Pakistan now has a sovereign Parliament in place. The newly elected members have taken their oaths under the 1973 Constitution, and have also elected, by two-thirds majority, a new speaker and deputy speaker. Despite all of the backstage attempts to rig the 18 February elections in defiance of popular will, the new National Assembly is now set to move ahead with the agenda agreed upon between the leaderships of the Pakistan People's Party and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) in their Bhurban (Murree) Declaration of 9 March.
The 30-day countdown has already started for the reinstatement of those Supreme Court judges who were illegally removed by then-General Pervez Musharraf, in his capacity as army chief, and for those who refused to take oath under his unconstitutional PCO – an acronym that should stand for 'Personal Constitutional Order' rather than 'Provisional Constitutional Order'. But questions still abound as to how all of his wrongs will be undone. Will it be through an executive order of the prime minister, or by a resolution of the National Assembly? No matter how it is to be accomplished, though, through the general elections the people of Pakistan have delivered a clear verdict: they want an end to one-man rule in their country. In its stead, they have opted for democracy and moderation, and have declared a firm 'no' to religious extremism and violence.
The Pakistani populace has also shown the world that, contrary to what President Musharraf had been telling his Western audiences in recent months, it is fully capable of embracing real democracy as practiced elsewhere. They have voted for the restoration of the 1973 Constitution, independence of judiciary, rule of law and fundamental freedoms – including media freedom. Although the full restoration of these rights may still take some time, one thing has become clear: in Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf and democracy cannot co-exist. The people have overwhelmingly voted against President Musharraf, and want him to go as soon as possible. Indeed, the strong anti-Musharraf verdict of the recent elections must in no way be mistaken or obfuscated. It is a clear mandate to the two mainstream parties, the PPP and the PML (N), to deliver on their commitments to put the country back on the path of democracy, based on constitutional supremacy, institutional integrity, rule of law and good governance as envisioned by these parties in their Charter of Democracy – the pact signed in London between Mian Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto in May 2006.
This is a formidable challenge. In the near future, the two parties must transcend all factional considerations, and join together in implementing the verdict of the people in letter and spirit. They also need to evolve a national consensus on a time-bound 'recovery roadmap' by which to salvage Pakistan from the chaos and confusion that it has experienced over the last eight years. Indeed, the success of the post-election process is now predicated on the ability of the newly elected leadership to forge a government of national unity.