By Quwat Khan
New York,USA, Feb,2008

“It was unexpected” Says President Bush quoted by Daily Express. The victory of democracy in current election in Pakistan is a surprise to the world. Eight years US backed dictatorship in Pakistan, technically comes to an end after the Election on February 18, 2008.

Politicians are corrupt and Military is the savior, is the dearly slogan of the coups in Pakistan. The tenure started in 1999 when a military chief, Gen. Musharaf came into reign as coup at the excuse that he was asked by the elected Prime minister of Pakistan to be retired before time.

The General arrested the then Prime Minister, Nawaz sharif and sent him to jail. The democratic mandate of the nation was buried. After few months the president of Pakistan was also kicked out and the general elected himself as president and thus started a gloomy dictatorship in the country. General Perverz Musharaf held three top posts of Pakistan; President of Pakistan, Chief Executive and Chief of Army Staff simultaneously.


International Pressure on the military president for the restoration of democracy made him bring religious group into reign in a rigged and faked election in 2002 to legitimize his presidency and to show a clown of democracy to international community. It was for the first time in the history of Pakistan that religious groups were elected and brought into parliament.

Constitution was suspended time and again. Several of the amendments made in the constitution with just a stroke of pen. Media was banned. Political leaders were locked up without any judicial process.

Thousands of people died in the Martial Law and post martial law state of emergency. The religious leaders in the assemblies provided safe ways for extremism in the country.

The top lawyers and human rights activists were sent to jail for committing the crime to raise voices against dictatorship. The Chief Justice was kicked out of the office along with other senior judges when they intervened in auction of the biggest government owned Steel Mills of Karachi for a worth below its original price. As a matter of fact, the constitution of Pakistan has no such provision that allows throwing the Chief Justice of Pakistan out of office.

The nationalist leaders in Baluchistan, who were demanding royalty on Natural Gas in their province, were brutally murdered by the military terming them to be the traitors of the country whose ancestors had a key role in the creation of Pakistan.

International Image of Pakistan was portrayed as a country filled with extremists. Election was procrastinated at the excuse that it would give way to extremists into reign who may put the world into danger. Creating a scene for legitimacy of dictatorship with a power of gun was an obvious reason for doing so.


The religious members of the parliament provided safe ways to the extremists to thrive, in the absence of political leadership and genuine democracy.

Suicide bombing started in the country and the Military general gained eminence in the eyes of the world as celebrity in the fight against terrorism. Whenever international community thought of democracy in Pakistan, the general killed few of his citizens announcing that extremists are being killed.


$ 10 billions worth of eggs were put in the basket of General Musharaf by US and it was used, neither in the interest of Pakistan nor was of any benefit to US. Extremism increased day by day and thousands of innocent people died.

Pakistan suffered great loss. Economy collapsed. Tourism came to zero. The worldly renowned and two times prime minister was assassinated in an election campaign in Rawalpindi who was fighting for the restoration of democracy in Pakistan.

The country was in a complete turmoil and was dragged into a dearth situation of basic eatery commodities. People were seen fighting over a bag of flour at Utility Stores, despite the fact that 70% of the economy of Pakistan is based on agriculture.

On February 18, 2008 election was held under the pressure and presence of International community, Human Rights activists and thousands of western journalists and analysts. According to the agreed statement of European Union political analysts and US official, election as whole went fair. "I think that what we can say is that they (the polls) seem to have been largely fair and that people were able to express themselves, and that they can have confidence in their vote," President George W Bush was quoted by Hindustan Times.

In the recent polls of Pakistan the religious groups were able to win 21 seats out of 838 seats (2.5%) and the pro Musharaf political parities won 14% seats and the verdict of the people of Pakistan proved that the notion that Pakistan is a country filled with Islamic radicalism has been just a myth.

Thousands of people of Pakistan came into streets celebrating as if the country got independence on 18th of February 2008, singing and dancing. It was their hope for democracy. The world is astonished at the defeat of the dictator who, according to them, likes democracy. The new dynamics of politics and the sacrifice of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan have given a great hope to the people of Pakistan.

On the other hand, 60 years of Pakistan’s history reveals that the ways towards the parliament of Pakistan passes through Washington. How the new mandate of Pakistan makes its way to Islamabad while the darling of the West General Pervaiz Musharaf is still on the way, still remains menacing.


In a recent interview to Washington Post published on February 22, Musharaf is expressing his views, “But our success will require the continued support of the United States. I would ask Americans to remember that building democracy is difficult in the best of conditions; doing so in a complex country such as Pakistan -- with its uneasy political history, with its centuries-old regional and feudal cleavages, and with violent extremists dedicated to the defeat of democracy -- is even more challenging. As history has shown, a peaceful transition to democracy requires the leadership of government and the willingness of the population to embrace democratic ideals. The people of Pakistan on Monday demonstrated that willingness; now it is time for government leaders to work together and do our part.

This excerpt from his interview signifies far away from what the people of Pakistan believe or wish, on one hand, the pessimist vision of the leader of Pakistan demoralizes the nation, on the other.

The world comes to rescue Pakistan or dear General Musharaf at this juncture, is hard to predict.

Hope is the only thing that can be predicted when it comes to the wishes of the people of Pakistan where democracy always has been struggling with its broken legs.