General’s new friend

Talks to broker a deal between Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Pakistan People’s Party leader, Benazir Bhutto, are reported to be making progress. A politician close to Musharraf put the situation in perspective by saying, it is less a deal than ‘dheel’ (relief). This witty play on words is not just an example of earthy obfuscation, it inadvertently captures the essence of the conciliation between Musharraf and Bhutto. The two appear to be finding common ground not to maximise any perceived advantage, but to secure relief from their current troubles in a quid pro quo.

Democracies may appear to bring together the strangest of bedfellows but, as India’s coalitions have learnt fast, those bedfellows have to be seen to be picked within a framework of accountability. The bed, as it were, has to be fully democratic for strange bedfellows to have an impact outside purely private spheres of interest. The accountability is to be obtained via a thorough system of checks and balances. Mayawati, to take an example, has to be India’s most feted coalition partner. But parties courting her know that, no matter what, they cannot simply remove the cases against her. Plenty of political interference can and does happen. The CBI frequently capitulates. But there are the courts. There are active civil society institutions. On the flip side, parties in power covetous of Mayawati’s votebank know that no matter how much they may want her out of the electoral scene, they cannot banish her from the land by threat of vengeance. Musharraf, having taken the second course of action with Nawaz Sharif when he took power in the 1999 coup, is now proposing the clemency tactic with Benazir Bhutto.

By the informed reports emanating from Islamabad, these are the contours of the deal being finalised. The PPP would support the re-election bid of the president, and the government would cease to press investigations in corruption cases against Bhutto and family. Bhutto could then return to Pakistan without fear of arrest. After the sustained protests against the suspension of the chief justice, Pervez Musharraf knows his re-election needs institutional legitimacy. But by making public his control of various wings of government, he is in fact undermining the legitimacy of institutions in his country.