A new drama is once again about to be staged. The name of this play is “masking the undemocratic rule”. The producer, director and the main actor in this play is the same person who had produced “local bodies’ elections under federation”, “referendum” and the infamous “elections 2002”. There are no two opinions about the failure of these plays. All were a record flop on the box office of the people of Pakistan. They also failed to fetch any foreign award.

The first of these plays was the local bodies’ elections and it was claimed that this is being held to empower the people of Pakistan at the grass roots level. These were the first elections after the military takeover in October 1999 and were declared as non-party elections but the political parties openly supported candidates. The candidates supported by the PPP won from every corner of the country. The military regime used and abused all its resources to install its favourites on the Nazim posts. Despite all the manoeuvring of the state apparatus several districts Nazims supported by the PPP won the Nazim slot. Then the military apparatus used arm-twisting tactics for forcing these Nazims to change loyalties and toe its line. These local governments were then used to facilitate the fraud referendum. This first play was continued to be played in empty houses until the recently announced second part of the sequel.

The second play was the referendum in which everyone, everywhere, and as many times as one liked was allowed to vote. The producer, director and the hero claimed a resounding success at that time but later on had to admit that this was a mistake to launch such a flop project.

Then came the biggest flop of them all called elections 2002. These elections were held keeping the two former Prime Ministers, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif out. The military junta tried its best to stop the PPP from participating in these elections by displaying every intention that it would not register the PPP as a political party under Benazir Bhutto. This design of the military junta was countered by the PPP and a new party was registered by the name of PPP Parliamentarians, which took part in the elections and got the highest numbers of votes in the country despite pre-poll, during poll and post-poll rigging. The European observers of these elections declared these elections as ‘massively flawed’. This production of the military and its agencies failed as soon as it was released. It was impossible to form a government without the PPP so the military regime resorted to its old tactics of divide and rule and found a bunch of unscrupulous individua! ls who had won the elections under PPP banner and had got votes in the name of Benazir Bhutto, defected and chose a comical name for their group. They called themselves Patriot. What followed is a sad story. A story of miseries of the people, a story of unemployment, a story of suicides, a story of gang rapes, a story of retrenchment of employees, a story of price hike and a story of horror. This production was used by the regime to hoodwink the world community. The producers succeeded in their efforts to some extent but were exposed when the going got tough for example at the time of nuclear proliferation allegations and worsening relations with the neighbours. These issues have kept the military regime busy as these keep surfacing every now and again and have been a constant irritant for the regime. The question keeps arising that who violated Benazir’s nuclear doctrine that had successfully blocked any proliferation effort.

Benazir Bhutto has been a thorn on the side of the regime because she keeps exposing the inability of the regime to run the country and the corruption at high places whether it be the land grabbing scam, the increasing gang rape incidents or the deteriorating law and order situation in the country.

The regime that produced flops like the first local bodies’ elections, referendum and elections 2002 has launched a new project of local bodies’ elections 2005. This local body system introduced by the regime failed because of inherent faults in it. People instead of getting power became powerless. Land mafia, drug mafia, bearded mafia and corrupt mafia are the kind ruling the streets of the country. Power has concentrated in one hand. General Musharraf takes every decision whether big or small. He decides the foreign policy after a telephone call. He is about to decide NFC award. He takes the decision of whose name is to be put on the exit control list. He takes the decision to send a lady doctor abroad because she refuses to keep quite. General Musharraf has too much on his plate.

The districts in Sindh province where PPP has a strong support have been divided in smaller districts with the aim to give on a platter the Nazimship of several new districts to a party supportive of the dictatorship. A party which itself is under dictatorship of an individual. A party, which uses every illegal means even torture and force to win the election.

Massive discrepancies have been found in the electoral lists prepared by the election commission. Nearly 7.5 million voters are missing from these lists. Constituencies have been demarcated in a way that supports the King’s Party. Bickering between the provincial and district governments continues over money and authority. Nazims were dismissed by the Sindh provincial government and reinstated by the Supreme Court. In these circumstances the time and money of taxpayers are being misused and wasted to produce another flop. How long would this continue? Not much longer because the people are sick and tired of these tomfoolery and want decency in state affairs.