| Pakistan – Election raises hope; terror despair |
New Year brings new hopes. But it was not the same in the case of Pakistan. The country had witnessed the assassination of its democratic leader Benazir Bhutto on December 27 and was struggling to keep its political system on track. But all went in vain as Parliamentary Elections, which were scheduled for January 08, got postponed until February 18.
Prior to the elections, Scotland Yard investigators concluded that former Pakistani Prime Minister Bhutto died of an injury to her skull when she hit her head on the car’s rooftop following a suicide blast at an election campaign rally. Her supporters, however, claim that their leader died of a bullet wound.
The Parliamentary Elections on February 18 brought bad news for President Pervez Musharraf`s party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q). After ruling the country for five years, the PML-Q managed to grab only 40 out of the 242 contested seats. The opposition Pakistan People`s Party (PPP), which was led by Benazir Bhutto’s widow, Asif Ali Zardari, got 80 seats, while Nawaz Sharif-led Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) garnered 66. Zardari and Sharif later joined hands to form a coalition government and to sideline Musharraf.
Analysis: Democracy in Pakistan»
On March 22, Yousaf Raza Gillani became Pakistan’s new Prime Minister. The new government over the next few months pressurised Musharraf to quit and even threatened him with impeachment. Bowing to pressure, Musharraf stepped down from his President’s office on August 18, thus bringing to an end the rule of another dictator in Pakistan’s tumultuous history.
Full Coverage: Musharraf Quits»
The wedding of PPP and PML-N failed to survive for long, as Sharif withdrew from the governing coalition on August 25 in the wake of a disagreement over reinstatement of Supreme Court judges sacked by Musharraf during his regime.
The South Asian country looked at Zardari with hope after he got elected to succeed Musharraf on September 06. The new President faced the task of crushing al Qaeda and the Taliban acting inside Pakistani territories.
But the change of guard in Islamabad failed to rein in terror. In an attack that Pakistan had never witnessed inside its territory, a suicide truck bomb blast nearly gutted the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad on September 20, killing over 50 people and injuring hundreds. The attack shook the political class as top government leaders, including the President and Prime Minister, were dining metres away, at the PM’s residence.
|
|
|
