Special Edition of Understanding Pakistan, we look at the Politics of Wardi in the lead up to the proposed Presidential Elections in October 2007. More specifically:
- Justice (Retd) Wajihuddin Ahmed, one of the few honorable Justices of the Supreme Court of Pakistan who refused to take an oath of allegiance under General Musharraf’s Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) and chose to retire instead, in article written in May 2007, talks about the Constitutional Position on Presidential Elections. While some of what Justice Ahmed speculates about is now established reality, his article is refreshing as it is informative about the issues that confront our Supreme Court today…
- Salman Akram Raja, an advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, takes a look at the issues involved in the election of the Incumbant and the challenges that Supreme Court faces in the ongoing legal battle today. The author presents an interesting set of legal arguments including some legal precedence by this very Court that may have restricted the options that the Court now has to rule against the dual office of the President….
- Syed Sharifuddin, a Constitutional Advisor to the Commonwealth Secretariat in London, again addressing the issue of General Musharraf’s re-election brings to bear some international legal practice and evidence to the question. It engages in an interesting legal jugglery to, on the one hand, encourage the current regime to follow the Constitution and stand-down and, on the other hand, to cajole them into avoiding adopting extra-legal means to (once again) subvert the Constitution….
- Athar Osama, in a “History of Failure: The Rise and Fall of Military “Experiment” in Pakistan” argues against the futility of electing a President in Uniform and carrying on with the painful and useless exercise of trying to create a better democracy by practicsing dictatorship–a process whose greatest affectees are the Pakistani people themselves…
Before we provide Understanding Pakistan’s own assessment of the likely Politics of Wardi, we leave you with this somewhat humorous but mostly ironic parody of General Musharraf’s insistence on clinging onto his Khakis. One particular thing that caught my eye and attention as I watched this was a placard that said: “Apne Mulk ko Fatah Kerna Bund Kero”
Returning back to our own analysis, we believe that the potential challenges to the President’s Election can come from four different sources, namely, legal, political, people, and institutional (the army). We describe each in more detail and rate these according to their likelihood and impact.
Ever since the Lal Masjid Saga ended, there have been a large number of opinions and analyses of what went wrong and perhaps how to fix it. Different commentrators have termed the post-Lal-Masjid era as a manifestation of a society on a collision course with itself. It has been termed, repeatedly, in the media as a “Battle for Pakistan’s Soul”. It is not clear whether and what this battle is? Who is going to fight it? and How will it be fought? It is not even clear (
These are hard–very hard–questions. But one thing is certain that, sooner or later, we will have to address these questions for ourselves with utmost honesty and sincerity. In order to promote this debate, Understanding Pakistan is presenting four different viewpoints on this issue:
While we should all be thankful to Allah Almighty for giving us this piece of land, that we can call our home, and its people, our people, we should also not leave any stone unturned to make this piece of land the envy of the world. We are far from that aspiration and there is a long way to go. In fact, some of us may argue that we aren’t even moving in the right direction. Ironically, Pakistan is a country that has not yet come to terms with some of the most important questions that must define a country’s march into the future:
When we started the Understanding Pakistan Project, we had hoped to make a contribution by helping generate a dialogue between Pakistanis about their country’s history. While the temptation to do something more current and real, has always been tremendous, we had purposefully avoided doing so just because we thought that by understanding the events that have shaped us, we would gain the perspective to analyze and negotiate our present and future. 
The ongoing constitutional saga between the President and the Judiciary is shaping up to be an important and defining one in the country’s constitutional history. This is now nearing its close and keeping everyone revitted to the media. Yet, while the verdict in the CJP Case is likely to bring the fight for the independence of Judiciary to a closure, it is only going to be the starting point of an even greater struggle for the right of Pakistani people to be governed, through their consent, by a constitutional government.
In the face of such momentuous and heart-wrenching events, Understanding Pakistan Team has found it difficult not to engage with these issues that are defining Pakistan as we speak. We have, therefore, decided to expand our focus a bit by incorporating occasional posts about substantive current events as well. We hope our readers will welcome this editorial decision and will continue to remain engaged in the historical discussion as well. 
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