May 14 (2006) will always be remembered in the history of Pakistan with as much of significance as March 23, 1940. On this day an irrevocable resolution by country’s two leading political parties and their leaders—former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and Muhammad Nawaz Sharif—was made to strive, to seek and not to yield—in reasserting the democratic ideals as well to launch a battle to free Quaid’s Pakistan from the stranglehold of a parasitic Praetorian establishment. It gave the clarion call to the nation: it is NOW or NEVER.

”The Charter of Democracy” as they have named it, seems to have resurrected a nation branded internationally as a “failed state”. It has infused a new vigour and a new hope in Pakistan’s otherwise bleak future under a military ruler. Obviously it has been described by leading independent media commentators as a new Magna Carta, a landmark, a historic agreement as important as the Objective Resolution—“a document that makes a sincere and right-earnest attempt at curing the cancer that has been gnawing the very roots of Pakistan since its inception”. It seeks to re-establish the inalienable, birth right of the people to be the sole arbiters of power.

Before ink of their signatures could dry up, the news of its signing-- hitherto a target of the regime’s media blitzkrieg as a non-starter—caused tremors in almost Richter scale of 10 in General Musharraf steel bunkered corridors of power while drowning his summer soldiers and sunshine patriots in cahoots with him in a sea of dismay and desperation. The new Magna Carta scored its first victory by panicking the General to announce, that to be safe and secure from the inevitable aftermath of the Election 2007 that would show him the door, he would seek re-election to the office of the President from the present assemblies sixty days before their term expires.

This would be yet another act by him ultra virus of the Constitution that debars him from seeking re-election a second time in his military uniform. According to independent jurists the declaration of his ill-intent is not only in violation of the letter and spirit of Constitution, it is also outrageously immoral since it would deny the new elected Parliament (after 2007) its inalienable right to elect a President of its own choice. He would resort to this outrageous act just to save himself from sure defeat especially when he would be irrevocably required under the Constitution to contest presidential elections denuded of his military uniform.

His desperation was writ large in his TV interview later clarified by the ISPR—of course—without altering his intent but reasserting the fact that he would not like to be an anorchous Samson without his hair i.e. military uniform. Panic-rush to declare that whatever ill-fated course of 2007 general elections for him be, he would get himself elected by the present assemblies though they would have no locus standi, would no doubt be a most shameless acknowledgement of his moral defeat especially in the light of the considered legal view of the constitutional experts who believe that he has been trapped in a Catch-22 situation by his trying to be over smart.

In the first place, to make him eligible for a second term, he would be required to shed his uniform. Secondly, just by removing his military uniform he does not qualify to get straight into the presidential contest. Like all government servants enjoying public office of profit, by virtue of his sticking to the office of the Chief Of Staff, he stands debarred from contesting the presidential election within two years of his giving up the post of the Army Chief. The constitutional waiver that has allowed him to continue as President wearing the Khaki to this day—though a shameless exception-- was for one time and that period ends in November 2007.

In his predicament when it seems all over for him—no feasible exit route in sight, all the democratic forces shall have to be very cautious. The gigantic move for support from the masses that they have initiated through the Charter of Democracy should not be wasted through complacency. Their target is already lethally wounded and dreads the opening of the flood gates of change. In his desperate bid—to stick to power—like all dictators—he might resort to methods and means crooked and despicable—to avert holding of 2007 elections. His incoherent honcho man in Gujrat and others in the Kings Party, have been making the right sound bites that are music for his ears, that elections need to be postponed beyond 2008.

In this context, while the Charter for Democracy is, no doubt, a document that is as important as the Constitution of 1973, the democratic forces in the country shall not only have to ensure its implementation in letter and spirit but they will have to get tougher to see elections are held within the expiry of the 90 days of the tenure of the present Parliament. They need to collect all their populist strength to face any eventuality and to convert it into their favour—be it imposition of emergency, martial law or a state engineered situation leading to wide scale civil disturbance.

In case Musharraf goes ahead with his agenda, the opposition in the Parliament should resign en bloc at the time of his re-election by the present assemblies. If the MMA mullas are not in cahoots with him, they should be made to willingly join hands with ARD to teach him a lesson of betraying his commitment to them to quit uniform by December 31, 2004 as a quid pro quo to their support to him to his 17th amendment to the Constitution.

Notwithstanding the fact that after having given him the generous concession of half-a-decade long period of the benefit of the doubt, General’s Western supporters are now gradually getting wary of him and calling his bluff. They have reached the conclusion that though he has been making promises to them in miles regarding combating terrorism, he is moving in centimetres. Last visitor from Washington warned him, “Mate, you aren’t doing enough”. Besides, as Lord Patten put it in his Wall Street Journal op-ed (May 10), “Truth is, Afghanistan will never be stable unless Pakistan’s military government is replaced with democracy”. Indeed, the emerging consensus among Western supporters of Musharraf is, there cannot be democracy in Afghanistan without democracy in Pakistan. Lord Patten’s warning is rather timely: “In short, Pakistan is ruled by a military dictatorship in cahoots with violent Islamist extremists. The military has no interest in democracy at home, so why does the outside expect it to help build democracy next door?”

Not only that, the good news is that his Western supporters have started seeing light at end of the dark tunnel of the regime’s propaganda of corruption against its civilian opponents. The continuously orchestrated charge-- that it were the alleged acts of financial and administrative misdemeanour by the politicians that had been responsible for military coups in the past as well as the one masterminded by General Musharraf in Octgober1999---are now being dismissed as peanuts as compared to the massive institutionalised corruption by the military. According to Lord Patten, it refuses “to condemn or even acknowledge the military’s large-scale, institutionalised corruption. So much has been grabbed by the military that it will take years to catalogue it. The military has acquired vast tracts of state-owned land at nominal rates; its leaders dominate businesses and industries, ranging from banking to cereal factories. Their control of the economy has grown so great it will present an enormous challenge to any future democratically elected government.”

How true. While appreciating the Charter for Democracy in totality as a document that takes in account the vital national issues including committing the future government to investigate military’s land grabbing, there is much more than that that would require professional probe. Loans of billions of rupees written off by the junta will need to be accounted for since big fat cats from Gujrat swallowed enormous amounts of the victims of the swindled co-operative societies. Investigations will have to be made into the sale of the family silver---Banks, Pakistan Steel Mill, HMC, PTC and other corporations. Not only that, it shall have to be probed how the billions of the tax payers money was pumped into these Banks , KESC,and other corporations to first rehabilitate their financial health before putting them on loot sale. Culprits behind the current sugar scandal who made over Rs 50 billion by creating artificial shortage and black market will have to be brought to book. The Tractor Gate scandal will require a Commission of Inquiry since the scheme was quashed to benefit Musharraf cronies. Even the Sindh High Court took note of it the other day saying that the "entire proceedings suffer from lack of transparency, smack of subjective decisions, arbitrariness and excess of jurisdiction as well as favouritism". The gainful manipulators behind the crash of the Karachi Stock Exchange last year where the President and Prime Minister’s “chosen few” made billions as alleged by former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan and robbed small investors shall have to be put in the dock.

“The Charter for Democracy” is perhaps the finest thing to happen politically in Pakistan after the unanimous adoption of the 1973 Constitution. By now—less than a week after the signing of the Charter-- a lot has been written on its various features. There is not only general consensus on it but it has also ignited a hope in the otherwise dubious future. Personally as a political analyst, I feel that it is one document that can ensure democratic and liberal future of Pakistan committed to rule of law, sovereignty of the Parliament and equal rights for the citizens of the state, irrespective of their caste, creed or colour as promised to them by the Quaid. However, most significant is the commitment to do away the concurrent list and ensure maximum autonomy to the federating units that would include availability and accessibility to the provincial resources. Restructuring of the taxation system, civilian control over the armed forces, independence of judiciary, creation of a non-partisan accountability commission, a federal constitutional court, end to horse trading, a bipartisan independent election commission with well-provided mechanism to implement these promises and nothing that pertains personally to benefit the two leaders nor limits itself to one-point agenda of ousting the General—establishes beyond any iota of doubt that the Charter for Democracy is the sure guarantee to a safe and prosperous future for Pakistan.