The life after Musharraf (17082008)

The departure of the President will only be one small step forward. Pakistan's political landscape in past nine months has completely transformed. Two of the major actors on the political theatre are no longer there or will not be there in the short-term, i.e., late Benazir Bhutto and soon to be impeached President Musharraf. The new actors in the political arena are Sharif brothers, Asif Ali Zardari and Asfandyar Wali.
Nawaz Sharif still appears to be handicapped by the ban on becoming prime minister for more than two terms, thus effectively keeping him on the fringes of real executive power. However, neither Shahbaz nor Asif Zardari suffer from such a ban. Once again the extra ordinary circumstances and developments have reshuffled the deck of cards dealt to Pakistani people and with new cards in a new game with new challenges has made Pakistan a place where much can happen.
With the departure of President Musharraf, the coalition will not have anyone to blame for its woes and will have to face public wrath for its own mistakes and blunders. Similarly, President Musharraf had become the glue that bonded the two major political parties together; with his departure, the coalition may see no reason to stay together; and move in opposite direction. If that was to happen and it is very likely to happen then the country will enter another period of political shenanigans, which is part and parcel of any functioning democracy.
The parties in the political fray need to realise that only by respecting and strengthening institutions, including Election Commission, Judiciary, Civil Service, Pakistan Army and Defence forces, and adhering to the fundamentals of democracy, i.e., letting one party govern peacefully once they have won the elections for the full term, are the basic requirements for democracy to flourish.
Once President Musharraf is gone, the real test of our love for democracy, our political parties' commitment to democracy and the competence of our elected representatives will come under microscope; only time will tell if the elected representatives can deliver, but they have to be given a fair chance. [EndOfLeaderFile]


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Who needs enemies with friends like that (16082008)
The senior ministers in Indian government and many Indian journalists and security analysts have been appearing on Indian and Pakistani media speaking in favour of President Musharraf and against the elected government and the move of the elected government to impeach President Musharraf. And now the Israeli Prime Minister appears to have jumped in fray, according to media reports while lauding the services of President Musharraf, the Israeli prime minister is considering the idea of providing security to President Musharraf in the event of his ouster from power and departure from Pakistan.
Most Pakistanis are allergic to the names of Israel and India to the extent that friendship of these two countries instantly arouses suspicion in the hearts and minds of the people. Israel and India have become the bulwark against Pakistan in the international arena and all conspiracies to destabilise Pakistan eventually lead to these two countries. Both these countries are cooperating with each other on many fronts to ensure that Pakistan remains on defensive, so much so, that the two countries have carried out joint exercises to attack and disable Pakistan's nuclear facilities. These two countries are also active in Afghanistan and are accused of using Afghan soil to sponsor terrorism inside Pakistan.
With such a background and the history, it is appropriate to say "who needs enemies with friends like that", because the mere mention of their support must have caused President Musharraf tens of points fall in his popular ratings, which is now at all time low.
These overtures of support also sows the seeds of doubt about our leaders; it makes people wonder what services these leaders have rendered to these countries who are arch enemies of Pakistan to endear themselves so much to get this kind of support when they are literally being thrown out of their own country.
It would appear that the end game is already underway with widespread reports of the President having agreed to step down rather than face the impeachment. President will obviously be now looking to spend his days peacefully away from Pakistan's politics but if he has any love for Pakistan and there is little to doubt that because of his association with Pakistan's defence forces for four decades, then the President should keep a low profile and avoid becoming a stooge of his new found friends who will spare no effort to use him in whatever way they can to malign Pakistan.