PAKISTAN'S FUTURE----- IMPERFECT

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December 21, 2007 8:00 PM
Pakistan's future imperfect
While Britain and the US refuse to challenge Musharraf's rule, the media remains muzzled and free elections are nowhere in sight

Ali Dayan Hasan
Pervez Musharraf, president of Pakistan and serial coup-maker, kept his "promise" to the west, lifting on December 15 the state of emergency he imposed on November 3, resigning from his position as army chief and calling parliamentary elections for January 8 next year. The international media that had descended on Islamabad in droves has largely gone home and the crisis is over. London and Washington are congratulating themselves on a job well done: Musharraf is now a "civilian president", the constitution stands "restored", and full democracy is around the corner.

If only. The fact is that Musharraf's election is widely regarded as illegal and the country remains effectively under military rule, the "restored" constitution is fundamentally different to the one overthrown, transformed by presidential decree into an instrument of coercion rather than a document upholding fundamental rights; the media remains muzzled and free elections are nowhere in sight.

Musharraf used the emergency to mount a frontal assault on the judiciary, the legal profession and civil society in order to secure his continued rule. While the active phase of the crackdown on lawyers may have passed, Musharraf has used it to insulate all of the repressive measures he enacted under cover of the emergency so they remain the law of the land today. And the lawyers and judges, though still defiant, continue to face arbitrary arrest and imprisonment by a hostile government and the military establishment.

Musharraf's biggest backers, the United States and United Kingdom, both issued formulaic statements urging Musharraf to end the state of emergency prior to December 15 and repeatedly emphasised free and fair elections as the way out of the crisis. However, to date, there has been no action from Downing Street or the White House to match these words in terms of sanctions or the withholding of aid, and these countries continue to prop up Musharraf with substantial military and financial assistance.

The UK has reiterated its support to Musharraf in the aftermath of the crackdown. Addressing a meeting of Pakistani students in Islamabad on December 6, the British high commissioner to Pakistan, Robert Brinkley, said that Britain had chosen not to press Pakistan to restore the deposed judges because "the clock cannot be turned back; we have to move forward".

The Bush administration has provided even stronger political support for Musharraf. The US has notably failed to press strongly for human rights improvements in the country, a return to the constitution as it stood on November 3, 2007 or the release and restoration of ousted supreme court chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and other judges. On December 16, when asked if there should be a reinstatement of the ousted judges, US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, responded that the US supported the idea of an independent judiciary in Pakistan" but added that the January 8 elections would herald a "different and new day" in Pakistan and the issue of the judiciary would be "resolved" in that "context".

Rice's notion that elections will cure the Musharraf government's broad attack on democratic institutions such as the judiciary is mistaken. Free and fair elections and a genuine transformation to a parliamentary government are unlikely so long as the judiciary cannot function as an independent branch and laws remain on the books that allow Musharraf to manipulate the political environment on whim.

In a country with a long and well-documented history of election rigging by a partisan military, the emergence of an independent judiciary provided the best hope for a free and fair election. A military-backed ruler who found himself unable to cohabit with such a judiciary, and dispensed with the constitution in order to get rid of it, is unlikely to preside over an electoral exercise that, in all likelihood, would bring his political opponents to power. Nor is a meaningful democracy viable without lawyers able to operate freely within an equitable legal system.

Genuine election campaigns are impossible when the media remains muzzled, leaders of the lawyers' movement - the most potent symbols of political opposition to the government - remain under arrest, and when the legitimate judiciary of the country has been deposed and replaced by handpicked supporters of the government.

The US and the UK are muting their criticism on the grounds that Pakistan's central role in the US-led "war on terror" makes Musharraf an indispensable ally. This policy is as dangerous as it is flawed. It seeks to appease the power ambitions of the Pakistani military at the expense of much of Pakistani society, most notably those tens of millions who share the values of respect for human rights and the rule of law that the west espouses.

Terrorism is a grave threat facing Pakistan, as Musharraf pointed out on November 3, while suspending the constitution. But the Pakistani government's efforts to combat terrorism are doomed to fail when the government is focused on detaining and harassing judges and lawyers and destroying the rule of law.

If influential actors such as the US and UK are genuinely interested in fostering democracy and human rights in Pakistan, or in Pakistan's political future and stability, they should focus on restoring the judiciary and lawyers to their status prior to November 3.


December 21, 2007 Guardian.co.uk


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