Now What?

20 February 2008



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Musharraf’s Allies Lose Parliamentary Vote

The people of Pakistan have made it clear that they have had just about all they can take of President Pervez Musharraf. Since he wasn’t on the ballot Monday, they voted against his allies in the Pakistan Muslim League-Q faction. Of the 272 seats in the assembly, the PML-Q secured just 38. The question now is whether the incoming government has the votes to impeach the president.

The size of the defeat is difficult to miss. Geo TV, a major source of news in South Asia, reported, “President Pakistan Muslim League-Q Chaudhry Hussain and 22 former federal ministers have faced striking defeats in the elections.” In other words, it wasn’t just the brand-new candidates in marginal constituencies who were beaten, but it was also the grand old men of the party.

The Pakistan People’s Party [PPP] of the late Benazir Bhutto won 88 seats, Pakistan Muslim League-N [PML-N] led by headed by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif won 65 seats. The two have begun to discuss a coalition already. With 153 seats, such a coalition would be about 30 seats short of being able to impeach the president, which would require a 2/3 majority. If they could convince the Awami National Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (each won 19 seats) to join in, the president would be in serious trouble.

Electoral fraud appears to have been rampant and ineffective at the same time. One observer told the Washington Post, “The most egregious irregularities we saw were at the women's polling stations. There were missing voters' lists, misuse of ballot boxes, intimidation of voters. These were in the most secure areas and more affluent areas. I mean, if this was happening here, I could just imagine how bad it must have been in some of the rural areas.” Maybe that’s why turnout didn’t hit 40%.

There was good news from the Northwest Frontier Province as the Islamic fundamentalists got thrown out of the seats they won in 2002. Electoral victories for moderates in that part of the country say that the fundamentalists have overplayed their hands among the Pakistanis. That more than anything else may defeat Fascislam in Pakistan.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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