“Let the people go to hell”

So let the smoking rains fall on the mind's rain forest. So many funeral masks are preserved in the earth that nothing is yet lost.

– Victor Serge

The outcome of elections in Pakistan is exactly what the general-in-sherwani wanted it to be. With 45 seats in the National Assembly, a six-party alliance of the religious right – the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) – has emerged as a formidable force. The two major political parties, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), have been cut down to size, but they have been allowed to remain on the scene so as not to raise suspicions about the "free and fair" nature of the election exercise just past. The king's party – the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) – is the largest party in the new parliament with 76 seats to its name, with enough clout to steer the course of the legislature any which way it wants.

For the moment, General Pervez Musharraf appears unassailable. The composition of the resulting assembly is such that his tinkering with the constitution prior to the polls will probably remain unchallenged. Meanwhile, the well-orchestrated campaign to portray the MMA as the Pakistani version of the Taliban means that he can show himself to be indispensable for Bush Junior's 'War against Terror' in the region. The next time Christina Rocca comes calling, he can claim in the manner of the last Bourbon: it's me, or chaos.