Democracy is always messy and Pakistan is in for a period of rather intense messiness as the various winning political parties in the February 18 polls move to establish a more permanent democratic system. Their chances of success are better now than at any time in the country’s past. Pakistan now has an aroused civil society, as witnessed by the huge crowds that turned out last year for the pro-democracy demonstrations led by the country’s lawyers. The overwhelming popular support for the parties opposed to President Musharraf gives them the legitimacy to make significant changes. The military is also committed to staying neutral as the politicians begin their work of reshaping the constitutional order. None of the major parties has challenged the outcome, not even the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League (Q), and Musharraf has stated he will honour the will of the people.

Pakistani voters braved threats of violence and fears of rigging to register a lack of confidence in the government of Pervez Musharraf. They turned out in unusually high numbers (over 50 per cent in the two largest provinces of Punjab and Sindh) that gave the late Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan’s Peoples Party a plurality of the 268 elected seats followed by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (N), and leaving the pro-Musharraf PML(Q) far behind. The religious parties fared poorly everywhere, even losing power in the Northwest Frontier Province to the secular Awami National Party, likely to ally with the PPP to form the government there. The PPP and PML(N) won over half the seats in the key province of Punjab and, with the support of many independents and other regional parties in the National Assembly, are likely to get close to the two-thirds majority needed to clip Musharraf’s powers and possibly to impeach the president himself.

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