Why Benazir must stay

I started writing this as a comment to a post by blogmeister Ali Eteraz in which he tries to explain why he is (reluctantly) for Miz Buttho. In it he quotes an Irfan Hussain article in Dawn in which Hussain urges people to support the, er... lady.

I myself am, to put it mildly, not a supporter of Benazir Buttho. The woman has no character, no vision, no political savvy, no concern for the well being of the people of Pakistan, and absolutely no morals or scruples.

Nevertheless I am convinced (though I say it with a heavy heart) that she (and consequently her party, which, as it stands is synonymous with her family name) are at present an essential component of the democratic process. This is because the pee-pee-pee is one of the largest and most organised parties in the country, and is currently the only party that has the potential to lead the country back onto the path of, er... democracy.

I have no illusions about her ability to bring about positive change to the condition of the common man. If elected she will pursue, broadly speaking, the same self-serving policy she (and others) have pursued in the past (oh god I hope I hope I hope I’m wrong). My support for her involvement in the forthcoming elections is based on the hope (based on what, I don’t know) that once elected she can somehow manage to bring about a situation where so-called democracy is allowed to continue without military intervention for twenty or thirty or forty years (pipe dream!). So that leaders with integrity and vision are thrown up and enter the fray to wrest the reins of government and policy from the likes of evil, money-grubbing politicians like Benazir and Mian Nawaz.

In the same vein, Nawaz Sharif too must be allowed to return.

The premise of Irfan Hussain’s article is that the pee-pee-pee is the only party capable of halting the “Talibanisation” (as it is being called) of Pakistan. Perhaps. That is a worthwhile objective. But it should not be the only objective. Whatever happened to democracy’s fundamental objectives of equal opportunity, justice for all and universal human rights? Just because we apply democracy as enshrined in the Western canon upon ourselves, it doesn’t mean we must apply it solely to suit Western interests.

What about our interests?

I also take exception to Hussain’s assertion that, “now, she has come out strongly in her condemnation of extremism and terrorism in the name of religion, and should therefore be supported by all those who fear this virulent modern disease.” Why are we bound to believe that she will stand by this statement simply because she has made it? Can we believe any politician in Pakistan, a country in which standing by one’s pre-election rhetoric is the least of a successful candidate’s concerns? And anyway, is this the only “virulent modern disease” we want to eradicate through democracy?

Hussain ends his piece by asking, “Is this the sort of Pakistan we want to live in?” And the answer that I’m sure a significant number of Pakistanis will proffer is a categorical “No!”

But he may well ask, “Do we want to live in the sort of Pakistan that Benazir ruled over in either of her two previous terms?” I really wonder how many Pakistanis would say “Yes!”