A toast to Pakistan: here is to hoping that democracy won't be toast!

As unfair as it might seem, one-term US presidents simply cannot ever return as presidential candidates to give the presidency another shot.  Thus, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush didn't need anyone telling them that their political days ended with their respective defeats.  Further, the constitution compels the re-elected President to pack up and leave the White House after eight years.  The presidency is the ultimate act in American politics.

This is not the case in most other countries, especially in the parliamentary systems where defeated leaders can come back again and again.

In the parliamentary system that Pakistan inherited from its erstwhile colonizer, Britain, Nawaz Sharif was elected prime minister for the third time.  His first time was in 1990, and was given another opportunity in 1997.  On both those occasions, Sharif did not complete the full five year term in office.  In 1993, the military's opposition forced him to step down, and fresh elections were held soon after. He succeeded again in the elections in 1997, but his time in the prime minister's office was shorted yet again when Pervez Musharraf, whom he had handpicked as the army chief, ousted him in a coup in 1999.

Sharif then spent years in exile in Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom.  We in the US might think that his political story ended there, given our unique idea of there is no second act in politics.   But, Sharif's recent election as prime minister for the third time reminds us that Yogi Berra was correct, after all, when he said "it ain't over till it's over."

Now, Sharif is in charge of the government. Ironically, his old tormentor, Musharraf is under house arrest after returning to Pakistan from his own exile in the UK.  Our television daytime soap opera stories seem to have less convoluted scenarios compared to the dizzying merry-go-around in Pakistan.

Amidst all these is the historic first ever in Pakistan--a civilian elected government over a full term handing over the power to another elected civilian government.

Nearly 68 years after its creation as a country, Pakistan has its first democratic transition in government.  It is a tragedy, no doubt, that it has taken this long, but what a welcome change when all other governments were interrupted by the country's powerful military.  Since independence in 1947, Pakistanis have been ruled by the military for almost as many years as they have been governed by people they had elected to power.

Whether or not Sharif succeeds as the prime minister, we ought to recognize this remarkable moment in Pakistan's politics, which is also something that President Obama did in his congratulatory phone call to Sharif.  According to the White House, "the President also thanked Mr. Sharif for his role in the historic transfer of power between civilian governments, a significant milestone in Pakistan’s democracy."

As with all elected governments, this is the honeymoon period when even opponents will remain quiet.  But, not everything is calm and peaceful there.  Violence continues on as it has over the recent years.  On the first Friday after the elections, bombs exploded in two Sunni mosques, killing at least fifteen and injuring more than fifty.  It is a gruesome reminder that Sharif and his government have a huge task of bringing about peace within the country, reducing tensions with the sibling across the border--India--and pulling the country out of its economic doldrum.

Perhaps Sharif will prove that third time is the charm.  Let us hope that this third attempt will help strengthen democracy in Pakistan, and usher in peace and prosperity to the hundreds of millions of Pakistanis who have been patiently waiting for better days.