An article by Teresita C. Schaffer on the run-up to the 2008 parliamentary elections in Pakistan in light of the events of 2007, including President Pervez Musharraf’s retirement from the army and the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
Pakistan needs a government that will undertake the long and difficult task of building up Pakistan’s institutions, countering its domestic extremists, and managing the tangled relationships with Pakistan’s neighbours. The first requirement for such a government is legitimacy. Both for Pakistan’s future and for Western policy interests, this is the time to put legitimacy first.
Originally published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies in the February-March 2008 issue of Survival. Read the entire article.