Parties must seize the opportunity

Great circumspection must be exercised in welcoming the Pakistan Supreme Court’s decision to nullify President Pervez Musharraf’s reference against Chief Justice Iftikar Chaudhary. The gumption displayed by the court in asserting its institutional independence against a dictatorial regime cannot be overemphasised.

But given Pakistan’s peculiar political situation, this victory could well turn out to be pyrrhic. Sure, military dictatorships have historically been the bane of Pakistani democracy. It would, nevertheless, be foolish to ignore the fact that the country currently faces a far more pernicious adversary: a reactionary and terroristic strain of political Islam.

Unchecked ascendancy of radical Islam in Pakistan would, among other things, spell a huge setback for the already wobbly war on terror. The best bet against such a clear and present danger is, ironically enough, the Pakistani army.

But considering that the country’s security apparatus has very little political accountability, the possibility that it might leave the country’s mainstream politicians in the lurch in the latter’s battle against radical Islam cannot entirely be ruled out.

What could actually effect such an unfortunate turn of events is the likely legal challenge that mainstream democratic players — their resolve bolstered by the independent judgement of the court — could successfully mount against Musharraf’s decision to get himself re-elected by an outgoing puppet Parliament.

A cornered security-intelligence apparatus — not yet fully cleansed of radical Islamist elements — could then not only go slow in its battle against Islamist terror, but actually aid and abet them surreptitiously.

The point is not that this sequence of events is inevitable. However, it is not completely improbable given the limitations of liberal democracy in Pakistan. Mainstream electoral politics has, for the most part, been an alibi for the country’s traditional elite to preserve its vested interests.

That has created a small, though significant, space for radical Islam. Unless Pakistan’s democratic parties change their ways, the forces of reaction and authoritarianism will engulf South Asia.