Lessons and contradictions

My dear Ali:

By the time you read this, your new president would have been elected, but I cannot comment on it because I wrote this the day before. Deadlines won't let one wait, even for Doomsday. But if things have gone according to form, Asif Zardari should be the President of Pakistan. Congratulations! What is there to comment about though? It is the will of the people expressed in all its majesty under democracy in action. Congratulations to all those who were harping on about "free and fair elections" for the last nine years, that democracy would "remain incomplete" without the return of the leaders of the two "mainstream parties", whatever that means.

I'm not being cynical. I'm being factual. Zardari is the democratically elected President of Pakistan under the convoluted British colonial system that we have willingly adopted. So one should now also accept this system, however reluctantly and without necessarily agreeing with it, because that is also what the people apparently want through their "representatives". I am a democrat and bow to the will of the majority. If I oppose President Zardari, it will be purely on issues, merit and performance and strictly within the confines of the constitution that we have and the sort of democratic practice that it engenders. I will never be one to ever beseech the army to "save the country". That's best left to the purveyors of democracy who do it better than anyone when there is 'dictatorship'. "Save the country" from what? From itself?

Last week I told you about both the symbolic as well as the real powers of the president, but I forgot three. One is that he can dissolve the National Assembly and therefore dismiss the government. The second is that he appoints the chiefs of the army, navy and air force as well as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, under which comes the Special Projects Division that is responsible for our nuclear assets and weapons. The flip side is that as the appointing authority he can obviously also dismiss all four of them according to rules and procedure. These three powers, combined with his other powers, plus the fact that he is elected, makes Zardari the most powerful president in our history after his father-in-law, who in his early days in power was not fettered by a constitution, operated under martial law as the world's first, and so far only, chief martial law administrator and after it was lifted under draconian emergency rule throughout his era.