Benazir and Nawaz met yesterday to discuss the boycott but there was no specific deal. Benazir is sticking to her "I'm contesting this election under protest" line, and Nawaz says he's for a boycott but also argues at the same time that boycotting elections will only make the pro-Musharraf government party PML(Q) stronger. Incidentally, there is a term in Pakistan for such parties as PML(Q) that will support whoever is in power: "lota" - so termed because the lota will turn whichever way you will turn it, without regard to principle.
So the lotas will get stronger, it is feared, if the opposition parties boycott the election. Of course at some level Nawaz's hand-wringing about the matter in particular is sort of pointless, since he doesn't have much of a chance anyway. The powers that be have decided that Benazir is their girl, and the rest will participate just for window-dressing. The parliament will, according to this plan, be fragmented and the PPP will have only a small majority so that governing will be difficult and therefore power will remain in Musharraf's hands even though he's changed clothes.
Today's front page of the Daily Times was a good visual reminder that Nawaz is basically irrelevant to this whole affair. One front-page story reported on the fact that Nawaz Sharif's nomination papers for the National Assembly have been rejected (because of objections arising from his actions in response to Musharraf's 1999 coup, believe it or not). Meanwhile, immediately below that, a story reported that the US ambassador, Anne Patterson, was exhorting Nawaz not to boycott the election. Well, honey, it's not as if he has a choice in the matter, really - not when you don't allow him to run in the election to begin with! Yes, of course, his party can still run, but how ridiculous will it be that the party will be participating in elections when its top leadership, Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif (also rejected by the Election Commission), are barred from doing so?
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