Tensions in Pakistan have been high for a while. Some believed that political instability could not be peaked following the return of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to the country from a self-imposed exile, but they were, quite sadly, proven wrong. Moments after her return, suicide bombers struck, killing dozens of her supporters. Even then, people believed that since elections were just around the corner, this was the epitome of horrors that could befall Pakistan. On the 27th of December, they were once again proven wrong, with Bhutto’s assassination.
Immediately followng the assassination, the country’s major cities decended into violence and unrest. Many more would die as a result, and Musharraf’s government seemed powerless to stop the momentum of this aimless terror that was sweeping through Pakistan. The government had no choice but to postpone the upcoming elections, with party’s such as Nawaz Sharif’s own pulling out of the elections in protest, due to the apparent lack of security granted to Benazir Bhutto by President Musharraf.
Now, with elections just hours away, Pakistan braces itself for what could be a monumental shift in its governing politics. The vote on the 18th of February 2008 will end an era of military rule, that has lasted more than eight years with Musharraf at the helm. Pakistanis are clearly quite excited by the prospect of electing their own government, and who can blame them? But the killing of 47 civilians at a polling station on the 9th of February show that the process of electing is just as if not more important than the actual outcome. Despite fresh reports of Musharraf placing between 80 -100 thousand guards at polling stations across the country, BBC news has reported that two of the leading parties, the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League N, have voiced concern over the possibility of rigged elections.
This is a potentially scary thought, especially when you take into consideration this excerpt courtesy of BBC News:
Mrs Bhutto’s widower and successor as party leader, Asif Ali Zardari, said in an interview with the UK’s Sunday Times newspaper that his party would have “no choice but to take to the streets” if the elections were rigged.
This is something of a threat from Zardari, a man accused of killing his brother-in-law, Murtaza Bhutto, while Benazir Bhutto was Prime Minister. And I for one am not one to think of this as an idle threat either.
Let’s hope for the sake of all innocent civilians involved, and for the future of Pakistan as a stable democratic state, that the elections pass with relative ease. Any violence and killing ensuing from the voting will definately throw mud in the face of Pakistan’s already heavily blemished international reputation and may throw into question it’s position as America’s ally against the “war on terror”.
See the full BBC News article here.
