All the parties who are genuinely serious in opposing the present regime are united on the fact that in the presence of General (Retd.) Pervez Musharraf, the dream of real democracy cannot be fulfilled. They also stand united on the fact that the decision of 3rd November have inflicted irreparable loses on the awakening judiciary.
All the parties seem to be agreed on the points that there should be democracy, and there should be free and fair election, and there should be the end of emergency, and there should be an end to the Army rule, and there should be an autonomous judiciary and free media, but there are great fissures present over many moot issues, which primarily stem from the greed of power and pelf.
There is one opinion that election should be boycotted and Pervez Musharraf should be forced out of the throne, which has managed to retain by hook or crook for the past eight years. The parties of this opinion want to knock out Musharraf once and for all and they also want to shun the admission of Musharraf to the rule through parliament.
APDM has announced boycott of the elections and Benazir, Fazlur Rehman, and ANP are not in the favor of it for their vested interests. Now the question is that whether APDM should go solo for the election boycott, or should they opt to not to leave vacant field for the other parties, especially for King’s party.
Perhaps government wants that too. Musharraf would surely want to see PML-Q once again getting a lead, so that he could enjoy another free reign. The reason PML-Q is still intact is Musharraf, who is the gluing force among the lotas. He is the nucleus for Chaudharies, Chattaas, Wattoos, Mazaris, Legharis, Shiekhs, Sials, Tawanas, and other wadera-shahi. If he slips away, a land slide will occur in the rows of PML-Quisling, and as long as he remains there, PML-Q is here to stay and only PML-N can stop them from coming once again into the power.
SHAKIR your analysis would have carried weight if any one of the political parites had popular support and people were desperate enough to put there lives online on their call, a key ingredient is missing and thats the crditablity of the leaders. If you loose it once, its impossible to regain it. So, its safe to say that there will not be a repeat of 1977, there is absolutely no need to travel that road. This country does not need chaos, the past decade has shown that if there is stability albeit fragile, there are enough dynamics within to propell the nation forward, for now pseudo democracy will do.
This is a Catch-22 situation. A boycott will not work if the PPP takes part in the elections. It’s better if they do not boycott. When the results are in, everyone (except Maulan Fatty and PML-Q) will say that elections have been rigged. Then there will be repeat of what happened in 1977, and maybe another election under the supervision of an independent election commission (and a neutral president).