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An overwhelming mandate

Mian Nawaz Sharif has been asking the people of Pakistan for a clear mandate, what he got was a tidal wave, a clean sweep that even his most ardent PML (N) supporter could never have dreamed about. The PPP got such a drubbing at the electoral hustings, particularly in the Punjab and the NWFP, that it has put the entire future of this once proud entity as a national party. What late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto proposed as a new and enduring concept for the nation in 1967 in the form of a left-of-centre political party devoted to lofty socialist ideals, his daughter and son-in-law have contrived to dispose of three decades later in a purely capitalistic welter of greed, deceit and scornful arrogance that brooks no criticism and accepts no defeat with grace. Ms Benazir is on record that she would not accept the results if she did not win, a screwed up logic that only a Bhutto could devise. Post her TV performance in Election Hour after the Supreme Court of Pakistan verdict, did she honestly expect her disheartened and demoralized supporters to come out and vote for her? The PML (N) has got almost a million more votes than in 1993, on the other hand more than two million PPP voters either deserted the Party or simply stayed at home, voting with their feet for a leader who has begun to believe her own falsehoods and misrepresentations. In 1993 there were 50.38 million registered voters and 20.29 million voted ie. 40.28%. PML (N) got 7.98 million votes (39.32%) while PPP got 7.57 million (ie. 37%). Despite the PML (N) majority in votes, PPP made the government in the Centre. In 1996 the registered voters are now about 56 million and actual votes cast is expected to be 20 million ie. about 36%. Part of the reason for the low turnout is that while PML (N) votes went up about a million to about 9 million ie. 45%, PPP voters stayed away in droves or deserted to (also-ran) Tehrik-i-Insaaf and is projected to drop by almost 2 million total around 5.5 million votes ie. 27.5%, a fall of over 12%.
However, it would be wrong to conclude that Mian Nawaz Sharif benefited from the negative votes of the PPP disenchanted who stayed at home, the million extra votes cast for him established the PML (N) leader as the clear choice of the people of the country. Barely surviving in poverty and privation, beset by corruption the likes of which they had never previously experienced, the people believe Mian Sahib when he says he will deliver on his economic promises. As for Benazir Zardari, the people of the country have simply confirmed that the many accusations levelled against her by the President in dismissing her as PM on Nov 5, 1996 and upheld as true on all counts (except one which was subjudice) by the learned Supreme Court of Pakistan on Jan 29, 1997, were absolutely true in their eyes also. The apathy of the election campaign can be explained by the month of Ramzan, it is also true that the electorate was almost evenly divided between accountability and elections first. The people blame their present misfortune on blatant nepotism and corruption, mainly on the past regime, but not excluding the practice of years of merciless looting of the national till. While taking steps to ensure that accountability really becomes institutionalized on the pattern of the PML (N)’s oft stated views in public and private, Mian Nawaz Sharif should get on with implementing his economic policies because the people really need immediate economic succour more than any other palliative.

While the victorious PML (N) leader has indicated in a magnanimous gesture even before his outstanding success that in power he would avoid the politics of retribution, his victory is more than a reflection of the judgment that the people have rendered on Benazir and her spouse. Throughout the last 90 days there has been a rising crescendo for accountability across the board and the future PM will find that he will be hard put standing between the people’s desire for vengeance and his own penchant to be a gentleman, to “honour while you strike her down, the foe that comes with fearless eyes”. The recurring and insistent demand for accountability must go its full course, for Mian Sahib must step out the way and let destiny meet up with Zardari and spouse.

With respect to charges of rigging being aired by Benazir and her disinformation experts, these are patently untrue. The sweeping PML (N) victory clearly points the fact that “rigging”, if it took place, was done in 1993 when 15 urban-rural NA seats were computer-engineered past midnight away from Mian Nawaz Sharif on votes counts of less than 1000 each to PPP, not to count the solid 15 MQM bloc that was lost to a possible coalition with PML (N) due to the MQM elections boycott contrived by some uniformed functionaries on PPP payroll. It is time to clear the mystery as to who was responsible for this outrage, they must be held accountable. The people of Pakistan have paid an enormous economic price because the machinations of these absolute scoundrels took this country into the three years Zardari-age of darkness and deceit, corruption and crime. We have been set back many decades in our quest for economic emancipation. Now the people have given their verdict as regards what they believe to be the truth and what they know is a blatant lie. In the face of such condemnation, it can only to be expected from Benazir that she should parrot charges of “rigging”. What about the many sets of Observer Groups that have been closely monitoring the Polls? Does she also call their impartiality into question? Why did the Commonwealth Observers Group led by the former Australian PM, Malcolm Fraser, the SAARC Observer Team led by the former Caretaker PM of Bangladesh, Justice Habibur Rehman, the US-based National Democratic Institutions (NDI), etc all give a unanimous observation that the elections were free and fair. In their wanderings over most constituencies, why did they not notice one single case of rigging, unfair practice, etc? Moreover, the Caretaker government was headed by a card-carrying PPP veteran as PM, the President is formerly a PPP person as are Governors and Chief Ministers of Punjab and Sindh, does she really expect the world to believe that in turning against her they would hand over the elections to arch-foe PML (N)? Their penchant would have been rather for a hung Parliament so that the President would be supreme, this is what Benazir Zardari has been repeatedly telling the world. The very fact that a hung Parliament did not come about confirms the lie that she has been bandying about to all and sundry. The PPP has been well and truly beaten, they should at least have the grace to admit it and let this poor nation, which they have robbed clean, get on with their lives in eking out a meagre existence, but now with some hope for the future.

The extent of Mian Nawaz Sharif’s victory has been staggering but he must spend some time in introspect lest the breadth of his victory go to his head and put the future of this nation in doubt. Pakistan is today in dire straits, in economic peril of the highest magnitude. Instead of throwing up walls, it is time to build bridges. Armed with this sweeping mandate, Mian Sahib can reach out to the best in the country, friend and foe alike, to build this country and take it into the 21st century information age as a modern State. We have a lot of ground to cover in the next few months to ward off economic disaster. While we must worry about education, health, transportation, fuel and electricity charges, our revenues have come to a standstill. To rejuvenate the economy we need to bring down fuel and electricity prices, compensating the shortfall in revenues by increased revenue collection. This will be quite a balancing act but can be done by decentralizing authority and devolution of powers, by having Local Bodies Elections without further delay, an event that Benazir, the self-proclaimed apostle of democracy, successfully evaded for more than 3 years. The people have put their trust in Mian Nawaz Sharif by giving him an overwhelming mandate, let the young leader now reciprocate that trust by giving power to the people to run their own lives at the local level. That is the first step in the long journey that had already commenced when the first person cast his or her ballot in the 1997 Elections.

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