| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| General MusharrafÂ’s fading options |
| 2007-08-27 |
| Najam Sethi's E d i t o r i a l President General Pervez Musharraf’s “strategy” to get re-elected president for the next five years and, if possible, to remain army chief for as long as possible is failing. The Chief Justice of Pakistan has got stuck in General Musharraf’s throat and refuses to be coughed up. Consequently, the regime is desperately flapping for a way out. Nothing has come of Mr Zafarullah Jamali’s attempts to neutralize the CJP and rumours of General (retd) Hamid Javed’s meeting with the CJP have been hotly denied by CJP sources. Meanwhile, the good judge is going full throttle. He has forced the government to release “alleged terrorists and insurgents” held incommunicado without trial for years by military intelligence. He has opened hearings on a Jamaat-e-Islami petition challenging General Musharraf’s bid to be re-elected president in uniform from the current assemblies. He is in a hurry to decide Nawaz Sharif’s petition to be allowed to return to Pakistan. And he is leaning on the Election Commission to create a level playing field for the next general elections. Any anti-government decision would cut the ground from under General Musharraf’s feet. Already, the ruling PMLQ is reeling with loss of faith and urging all manner of emergency responses to save its skin. General Musharraf has been wooing the PPP and JUI, partly to divide and rule the opposition and partly to shore up his regime with some additional junior partners. But this is easier said than done. Indeed, the secret “deals” with both parties are beginning to unravel because General Musharraf and the PMLQ don’t see eye-to-eye on strategy. General Musharraf and his American benefactors want a deal with the moderate PPP in 2007 but the PMLQ wants one with the radical MMA as in 2002. The irony is that an exclusive deal with the PPP would weaken the PMLQ, which is General Musharraf’s current base, while one with the MMA would castrate General Musharraf’s enlightened moderation agenda, polarize the country and alienate the international community. The failure to resolve this question of strategic and tactical power-sharing allies for the future has led the Musharraf regime to consider an imposition of Emergency to prolong the life of the current parliament and government and also clip the wings of the Supreme Court. In the hazy background dangles the sword of martial law if all else fails. |
| Posted by:Fred |