- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
Over the past eight years he has assiduously worked at demolishing institutions, subverting the constitution, dismantling the judiciary and gagging the media.
There is widespread disillusionment....people have asked a simple question: Criminals are punished for breaking laws, so why should those who subvert the constitution not be punished?
We fought each other through elections. We won some. We lost some. That is what democracy is all about. Whoever has the majority rules....
We realized that we were fighting for the same thing: democracy....believed in the rule of law and rule of the people.
Political parties form part of the basis on which the entire edifice of democracy rests. If our country is to move forward, we need an independent judiciary,...and strong political parties that are accountable to the people.
If this sounds familiar, some of it should. However, this is Nawas Sharif, speaking about the current state, and the future, of Pakistan in WaPo today. The reason the crisis in Pakistan is important to people in this country is that it is a microcosm with everything intensified and thrown into stark relief, with blood being spilt instead of complacent drift, of a country in a constitutional crisis, due to a power grab, due to clandestine and imperialist covert military policies, due to corruption, due to cynically employing fundamentalism, due to the suspension of its institutions and its laws.
If it seems like it couldn't happen here, some of it couldn't. But the underlying mechanisms, in some cases, are the same. A government that pursued policies that were not in the best interest of the nation, while subverting the rule of law, and a propaganda machine that fanned the fears of its people to maintain the government's mandate. And it hasn't been so very long since we had candidates of our own gunned down on the campaign trail.
Mr. Sharif finishes with the following. Again, ironically much of it could be said here:
The world must realize that Musharraf's policies have neither limited nor curbed terrorism. In fact, terrorism is stronger than ever, with far more sinister aspects, and as long as Musharraf remains, there remains the threat of more terror. The people of Pakistan should not be antagonized any further for the sake of one man. It is time for the international community to join hands in support of democracy and the rule of law in Pakistan. The answer to my country's problems is a democratic process that promotes justice, peace, harmony and tolerance and hence can play an effective role in promoting moderation. With dictatorship, there is no future.
