THE PARTIES that won last month's elections in Pakistan vow to deprive President Pervez Musharraf of the power to dissolve Parliament and appoint military chiefs. More important, the parties intend to bring back judges fired by Musharraf, including the chief justice of the supreme court, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. They made this commitment knowing the reinstated supreme court justices may rule that Musharraf's election last fall was invalid.
These measures ought to be welcomed by the Bush administration, which has prescribed democracy as a cure-all for political instability, economic backwardness, and terrorism. But the Bush administration has been hinting it would like the new Pakistani government to keep Musharraf in place.
US policymakers need to revisit their past assumptions about Pakistan. President Bush foolishly placed nearly all America's chips on Musharraf, treating him as an indispensable partner in its war on terrorism. In so doing, Bush made the United States look both hypocritical and unrealistic.
Rather than prop up Musharraf, Bush must consider the possibility that the assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was right - that the soundest way to combat extremism is to empower the Pakistani people through the secular, civilian parties that best represent the popular will.
There are signs that democracy is a moderating force. In the North-West Frontier Province, a coalition of fundamentalist parties saw their number of seats in Parliament decline from 56 to 5 in the recent election and also lost control of the regional assembly.
Sadly, Pakistan's new government may not be inclined to muster its democratic advantages for a struggle against extremists. The evidence comes in the person of Nawaz Sharif, leader of the party that will be a coalition partner of the Pakistan People's Party led by Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari. During two previous terms as prime minister, Sharif colluded with Pakistan's military intelligence in building up the Taliban. And he continues to maintain ties with fundamentalist figures.
A greater worry is that both Zardari and Sharif have earned reputations - and indictments - for egregious corruption. They are products of a political system riddled with feudalistic party structures, regional rivalries, and a deeply ingrained assumption that patronage is the main purpose of power. Their electoral success may signify a triumph for democratic legitimacy over military autocracy, and it may help Pakistan win its struggle against Islamist militants. But unless their parties democratize internally, the return of Sharif and Zardari suggests that honest, accountable governance will remain elusive. With or without Musharraf, Pakistan needs more democracy, not less.
