Mother of All Elections; Journal article

摘要

This article describes the Pakistani elections of February 18, 2008, in which the Pakistani People's Party (PPP) and the Pakistani Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) triumphed. The PPP won most of the seats in the new Parliament with 88, PML-N, Nawaz Sharif's party, claimed 66 seats, while President Pervez Musharraf's party, PML-Q, held on to 38 seats. Without a two-thirds majority, the PPP and PML-N will need to enter a coalition with the other parties in parliament to remove Musharraf who has dismissed calls to resign. The three major opposition winners of the election, PPP, PML-N and Awami National Party (ANP -- a Pashtun nationalist party with a strong following in the Northwest Frontier Province) have held consultations towards the formation of a government in Islamabad. They will look to reach a consensus over issues such as the restoration of the deposed judges, namely Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the future of Musharraf, and the Charter for Democracy, an agreement the PPP and PML-N drew up last year pledging to undo many of the constitutional changes passed under Musharraf and previous military regimes. Questions also remain as to what the new Pakistani Chief of Army Staff, General Kayani, will do. Will he ally himself with the will of the people and the new coalition parliament. Or will he risk his own standing and defend Musharraf to the bitter end. Possibly one of the biggest questions for the United States is whether the new government will cooperate with current and future U.S. policies -- particularly in the context of the War on Terror.