By IANS
Islamabad : The Pakistani media maintained its relentless criticism of the emergency declaration for the fifth straight day Thursday, with at least one newspaper saying that both President Pervez Musharraf and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto had tied themselves in knots.
Like Musharraf, former prime minister Bhutto “has also tied herself into political knots”, The News said in an editorial.
“In the name of pragmatism and seeking a smooth transition to democracy she has, by acts of omission and commission, isolated herself and her party from the mainstream opposition and has not been able to get, as yet, what she wanted from Musharraf,” it added.
Addressing a crowded press conference here Wednesday, Bhutto had declared that Musharraf could no longer be trusted to deliver on his promise to restore civilian rule in Pakistan.
She had also demanded that he lift the emergency imposed on Nov 3, shed his army uniform and conduct general elections as scheduled in January.
“It is unfortunate when a politician of her stature does not seize the moment when the time is ripe,” The News said.
Had Bhutto had not broken ranks and dismantled the opposition Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) while she was in exile in London, “the face of the country’s political spectrum would have been different.
“She and her party ditched everyone — which in turn was a boon for Musharraf and his regime because it created disarray in the opposition ranks — got a few personal concessions under the NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance), made her soft return to Pakistan possible and assumed a central role through back channel negotiations,” the editorial maintained.
“However, now she has reached the point where she has to publicly blackmail the regime by threatening to launch a street agitation and a boycott of parliament. On a personal scorecard she may have gained a lot but the national polity has been damaged,” The News added.
Dawn, published from Bhutto’s home province of Sindh, was a shade gentler to the former prime minister, saying her response to the ban on her rally in Rawalpindi Friday “will be a good indicator of her commitment to the restoration of democracy.”
“Bhutto is right when she says that for pressure to mount on the government, people have to come out on the streets in large droves. That has largely been missing since the emergency was imposed and that is sadly due to the vacuum in the leadership,” the Dawn editorial noted.
“Right up to the 1980s, political parties managed to mobilise mass movements. But the military’s constant meddling in politics, accompanied with concerted efforts to destroy the political parties’ infrastructure as well as other effective mechanisms of mobilisation, such as trade and student unions, only led to the depoliticisation of society.
“Today the common man, who provides the mass following to any party, is too focussed on his survival as he struggles to make ends meet,” the editorial added.
“It is a failure of the political parties that there is a disconnect between them and their voters. Mobilising people to come out on the streets to protest is thus a much bigger challenge,” the Dawn maintained.
“In the light of this, those pockets of resistance (to the emergency), notably the lawyers, must be commended for their courageous stand during these difficult times when they are the target of the government’s anger,” it added.