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Markey: Crucial To Hold Pakistan Elections on Time in January

Council on Foreign Relations

Interviewee: Daniel Markey, Senior Fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia
Interviewer: Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor

November 5, 2007

Daniel Markey, a former U.S. State Department specialist on South Asia, says President Pervez Musharraf's emergency decree runs the risk of alienating so many different opposition groups that a more radical element could take power as happened in Iran. He says that sticking to plans to hold parliamentary elections early next year would give hope to political parties in Pakistan that would “rather participate in elections than mobilize for an outright opposition movement with the radical Islamists against the government.” The promise by Pakistan's prime minister and attorney general that the elections will take place on time, Markey said, was “a very important and positive first step.”

The latest news from Pakistan is that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Attorney General Malik Abdul Qayyum have both said that the scheduled parliamentary elections originally set for mid-January will be held on schedule. This is not an official government announcement, but seemingly close to one. What do you think about this?

I think it is a very important and positive first step. It is not all that needs to be said, but it is a good first piece of the puzzle, in terms of laying out a plan for how this emergency rule will end and what comes afterwards. I think it could have a calming effect on Washington, on London, and on other international capitals and it should send a signal to political opposition leaders, especially Benazir Bhutto, the head of the PPP [the Pakistan People's Party], the leading political party, that there is light at the end of this tunnel.

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2007 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.