By MUHAMMAD NAWAZ SHARIF
(InformPress.com) - There is no law and certainly no order in my country. What happened this past week has shaken every Pakistani. Ms. Benazir Bhutto was no ordinary person. She served as Prime Minister twice and had returned to Pakistan in an effort to restore our country to the path of democracy. With her assassination I have lost a friend and a partner in democracy.
It is not too early to blame anybody for her death. One thing, however, is beyond any doubt: The country is paying a very heavy price for the many unpardonable actions of only one tyrant - Pervez Musharraf.
Musharraf alone is responsible for the chaos in Pakistan. Over the past eight years he has assiduously worked at demolishing institutions, subverting the Constitution, dismantling the judiciary and gagging the media. Pakistan today is a tyrannical military-police state in which a former Prime Minister can be gunned down in broad daylight. One of my own political rallies was fired upon by PML-Q terrorists on Thursday, 27 December 2007, the day PPP Chairwoman Ms. Benazir Bhutto was killed in Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi, near the Pakistan Army GHQ.
These are the darkest days in Pakistan's history and such are the wages of dictatorship. There is widespread disillusionment. At all the election rallies I have addressed, people have asked a simple question: Criminals are punished for breaking laws, so why should those who subvert the Constitution not be punished? Those who killed Ms. Benazir Bhutto are the evil forces of darkness and authoritarianism. They are the ones who prefer rifles to reason.
Ms. Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and my own Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) have traditionally been political rivals. We fought each other through elections. We won some. We lost some. That is what democracy is all about. Whoever has the majority rules. Ms. Bhutto and I both realized while in exile that rivalry among democrats has made the task of manipulation easier for undemocratic forces. We therefore decided not to allow such nefarious games by the Establishment.
I fondly remember meeting with Ms. Benazir Bhutto in February 2005. She was kind enough to visit me in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where I lived after Musharraf forced me into exile. We realized that we were fighting for the same thing: Real Civil Democracy. She, too, believed in the rule of law and rule of the people. A key point of the Charter of Democracy that we signed in May 2006 was that everyone should respect the mandate of the people and not allow the Establishment to play dirty politics and subvert the will of the people. After the Jeddah meeting we regularly consulted each other on issues of national and international importance. On many occasions we tried tosynchronize our strategies. We had agreements and disagreements, but we both wanted to pull Pakistan back from the brink of disaster.
While the PPP may have been our traditional rival, it is a national asset whose leadership has inspired many Pakistanis. Political parties form part of the basis on which the entire edifice of democracy rests. If our country is to move forward, we need an independent judiciary, a sovereign Parliament and strong political parties that are accountable to the people. Without political parties, there will be hopelessness and authoritarianism will thrive. Dictators fear the power of the
people. That is why they pit parties against each other and then try to destroy those parties - to further their own agenda. This is what has happened in Pakistan in recent years.
So, what is the way out of the depths to which Pakistan has been plunged? First, Musharraf should go immediately. He is the primary and principal source of discord. Second, an interim, broad-based, national unity government should be immediately installed to heal the wounds of this bruised nation. Third, the Constitution should be restored to what it was in 1973. The judiciary should be restored to its condition before 3 November 2007 - countering the boneheaded steps Musharraf took under the garb of illegal "Emergency" rule. All curbs on the media-press should be removed. Finally, free, fair and impartial elections should be held in a friendly and peaceful environment under such a national government so that the people are able to choose their representatives for a Parliament and government that can be trusted to rebuild the country rather than serve the agenda of a dictator.
These are the only steps that will give the country a semblance of stability. If Musharraf continues to illegally rule as he has for the past eight years (1999-2008), then we are doing nothing but waiting for another doomsday.
The world must realize that Musharraf's policies have neither limited nor curbed terrorism. In fact, terrorism is stronger than ever, with far more sinister aspects, and as long as Musharraf remains, there remains the threat of more terror. The people of Pakistan should not be antagonized any further for the sake of only one dictator. It is time for the international community to join hands in support of true civilian democracy, human rights, civil liberties, freedom, equal justice and the rule of just & fair laws in Pakistan. The answer to my country's problems is a democratic process that promotes justice, peace, harmony and tolerance, and hence can play an effective role in promoting moderation. Under the ruling corrupt tyranny, there is no future for economic development, family prosperity and business progress in Pakistan.
[Mr. Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, a former twice-elected Prime Minister of Pakistan, is Chief of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) based in Lahore, Pakistan. PML-N Website: http://www.pmln.org.pk ]
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