September 3rd, 2008 
Aman 
Alliance With victory of anti-Musharraf parties in the general elections in Pakistan, everyone had expect that days of suppressive military rule will end very soon and democracy will return to Pakistan. Alliance between Nawaz Sharif led PML and PPP confirmed that the days of Musharraf’s ruled are limited. But, what happened next, neither the Pakistanis not the international community had expected. PML and PPP had entered into alliance with the motifs of forcing Musharraf to resign and to restore the forcefully sacked judges. Determination for restoration of democracy and unity of both of the parties forced President Musharraf to resign. But Asif Ali Zardari led PPP did nothing to restore the sacked judges. Zardari backtracked form his promise to restore the sacked Supreme Court judge which forced Nawaz Sharif to leave the alliance.
Constitution Amendments Both the parties had entered into the alliance with the motif of repairing the constitution which had been damaged by Musharraf’s unlawful amendments. Musharraf’s amendments had given excessive powers to the President which are not favorable to the democracy in Pakistan. Sharif wanted to amend the constitution so that in future President won’t be able to force the downfall of an elected government. It must be learnt that most of the elected governments of Pakistan never completed their full tenure and were dissolved by the president. Constitutional amendments suggested by Nawaz Sharif are necessary for strengthening the democracy in Pakistan.
Democracy But Zardari has not kept his promise. He has been declared PPP’s presidential candidate. It is being expected that he easily will won the election. Thus he has paved the way for himself of becoming the first civilian dictator of Pakistan. If he becomes the President of Pakistan he will become the most powerful person of Pakistan. In such circumstances he will be the most powerful person of Pakistan even if compared to the previous military generals. But both the public of the Pakistan and Nawaz Sharif are feeling cheated. Though he has started to restore the sacked judges in a phased manner and to some extent has won the public hearts. But he has not restored the sacked Chief Justice of SC Iftikhar Ali Chaudhary, who had lead the strongest agitations against the military dictator. Restoration of sacked judges is being seen as only the political move of Zardari to defuse the public pressure. He, with his one move has defeated all his political rival. But it will be wrong to say that Musharraf and Sharif are the losers because it is not the defeat of the military general or Sharif but is the molestation of public belief and the defeat of democracy inside Pakistan.
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