I was interviewed by PressTV today on the situation in Pakistan. Pakistan Peoples Party candidate Asif Ali Zardari, who has spent pent a total of 11 years in jail on charges including corruption to murder, but has never been convicted of anything, won 481 of 702 electoral college votes to become Pakistan’s new president. He will face awesome challenges, beginning with his country’s raging inflation rate of nearly 25%. To control inflation will require tremendous self-discipline that I would be surprised to see in Zardari.
To keep a lid on inflation without further impacting a stock market already down 40% this year will require cutting the budget at a time when his country is faced with crises ranging from internal violence to attacks by its U.S. allies across the border in Afghanistan. Bombings and suicide attacks took nearly 1200 lives in the past year. Even as the election took place on Saturday 33 were killed and 80 wounded from a car-bomb attack on a police checkpoint.
Even if Zardari has the right instincts, he faces the challenge of fulfilling his democratic promises and then obtaining cooperation from the democratic bodies doing so would empower. His first test is to fill his promise to restore to the parliament the powers that his predecessor had arrogated to himself. If Zardari doesn’t do this, then he exposes his democratic pretensions as a fraud. If he does then he must keep his populist party in line as he makes tough choices.
Things get worse. He must also restore the judges deposed by his predecessor. It was that deposition that triggered the revolt that led to Pervez Mussharrif’s resignation. If he doesn’t do this he betrays the coalition that brought him to power. If he does do it, he risks another round of prosecutions that could put him back in jail.
He also has to balance Pakistan’s tricky relationship with the United States. The recent U.S. attacks on Pakistan have angered the Pakistani people who, whatever they may feel about the justifications of the attacks, see them as demonstrating contempt for national sovereignty. No head of state could countenance such attacks openly. If he denounces them publicly while tacitly consenting, he will be seen as a hypocrite. If he takes an consistent stand against them the U.S. might take action to undermine him whether by simply denouncing him as soft on terrorism or by instigating a coup against him.
Congratulations, Mr. President-Elect. I don’t envy you your position.
Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad
Minaret of Freedom Institute
minaret.org
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