What could be the possible options for holding the next Parliamentary and Presidential polls, and their respective pitfalls?
If popular expectations or apprehensions are any guide, General Musharraf will prefer to seek re-election as a uniformed President from the current assemblies and the Senate, as there will be no problem in securing a simple majority vote from them. The political engineering in October 2002 elections, successive by-elections for National and Provincial Assemblies, last year’s local bodies polls and this year’s interim Senate elections—all guarantee that the ruling PML-Q and its allies in central and provincial legislatures can muster enough support for the purpose. Although the same could be secured from the next Assemblies with the help of a vast manipulative apparatus at the disposal of the General’s State, domestic political challenges and external political pressures could give rise to uncertainties complicating the process towards re-electing General Musharraf as a uniformed President after the next general elections. General Musharraf’s re-election from the current Assemblies also
