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Musharraf opposition and muslims take power { February 20 2008 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/20/world/asia/20pakistan.html?_r=1&hp&oref=sloginhttp://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/20/world/asia/20pakistan.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
February 20, 2008
Musharraf’s Party Accepts Defeat
By JANE PERLEZ and CARLOTTA GALL
LAHORE, Pakistan — Pakistan appeared to be heading for a transition to an elected civilian government Tuesday after President Pervez Musharraf told visiting United States senators that he accepted the resounding defeat of his party in elections, and would work with a new Parliament.
Many Pakistanis expressed relief that the overwhelming victory of the two major moderate opposition political parties in the Parliamentary elections on Monday marked a change in direction after eight years of military rule under Mr. Musharraf even though in the past the parties have rarely produced models of stable government.
After fears that violence and vote rigging would mar the polling, international election observers described the victory for the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-N as an accurate reflection of the voting.
Mr. Musharraf was “accepting of the reality of the election,” Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, said in Islamabad, the capital, after he and two other American senators met with Mr. Musharraf.
The leader of the pro-Musharraf party, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, a usually uncompromising politician, also said his party would be in the opposition. The spokesman for the party, Tarik Azeem Khan, said: “We readily accept our defeat unlike in the past when losing parties alleged rigging. We accept that we were beaten fair and square."
The nearly complete election tally Tuesday showed the Pakistan Peoples Party winning 80 of the 242 contested seats; the Pakistan Muslim League-N with 66; and the pro-Musharraf party trailing with 38.
Now, after one of the most dramatic electoral results in Pakistan, the United States, which has backed Mr. Musharraf to the hilt even as a Taliban and Al Qaeda insurgency has grown in intensity, must seek new partners in the campaign against Islamic militants in the country and region.
A former chief of staff of the Pakistani army, Gen. Jehangir Karamat, said the election of a new government should help the United States if Washington is looking to work with moderate forces.
“It’s an opportunity to rejuvenate this whole relationship,” General Karamat said. “What we are seeing through these elections is moderate and liberal forces which is absolutely great.”
General Karamat, who also served as Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, said the rout of the Islamic religious parties in the North West Frontier Province was an indication of the national mood that should help the United States. In place of the religious parties, the province chose two secular parties as the powers in the important local assembly.
The North West Frontier Province abuts the tribal areas that have become sanctuaries for the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and from where they send increasing numbers of suicide bombers into the populated regions of Pakistan.
A key factor in the relatively smooth election was the decision of the new chief of the army, Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, to ensure that the military stayed out of the campaign and did not interfere on election day, analysts said.
General Kayani, in turn, appeared to be a promising partner for the United States, according to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Joseph P. Biden, Jr., who also met with Mr. Musharraf on Tuesday.
Mr. Biden, who has criticized what he called the “Musharraf-centric” policy of the Bush administration, said that the new head of the army was a “rational man who understands the obligations and limitations of the military.”
The emergence of a Parliament of moderation should be good news for the United States, Shuja Nawaz, a Pakistani military analyst based in Washington, said. ”If Parliament will now have a stronger hand than before in national decision making then the United States should be pleased, since it will not have to beg and cajole Pakistan to act in its own interests against the terrorists,” Mr. Nawaz said.
The leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, Nawaz Sharif, who was prime minister twice in the 1990s, is now in an important position to help forge the new government with Asif Ali Zardari, the leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party.
Mr. Zardari is the widower of Benazir Bhutto, the opposition leader who was assassinated nearly two months ago.
During the election campaign, both Mr. Sharif and Mr. Zardari said they believed Pakistan had to turn the war against the insurgents into a Pakistani effort rather than one that was dictated by the United States.
These sentiments found resonance because Pakistanis had come to fear the insurgents but they resented the feeling that Pakistan, under the rule of Mr. Musharraf, had become a tool of the United States, analysts said.
“The lesson for the United States in this is to listen to the will of the people,” said Jehangir Tareen, who was a member of Mr. Musharraf’s early cabinet and supports Pakistan’s alliance with Washington. But, he said, “We cannot nod automatically to the United States. We would like to participate in this if it is in our interest. We will not be ordered about.”
In the 1990s, and more recently, the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-N were rivals, and there is little love between the two camps. The leaders of the parties, Ms. Bhutto and Mr. Sharif, were in exile for nearly a decade until very recently, and both tried to run their parties from abroad.
Although the resounding victory of the two parties was broadly welcomed, in places even deliriously so, there were immediate memories of the failings of the civilian governments in the 1990s. Many Pakistanis agree that neither the governments of Ms. Bhutto nor of Mr. Sharif distinguished themselves. Both were ridden with corruption.
Mr. Zardari, a controversial man known in Pakistan for corruption charges, has never held elective office. He faces rumblings and distrust in his party, and it was not clear how well the negotiations that are expected to begin in the coming days between Mr. Zardari and Mr. Sharif would proceed.
The talks are likely to be protracted with both sides laying down conditions that will be difficult for the other to fulfill.
Mr. Sharif, who was ousted as Prime Minister in 1999 in a coup by Mr. Musharraf, framed his campaign on a distinct anti-Musharraf platform, a tactic that appears to have worked well and that brought his party an unexpectedly strong windfall.
Mr. Zardari sounded more accommodating tones about Mr. Musharraf.
Analysts said it was possible that Mr. Zadari would even seek to form a coalition with Mr. Musharraf’s party and leave Mr. Sharif ‘s party outside the government.
Mr. Sharif has been reported to agree to the Peoples Party assuming the post of prime minister in exchange for three things: impeachment proceedings against Mr. Musharraf; the reinstatement of the dismissed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and other judges; and the appointment of a top lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan, as prime minister.
Mr. Ahsan, the leader of the anti-Musharraf lawyers movement and president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, is a member of the Peoples Party.
Although the election was considered fairly orderly, the Interior Ministry spokesman, Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema said Tuesday 18 people had been killed in incidents connected to voting, and 150 injured.
Jane Perlez reported from Lahore, Pakistan, and Carlotta Gall reported from Islamabad, Pakistan. Salman Masood contributed reporting from Islamabad.
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
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