The events of March 2007 paved the way for the defeat of the ruling party when chief justice, Mr. Ifitikhar Chaudry was sacked. Rising prices of basic food items and poor governance in every field coupled with lack of planning for power and water management proved fatal for the non-charismatic leadership of the PML (Q). Their president, a former Prime Minister of Pakistan has lost both his seats in the national assembly. In the troubled province of NWFP (North Western Frontier Province) people have rejected the ever growing terrorist activities and the lack of will on the part of religious parties to counter them. Local newspapers have labeled these results as "democracy takes revenge" and "a referendum against Musharraf". In the final count of the election results, the most liberal democratic party, the PPPP took 80 out of a total of 272 seats in the national assembly followed by the PML (N), the party of deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
It will be interesting to see how President Musharraf now deals with the clear mandate of the people of Pakistan. It must be noted that he has already declared several times that once he is certain that his popularity has diminished he will no longer stay in power. Now that the political forces which elected him the president for the next 5 years have been wiped away, will he admit that the political will of the country has changed, and keep his promise or will he let the country fall into another fiasco of horse trading and political brokerage in which there will be no clear winners just to advance his own interests at a high cost to the nation? Pakistan's integrity will be at stake.
Article comments
1 - Milton, John
Excellent article. Lots of information about the very important elections of Pakistan. Well timed.Congratulations Blogcritics for providing some useful insight to this geopolitically important country. Please keep it up.
2 - Ms. Keighley (qing-jao)
This is brilliant and very informative! It seems indeed as if things have reached a climax and something will happen soon. What,I wonder? I can only hope it will be progess that leads to the betterment of the of life of the people. You put things so well and so clearly that I, and others gain understanding of the conflicts, the struggles, the hopes and the lost causes. Thank you, as always for this. I truly hope that the election results, and the voice of the people heard, will initiate a change for the better.
Sincerely,
-Ms. Keighley
3 - Alec
Great article. I especially enjoyed your analysis of how religious extremists were neutralized and routed.
4 - Dr. Afaq A. Qureshi
Thank you for your comments.
This routing of religious right is a pretty convuluted thing. It never translates into the fact that the masses are deviant from the core religious issues and/ or practises. There is need to explain this adherence and love-hate relationship on the part of Pakistanis.