Insurgentjg

Wonder why did I write “in Pakistan” at the end of my article’s title? Obviously, one could satisfy one’s personal dignity and respect by finding a hideout far off from the place where you’ve inflated so much hypocrisy, institutional murders, false promises and so on!

Musharraf came into power as a result of a successful coup in 1999 when Nawaz Sharif’s government was overthrown and he was put behind the bars. Not only was Nawaz Sharif sent out of the country, the other mainstream political leader Benazir Bhutto was also out of the country on a self-exile. Almost claiming nonstop for seven years that these two would never return home, Musharraf finally had to give his stance a second thought.
Making the long story short, the two leaders came back to Pakistan in late 2007 and announced their contestation in General Elections. Clearly in the result, PPPP and PML(N) two stood out as the majority parties proving intelligence reports (PML-Q winning easily) to Musharraf wrong.

Musharraf had enjoyed the dual offices in my opinion. One, the President’s office and two, the implicit Prime Minister’s office since all power vested with him. However, the situation has changed dramatically and demands Musharraf to act as a President in true spirit i.e. let the Prime Minister do his job and manage the Government. Apparently, the retired military general is saying affirmative to all the demands and intentions being put forth before him however there’s one that he is not likely to accept. What is that? Signing his death warrant? Well, something equivalent. Signing the bill that 58-2B should be eliminated from the constitution. This puts Musharraf in the President house without any power to dissolve the assembly.
Moreover, its not just 58-2B. PML(N) is asking him to leave the entire arena and step out of the political scene completely. Understandably the tussle between him and the said party started back in 1999 where he had the power to overthrow PML(N). Contrary to that, now PML(N) has the power to throw him out of the political environment. But there’s a catch in this. The PML(N) needs 2/3rd majority in the Parliament to do so and they don’t even have 50% of that. However, if they manage to convince their allied parties i.e. the Pakistan Democratic Alliance (PDA), they can manage the 2/3rd majority and might be able to accomplish the termination of Musharraf.

PPP on the other hand has had an ambiguous stand in this regard. Since mid 2007, they’ve had these democratic talks (which they say) with the President Musharraf. The result of which was a National Reconciliation Ordinance which benefited the PPPP the most. Now the situation is quite interesting, PPPP might be OK with going along with Musharraf but PML(N) says NO. Hence, the situation isn’t that clear and itself revealing. We’ll simply have to wait to see its outcome.
The thing that makes me actually THINK over this issue in first place is the Pakistani Supreme Court. Before November 3, 2007 when Musharraf imposed Emergency, there was an ongoing case against the candidacy of Musharraf in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Apparently, the judiciary was about to rule out against Musharraf’s legitimacy for the President’s election. Now, according to the PML(N)’s one point agenda, the PDA has agreed to restore the Pre-November 3 judiciary which means the same bench which was previously going to give a ruling on Musharraf’s case will be given another chance. This is the actual big question mark. Will they decide against his candidacy for President ship? If so, will he be gone? Is it that simple?

 One thing we can say, if PML(N) had taken the majority in general elections, Musharraf’s exit would have been almost inevitable. Now, we only have to see how much pressure can PML(N) assert on the PDA. Primarily, if it can influence its allied parties towards the formation of an exit door for President Musharraf.