All the king's men got together at the PML-Q house in Islamabad to celebrate Mush's snowballing off his opponents in the presidential election. The PPP candidate didn't get a single vote...as the political party's representatives in the assemblies boycotted the election. Why humble your candidate then, is the question, which won't be asked. The retired judge, Wajihuddin, got around 8 votes. Mush got more than 650.
He got congratulated by Altaf Hussain of MQM fame even...who pledged - yet again - his support to the General in fighting all the evils that he is as much responsible as your father for your birth.
But it's a funny old thing - our politics. On the eve of the elections, a special Reconciliation Ordinance was promulgated that provided Amnesty to all parlimentarians for all the looting they did between 1988 and 1999 - those intermittent spurts of democracy in which Benazir and Nawaz took turns in playing hustler for the country's cherry-pie.
So now, once the time for general elections come, a level playing field will be provided to the politicians in exile - Benazir and Nawaz and maybe as a Eid gift they will let Altaf return too but he wouldn't want it - so that a truly democratic setup comes into existance.
I am all good with executive powers but who gives the ruler to grant amnesty to politicians en masse. I have nothing against clemency either that american presidents exercise in sappy movies and dramatic shows, but what the fuck? You can't clean the slate without raising the question for debate.
Political expediency is the principle that turns the wheel. That's why Salman Rushdie wrote Shame.
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