The two biggest vote-getters in the Pakistani elections, the Pakistan Peoples’ Party and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), have apparently reached an understanding and will form a governing coalition. The new national and provincial governments should be in place by the second week of March, and senior PPP politician Makhdoom Amin Fahim is expected to be the next Prime Minister of Pakistan.
Both Zardari, who’s leading the PPP, and Nawaz Sharif, the head of the PML(N), inidicated that they won’t bring the PML(Q), Musharraf’s party, into the mix, leaving Musharraf further isolated. There have been some rumblings that Musharraf is looking for a quick ”exit strategy,” but some in his camp have denied the rumors.
Apparently, the US is all for advancing democracy and elections in name only. After basically green-lighting Musharraf’s suspension of the constitution on November 3, his sacking of the Chief Justice (as well as about 50-60 senior judges), and his crackdown on the media and civil society, the US is putting pressure on Zardari and Sharif to find a way to work with Musharraf, a position that even some prominent conservative writers find troubling.
While the news of a PPP-PML(N) caolition is a very positive step, we should remember that this new coalition has to overcome a lot of hurdles in order to govern effectively, including settling the issue of the restoration of the judiciary and figuring out whether or not to try to impeach Musharraf. It also faces the difficult challenges of tackling the Pakistani Taliban, containing soaring fuel and food prices, righting the economy, and dealing with a separtist insurgency in Balochistan, which the PPP has already begun to address in a positive manner.
TAGS: Crack, economy, election, Muslim, Suspension, Taliban
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February 25th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
When will see how “Disco” Zardari and Sharif will deal with the Taliban insurgency popping off generals down the road in ‘Pindi?