The verdict is clear, says The Guardian. Pakistan’s ruling party, the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) was routed in Monday’s election, and with it the pretence that President Pervez Musharraf has the people’s support. “All the rigging in the world” could not have prevented the resurgence of the main opposition parties, the late Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), and Nawaz Sharif’s branch of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N).
The PPP emerged with the most seats, but is short of an overall majority, which makes the intentions of Sharif critical, says Bronwen Maddox in The Times. Sharif’s party controls the key province of Punjab, making him the “power broker”, but will he work under a PPP prime minister, and does he retain the Islamist tendencies he showed when last in power? The alternative is risky, says The Guardian. If the PPP fails to form a government with Sharif it will have to form a pact with the PML-Q, creating a coalition that would keep Musharraf in power. But this could split the PPP and “its support would haemorrhage”.
Thankfully, that’s unlikely, says Hassan Abbas, also in The Guardian. The army is already distancing itself from Musharraf in a bid to retain influence. Pakistan has a “fighting chance to put its house in order”. That sounds optimistic, says Gideon Rachman in the FT. The PPP is still essentially leaderless, and Bhutto’s husband, Asif Zardari, is “widely mistrusted”. Sharif is “too close to the Saudis for comfort”. There is a real danger that political infighting could “weaken a state that is already in a bad way“.
Foreigners worry about Islamic militants, but Pakistanis worry about rising food prices and power cuts. The real threat is that the government “proves so ineffective or corrupt that more of the country slips into the lawless anarchy that already prevails in the tribal areas“. Unless the state starts spending more on education than on the military, a more stable and prosperous future will remain elusive.