As soon as the popular verdict was known the incumbent government’s moles with the aid of some foreign diplomats moved with a clear view to sabotage the popular choices. The first attempt made was to cajole and coax the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) to form a government without the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). That attempt as evident on March 19 blew up in their faces. But they did not give up. This is strange because a day before the elections, the PML(Q) leadership published a full page advertisement in the papers asking that had the 1970 election results been accepted by all, would Bangladesh have been created? It was a shrewd, albeit cruel, ploy to keep the opposition parties away from pre-empting potential protests on probable electoral rigging. However, the league of the general has forgotten its own message. The inaugural sessions of the Provincial Assemblies have not yet been convened, which given the federal nature of the mandate seems a terrible risk. Is it that those who ruled the Islamic Republic for the last eight years are signaling us that if they do not stay in power, there would be no need for the federation itself?I often ask myself why Washington is still siding with the losers in manipulating the outcome. But is the answer not only too visible in the shape of the demented nature of those who are ruling the world’s most powerful democracy and also its biggest invader? The class that we call the neo-conservatives has really destroyed everything that we once called precious in world affairs. Bilateralism, civil society, human rights, tolerance, democratisation, sovereignty of nation states, internet and fruits of more than 60 years of the US diplomatic and alliance-building efforts are all gone or under strain. So extreme is their agenda that they want to ruin the world economy before they go even if their fellow Republican is to take over the country. If you are given to absolving the neo-conservatives of their hands in the almost imminent global economic depression, kindly reconsider. You cannot rule out the political impact of policies on the rising oil prices and crony capitalism. In fact, if you see it clearly the term ‘neo-conservative’ means the return of the old establishment. Throughout the world after the collapse of the Cold War, the old insecure establishments were on the vane. Thanks to the Bush administration and Osama bin Laden, together they have found a new lease on life. And if they are dying to support a beleaguered regime in Islamabad, it is because they know no better.

The political crisis in Pakistan is a clash between the old establishment and the new. The old establishment that hangs an elected prime minister and the new that pays its tribute in the shape of his recently slain daughter. The old that sells its people to foreign government no matter for fighting to death in Afghanistan or then to be carried to Gitmo, and the new that declares 2008 as the year of the ordinary soldier. The one that wants to rig every single election and impose on people bankrupted faces and the new that tries to ensure that not only the elections are fair but also the country’s army has nothing to do with the politics of the democratic republic. If the old order could read the writing on the wall, it should have known better. But it does not and will try to ruin the environment before conceding defeat or being thrown out altogether.

The story does not end with the attempts to divide the victorious coalition. The coalition was united by the blood of the country’s slain leader and her attempts before her demise to ensure that none of these parties boycotted the elections and hence proved impossible to divide. Yet the exploiters have left no stone unturned. When Ms Bhutto was murdered those who had always had loathed her brother Murtaza Bhutto and perhaps even actively participated in his murder all of a sudden became his well wisher. They argued that his daughter Fatima Bhutto be made the new PPP leader ignoring the fact that her own father had parted ways with the party by creating his own separate electoral group. That was not enough. They then all of a sudden became the well wishers of Amin Fahim, when they saw an opportunity to create further rifts inside the party. By creating some rifts an attempt was also made to keep the elected parties away from the restoration of the judiciary. That apparently failed also, but the rift caused has delayed the nomination of the country’s next premier. I really wonder why everyone is ready to let those who have lost ruin the success of the victors.

But that too is not all. The actual offensive against the upcoming government is only but starting and it is in the shape of passing deficits and shifting responsibility for the shortcomings of the previous government. One classic example is the increase in the prices of fuel. Why were the prices not revised earlier? Subsidies now are being withdrawn item by item and the care(not)taker finance minister keeps warning the upcoming government that if it tries to alter the economic policies, the country’s economy may collapse. Secretly, we are told, these mandarins are asking the donors to not let the next government reintroduce subsidies. A similar no-go area is also being declared in the country’s terror war with the help of the West. Balochistan has already been made controversial through the machinations of the PML(Q). Above all, the presence of a powerful president, his lackey governors and the district governments make a mockery of the system. In short, those who were threatening the people with an outcome like 1971 if the results are not accepted, are now actively conspiring to do just the same.

Meanwhile, a question has arisen regarding the money that has been borrowed by the country or then has been gifted to Pakistan in lieu of fighting terrorism. Today no one will talk of that money even though we know that it is not in the foreign currency reserves, it has not been invested in providing subsidies, nor any remarkable infrastructural development, or for that matter in the war on terror itself. Today we will stay silent. When the new government starts wavering under the above mentioned shackles, all blame for the country’s financial condition will be levelled on it and its alleged corruption. The assemblies will be dissolved and meanwhile another Hamayun Akhtar Khan or Ejazul Haq will join the list of the country’s richest men without much trouble. The gruesome industry is so powerful that I am almost praying that the old order and its vestiges may vanish through some miracle at once. But the saner way would be for such elements and their godfather(s) to stand aside or leave.

PS: The friends and relatives of Keith Ryan, the US Embassy office bearer recently found dead in Islamabad, are asking me to send them my own assessment of his alleged suicide/murder. My personal hunch is that if this matter is resolved, we may find answers to many a question: for instance, why are FBI and FIA folks so vehemently being targeted in the country and why a huge proportion of people caught during the crackdown on the human trafficking rackets comes from Gujrat. Any clues? Kindly help me in giving the ideas final touches by sending me what you know to the following e-mail: probe@pitafi.com. Secrecy and privacy will be guaranteed.

[Column Published Friday March 21, 2008 By The Post]

The author is a Pakistani television journalist, columnist and commentator on security, political and media affairs. He can be reached through his website www.pitafi.com