Unending tumult of Pakistan:

Pakistan’s gradual drift into political anarchy following the Feb 25 disqualification – from holding any public office – of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and incumbent provincial Chief Minister, Shahebaz Sharif, his younger brother, followed by the controversial imposition of the Governor’s rule in the country’s politically most influential Punjab province, have once again exposed the fragility that afflicts this country of nearly 180 million. It also exemplifies the contradictions under which Pakistan continues to reel i.e. the political elites’ craving for “true democracy” when under either Military rule or in political opposition, and yearning for a military intervention when some of the ruling elite feel they are at the receiving end. The latest turmoil dates back to the Feb 18, 2008 elections, which produced a split mandate, with the Pakistan People’s Party of the slain Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz emerging as the majority parties. Both formed coalitions at the centre and in the Punjab province, led by the PPP at the centre and by Shahbaz Sharif in the largest province. Both parties joined forces and politically ousted President General (R) Pervez Musharraf in August last year but Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto’s widower, refused to restore former Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and a few other judges whom Musharraf had dismissed. Five words that would haunt PPP for a very long time in future were when Zardari unilaterally withdrawing from the joint agreements with the PML-N that “agreement are not Quran or Hadith” that they have to be adhered to. These words underpin the sense of deception that PML-N feels from President Zardari and hence the instability and the crises continue.

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