The promised reinstatement of Pakistan's chief justice defused a protest movement threatening the U.S.-allied government, but it could still spell trouble for the country's struggling president.The army is said to have directed President Asif Ali Zardari to defuse the developing showdown with opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and lawyers leading a column of protesters toward the capital Sunday night. But by yielding to demands to restore judges fired by former military ruler and U.S. ally Pervez Musharraf, Zardari may have strengthened democracy in the nuclear-armed nation as it faces daunting security and economic challenges.
"Never before in Pakistan's political history have you had people standing up for the rule of law, for the constitution," said Nasim Zehra, a political and defense analyst. "Civil society has won out."
Musharraf ousted Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry in 2007 after he blocked a privatization deal, investigated the fate of hundreds of people allegedly held incognito by security agencies, and even questioned the legality of the ex-general's rule.
But the move backfired as lawyers, rights activists, liberal media pundits -- as well as the general's political opponents -- mounted a dogged campaign for an independent judiciary that turned the dour, mustachioed judge into an unlikely democratic icon.
The very same constellation has now humbled Zardari.