When former Pakistan president Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari launched a new political party in Lahore on 14 August, the Independence Day, it was widely seen as an attempt to provide an alternative to the two main political groupings, Nawaz Sharifs Pakistan Muslim League and Benazir Bhuttos Pakistan Peoples Party. So far, however, the newly formed Millat (National) Party has failed to make any wave in Pakistans muddy political waters and Leghari remains yet another pretender to the third force.
The country has seen a host of these. Most prominent among them in recent times have been former cricketer Imran Khan, former chief of army staff Gen Aslam Beg and, not to forget, Qazi Hussain Ahmed of the Jamaat Islami.
The basic rallying point of all of them is the same, even though the remedies they suggest are different: the two main parties have failed to govern the country, therefore it is time someone else, more specifically "we the third force" took the reins. An approach that is flawed from the very outset, for rather than proving themselves more capable, the sole emphasis is on discrediting those who are or have been in power. They want power not as a natural democratic consequence of their political worth to the people, but rather by default.
n a country where politics is nothing but a blatant route to power, the theory is that those who do not see a future for themselves at the hustings, often try to establish their political credentials to ensure a place in a government formed without a general election. It is in these governments by decree that those who wield the real power, the generals, make their appearance. The launch of a new party always has Pakistans political pundits wondering whether the new entrant is backed by the military.