Informed Comment

Political parties in Pakistan are continuing to buck President Musharraf. There may well be a substantial confrontation between them and his military government. The Pakistan People’s Party has insisted on electing Benazir Bhutto as its head in the first intra-party elections, mandated by Pakistan’s new election laws. Musharraf’s government has declared her ineligible to run, both because she faces corruption charges and because of term limits it has recently instituted. The Muslim League (N), which is still loyal to deposed Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, intends to elect either his son or daughter to lead the party. It is hard to see how Musharraf as president could cohabit with a Sharif as prime minister. In the meantime, the smal religious parties have decided to run under separate tickets rather than as a coalition, which almost guarantees that they will pick up few seats in parliament. Musharraf is under enormous pressure to hold free and fair elections in fall of 2002, but the parties are not cooperating in his call for new leadership. At some point he may jail Benazir or bar one of the Sharif children from the country, which will make him look more and more like the military dictator he is.