In a span of few weeks quite a few remarkable political developments happened in Pakistan, a country where the general people are thought to be very much apolitical and where mullahs, mosques, guns and goons wield extreme coercive power and rule the country and where the army is perceived to be the only organised political force. In the span of 66 years of its history the country had four military rulers whose combined effort managed to transform the country into an internationally recognised failed state, a country that has gained notoriety for being the cocoon of terror and militancy which has been franchised to other parts of the world. Thousands of pages of commentaries were written why Pakistan could not shape itself into a viable state, of which I could lay hands on few. Roedad Khan joined the civil service of Pakistan in 1949 and held several important appointments, including those of Chief Secretary Sindh; Secretary, Ministry of Interior; and Advisor to the Prime Minister on accountability. He served under five of the six Presidents during his active service and wrote a brilliant assessment of the political development of his country; ‘Pakistan-A Dream Gone Sour.’ Allen McGrath, an independent researcher from New York conducted an extensive research for his PhD in the nineties and came out with his dissertation `The Destruction of Pakistan’s Democracy.’ He traces circumstances under which Pakistan was born and how the collective effort of the military-civil bureaucrats and its judiciary put nails into the coffin of democracy in Pakistan. Christopher Jaffrelot was the Director of Paris based Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (CERI-Paris). He put 13 articles by people who knew the political chemistry of Pakistan inside out in a book ‘Pakistan-Nationalism without a Nation.’ And of course there is this thesis `Pakistan-Between Mosque and Military,’ by Husain Haqqani the former Pakistani Ambassador to US and a researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In his book Haqqani pleaded the Pakistani politicians for a return to civilian-led government and end to the Islamist-military alliance in his country.

To begin with, for the first time in Pakistan’s 66 years of history an elected government completed its five year tenure though not without hiccups frequently caused by the judiciary. This is not unusual for a country that has survived countless palace intrigues, conspiracies and military takeovers. Once the tenure of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) led government came to an end in last March, the political parties demanded that the next election must be held under a Caretaker Government (CTG) as they could not believe that any credible election is possible under the PPP, a party led by late Benazir Bhutto’s husband Asif Ali Zardari (though his son Bilawal Bhutto was the President of the party, Zardari was the proxy Chief). Zardari is considered a corrupt person up to the neck, and nicknamed as Mr. Ten Percent. The CTG idea was adopted by the outgoing government as it did not have much of an option. A new Election Commission was constituted which was quick enough to announce that religion, including Islam could not be used for seeking votes from the electorates. The traditional Islamists were infuriated and taken by surprise who took to the streets shouting ‘No Democracy, We want Just Islam.’ ‘Pakistan came into being in the name of religion (Islam). How can one be barred from seeking votes in the name of religion? This is absolutely illogical and unacceptable,’ said the Senator Abdul Ghafoor Haidri, Secretary General of Jamiate Ulema Islam (F), one of the two mainstream religious parties in Pakistan (the other one is Jamaat-e-Islam) told the press. Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) launched a terror campaign days before the election saying ‘If you vote you will be dead.’ Posters were put up, on mosques, especially in many parts of Sindh province. The Talibans were targeting the supporters of MQM (a party based in Sindh, and mostly supported by post partition refugees from India), the Awami National Party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (former NWFP) and the PPP. Miyan Nawaz Sharif’s Muslim League and the Oxford educated former cricketer Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-I-Insaf (PTI) were left alone as they promised concessions and truce to Talibans. TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan also repeatedly said ‘we will make sure we destroy the MQM, ANP and PPP and there will be bloodshed on election day.’ The marriage of convenience between PTI and the Talibans surprised many. A senior analyst labelled Imran Khan and his followers the ‘good looking’ version of Jamaat-e-Islami.

Days before the much awaited general election took place on May 11; the media were bloated with predications from pollsters, most predicting the return of PPP back to power, though not with absolute majority. They predicted that the PPP will be able to cobble together a coalition government in the centre with PML-Q along with support from other political parties, sans PML-N. Some even foresaw the rise of Imran Khan as the next Prime Minister of ‘Naya Pakistan’ a slogan the PTI floated during the election campaign. In a major political development, the PPP, the MQM and ANP vowed to stay united against the threat of Taliban and their sympathisers (PML-N and PTI). MQM was the worst hit party by the Talibans when it lost 17 supporters in April from Taliban attacks.

The prediction of all pollsters went up in a thin air like a deflated balloon just after the election was over. Though there was allegation of widespread rigging, violence and irregularities (EU observers corroborated to such claims) Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N registered a landslide victory capturing 126 seats, out of which 118 are in Punjab; requiring 137 to form the government in a parliament of 272 elected members. Already independent elects extended their support to PML-N. PPP emerged as a distant second with only 31 members while Imran Khan decided to sit in the Opposition bench with 29. The Islamist were the worst sufferers, Jamiate Ulema-e-Islam (F) bagging 11 seats and ironically the Jamaat-e-Islam that does so much of sabre rattling on politics in the name of Islam both in Pakistan and Bangladesh had to remain contended with only 3 seats. Traditionally in Pakistan the percentage of voting hardly ever crosses 44% but this time it was a different story, thanks to the young generation and the women voters. They seemed fed up with the status-quo of more than six decades, letting the country run by the corrupt politicians, the military and the mullahs. They came out in great numbers, braving all the odds, disregarding their threat to life and at the end of the day the total number of people voting reached 60% though in 49 centres there were 100% cast, contributing to the belief there were widespread rigging in many constituencies. Surprising all pundits 45% of all voters were women. Analyst commented that the process may have been flawed, but the biggest achievement of the politics in Pakistan is that a near credible election was ever held.

Early next month Nawaz Sharif will form government for the third time. In two earlier occasions he was removed from power, once by the President of Pakistan Ghulam Ishaq Khan in a civilian coup (1993) and the second time by General Pervez Musharraf in a military coup (1999), both on charges of corruption and misuse of power. He faces challenges both in the economic and political front. He has promised coming to terms with the Talibans and convincing US to stop drone attacks in Khyber-Paktunkhwa, a task not easy to deliver. Pakistan’s law and order situation is at its lowest while the economic condition is in tatters. The inflation is in double digit and in certain months it has gone up to more that 25%. Education and health sector is in ruins and corruption has become endemic. In Pakistan nothing binds its people of all the four provinces, excepting religion while sectarian religious violence between the Sunnis and Shias has become an everyday affair. The Talibans want the women to go back to kitchen while Baluchistan’s demand for self-rule gains momentum. He has to mend fences with his neighbours, especially India. Horse trading in Pakistan’s politics has been a legacy all through its history and the army still remains a very powerful force in the country’s politics. Soon Nawaz Sharif’s honeymoon period will be over and he will have to deliver what he promised to the people of his country.

Considering the murky past of Pakistan’s politics the May 11 election was a watershed and marks a step forward in the Pakistanis’ quest for a democratic order. When democracy stumbles it is the common people who pay the price. This time the call of democracy was answered in both rural and urban areas and no member of the society chose to keep itself away from the process. The world will wait for Pakistan to emerge as a viable state instead of a failed one and this region cannot afford to have any of its member states branded as a failed state or a state that poses to the world as a cocoon of terror. Let the people of Pakistan get a chance.

The writer is a former Vice-chancellor, University of Chittagong.