The whirlwind of violent destruction triggered by Benazir Bhutto’s death lashed Kashmore, a cotton-farming town at the junction of Pakistan’s three largest provinces, particularly hard.
A frenzied mob tore through its narrow streets, plundering banks, torching the hospital and trashing its telephone exchange. At the local station an express train was held up and passengers watched their stolen possessions being loaded into carts and tractors.
While one arm of the state burned, the other fled. Police hurriedly shed their uniforms and melted into their houses. The town jail was cracked open, allowing 85 criminals to escape, and the local judge had his home stripped clean.
”Can you believe it, they even took his washbasin,” said district nazim, or mayor, Saleem Jan Mazari. Across Sindh province as a whole losses are estimated at more than £500-million.
But another storm could be gathering. As the country struggles back to its feet, much-delayed elections are looming, slated for February 18. They promise to be turbulent, dirty and possibly violent.
The fault lines of Pakistan’s complex power system can be seen in Kashmore, where the provinces of Sindh, Baluchistan and Punjab meet. Here, tribe counts as much as party and old rivalries lie close to the surface.
Campaigning has been overshadowed by vote-rigging claims from the opposition, which fears that the local administration — led by Mazari — will swing the result in favour of President Pervez Musharraf’s party, Pakistan Muslim League (Q).
”This is the vote-rigging capital of Pakistan,” said Shehryar Mazari, the candidate for Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party. ”There hasn’t been a proper election here in 20 years. It’s just a rubber stamp for the establishment.”
Shehryar is the mayor’s cousin and they grew up nearby as children. He said he had been forced to run for office by Mazari tribe elders, who had become embarrassed by Jan’s reputation.
Kashmore certainly has an unhappy electoral history. During the general election in 2002 one polling station recorded a turnout of 313%. Others scored 80% and 99%, against a national average of about 30%. ”People were rising from their graves and unborn children were vesting votes,” said Shehryar.
During a 2005 by-election, abuses were so blatant that the national election commission was forced to nullify the results and hold a new vote. But the result was the same — the winning candidate was Jan’s protégé.
But the mayor dismissed the vote-rigging claims. ”I wouldn’t call it rigging. But I think some people got a little over-zealous,” he said.
The former army officer has dominated politics in Kashmore for 22 years. His photo beams from a billboard on the edge of the town. As mayor he controls the police, schools and a large budget. Allies have become wealthy under his tenure.
He is also close to Pakistan’s rulers. He invited the former prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, to fight the coming election in Kashmore. Aziz later pulled out and Jan is now supporting a candidate from the ruling party.
Rivals accuse Jan of winning power through unconventional tactics. In previous polls his supporters seized control of polling stations, beat up rival officials, bribed polling staff and intimidated voters, said Shehryar.
Jan denies the claims: ”I am only one man with one vote. How do you expect me to manage 162 polling stations? It’s not humanly possible.”
Shehryar, an urbane Karachi resident who joined Bhutto’s party only a month ago, said: ”I have come to cleanse the family name. My elders are upset at the fact that it has been damaged.”
Jan said the plot to unseat him ”only reflects the narrow-mindedness” of the elders. ”I don’t believe in that tribal system any more. Polling day will prove if I am a good Mazari or a bad one.”
In the coming weeks similar dramas, fuelled by old rivalries and weak central government, will be played out across Pakistan. Since Bhutto’s assassination tensions are high, and opposition parties accuse the powerful intelligence apparatus of interference.
In 1996 a former army chief testified in court that he gave Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence several million pounds to influence the 1990 election. Before she was killed, Bhutto compiled a 160-page dossier that she claimed showed the spies intend to swing the poll, this time in favour of Musharraf.
The president says the fears are overblown. ”The system is inherently fair and transparent. I have no reason to believe there will be any rigging,” he told reporters on Thursday.
In Kashmore the tribally divided electorate is heavily armed. Five people were killed in shootouts between armed political workers and soldiers during the 1990 elections. The rival Mazari factions will be armed again this year. With a combination of weapons, old rivalries and vote-rigging, the elections could prove a combustible mix.
Riaz Mazari, another cousin campaigning against Jan, called for the army to be deployed at polling stations. ”We need neutral officers. Otherwise violence and bloodshed are a certainty,” he said. ”We are ready to resist.” — Guardian Unlimited Â