I've come to believe that its best to take this decision out of the Pakistanis hands. Not because the populace is not capable of an informed choice, but simply because the choices available are just not up to the mark.
I think another round of benign dictatorship, with the cunning of Husni Mubarak and the vision of Mahatir Muhammad can be our only way out of this.
We need someone who can stick around for at least 10 years, and not make the mistake that Musharraf did. The mistake of trying to accomodate and appease political interests.
You've made some points I agree with. I agree with your overall point that democracy won't work in Pakistan right now.
What I would suggest is a limited form of democracy. The problem in the elections is that these political leaders buy their votes from the money they launder every election term. They hand out wads of cash to their deputies in provinces who in effect buy votes from people borderline starving. These people are also illiterate. They've no means of communication or reading information. So they cannot make an informed choice.
The only way around this, is to have a limited form of democracy. One where the top 10% of Pakistan's literate population, business men, and the most affluential people only are allowed to vote. These people will do what is best for Pakistan economically, and hold the politicians to account.
The current system of democracy does not hold the politicians accountable since they are able to "buy" their way into the presidency whatever phuck ups they make along the way. It's not an accountable system.
One has to remember that no democracy started out giving universal votes to all people. In many cases women weren't allowed to vote initially (it's true that women's votes came after men's votes in the west). Not everyone was allowed to vote. Even in Britain there was a gradual change towards democracy.
Now in Pakistan you have this sudden transition into full democracy, with no gradual transition which is what occurred in the West. If Pakistani leaders were not so inept, and studied the evolution of democracy in the West, they could then follow a system that would evolve into a Western democracy, a modern democracy, that actually worked. One cannot go from dictatorship to democracy in one go, without this transition stage. This transition stage would secure Pakistan's interests, and eventually give full, working democracy to the region.
I am a firm supporter of democracy, but only when it can work. Pakistan's is not a working democracy. It's rushed into it head first so that the system can be abused, and it is being abused. It needs to sit back, and gradually transform itself into a democratic state, and not follow the advice of the US, who more than anyone does not have an eye for Pakistan's interests - it has already done enough damage by radicalizing some in Pakistan through its sponsorship of madrassas.
NB Another way out of it is to have someone like Musharraf come back. He won't last though, it's not in America's interests to have a flourishing Pakistan. Pakistan needs to distance itself from America - any country that dictates political choices to it in fact. Stop messing around with the Constitution, set a Legal Framework Order that allows for Limited Democracy, and then follow it through extending it to full democracy as the literacy and connectibility of Pakistan increases. The present system of democracy will not work.
