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Pakistan - new coalition, old collisions
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political analyst Pyotr Goncharov) - A new government coalition has been set up in Pakistan, but it does not eliminate old collisions - both in domestic and foreign policy.
Tensions are bound to escalate around two major headaches - the army's role in society, and Pakistan's policy in the struggle against terrorism.
In line with the Constitution, President Pervez Musharraf swore in Yousaf Raza Gilani of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) as prime minister. Gilani took an oath after winning the elections to the lower chamber of parliament (the National Assembly). The government has been established on a strictly coalition basis and includes members of all parties in proportion to their representation in the National Assembly.
President Musharraf has promised to support the new government and usher in "the era of genuine democracy." Under the Constitution, he can keep his position until the end of 2012, and the current National Assembly as well as the government will stay in power until the start of 2013. For the most part, the coalition is represented by only two parties.
Currently, there is a triangle of power in Pakistan - the president, the late Benazir Bhutto's PPP, and another outstanding political player Nawaz Sharif, the leader of the Pakistani Muslim League (PML-N).
If we consider their personal relations, such a triumvirate is similar to a powder-keg ready to explode, but no one knows when.
The current partners in the coalition - the PPP and the PML-N - are yesterday's irreconcilable enemies in the struggle for the prime minister position (Pakistan is a parliamentary republic). Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif twice became prime ministers, and neither managed to keep this position for the constitutionally defined period, in part because of "help" from the other. Musharraf can only slightly alleviate this strife.
At one time, Musharraf replaced capital punishment for Sharif with political exile. Having returned to Pakistan (Musharraf guaranteed his security), Sharif set himself the goal of engineering Musharraf's retirement. Sharif has a lot of grievances against the current president - the chief justice's arrest, a state of emergency regime for a month and a half in violation of the constitution in November-December 2007, violation of civil and constitutional rights, encroachments on the freedom of the press, and the entire questionable legitimacy of General Musharraf's presidency.
The PPP, which has been de facto headed by Bhutto's widower Asif Ali Zardari, does not have such a pathological dislike of Musharraf. New Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani may have his own complaints against Musharraf - in 2001 he was sent to prison for six years for abusing power.
The coalition has already started attacking the president's positions. The new prime minister's first decree demonstratively orders the release of all judges arrested during the state of emergency last November.
For his part, Nawaz Sharif is trying to deprive Musharraf of his trump card - U.S. support. Musharraf is one of America's closest allies in the fight against terrorism. On his own, he sent a 100,000-strong corps to the tribal region on the border with Afghanistan, where al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters are believed to be hiding. This move sharply exacerbated the situation there. Sharif argues that Musharraf used the war on terror to consolidate his own power. "We want peace all over the world, but we do not want to stage a massacre under the pretext of bringing peace to others." All tribes on both sides of the border would sign under these words.
Musharraf's positions have been noticeably weakened, but it is important to know this general who the opposition has never left alone, and some national peculiarities of political struggle in Pakistan.
The advent of the military to power is an unconstitutional, but quite ordinary event. On October 12, 1999, the military came to power for the fourth time in Pakistan's 60-year-long history. Chief of army staff, Musharraf became president in June 2001 without doffing his uniform. However, during his presidency both the parliament and cabinet worked until the end of their terms. This is a rare if not unique phenomenon in national history.
Musharraf also initiated a program of transition to democratic forms of rule. This experiment is not very successful, which suggests the following question - isn't civil rule contraindicative to Pakistan in principle?
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political analyst Pyotr Goncharov) - A new government coalition has been set up in Pakistan, but it does not eliminate old collisions - both in domestic and foreign policy.
Tensions are bound to escalate around two major headaches - the army's role in society, and Pakistan's policy in the struggle against terrorism.
In line with the Constitution, President Pervez Musharraf swore in Yousaf Raza Gilani of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) as prime minister. Gilani took an oath after winning the elections to the lower chamber of parliament (the National Assembly). The government has been established on a strictly coalition basis and includes members of all parties in proportion to their representation in the National Assembly.
President Musharraf has promised to support the new government and usher in "the era of genuine democracy." Under the Constitution, he can keep his position until the end of 2012, and the current National Assembly as well as the government will stay in power until the start of 2013. For the most part, the coalition is represented by only two parties.
Currently, there is a triangle of power in Pakistan - the president, the late Benazir Bhutto's PPP, and another outstanding political player Nawaz Sharif, the leader of the Pakistani Muslim League (PML-N).
If we consider their personal relations, such a triumvirate is similar to a powder-keg ready to explode, but no one knows when.
The current partners in the coalition - the PPP and the PML-N - are yesterday's irreconcilable enemies in the struggle for the prime minister position (Pakistan is a parliamentary republic). Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif twice became prime ministers, and neither managed to keep this position for the constitutionally defined period, in part because of "help" from the other. Musharraf can only slightly alleviate this strife.
At one time, Musharraf replaced capital punishment for Sharif with political exile. Having returned to Pakistan (Musharraf guaranteed his security), Sharif set himself the goal of engineering Musharraf's retirement. Sharif has a lot of grievances against the current president - the chief justice's arrest, a state of emergency regime for a month and a half in violation of the constitution in November-December 2007, violation of civil and constitutional rights, encroachments on the freedom of the press, and the entire questionable legitimacy of General Musharraf's presidency.
The PPP, which has been de facto headed by Bhutto's widower Asif Ali Zardari, does not have such a pathological dislike of Musharraf. New Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani may have his own complaints against Musharraf - in 2001 he was sent to prison for six years for abusing power.
The coalition has already started attacking the president's positions. The new prime minister's first decree demonstratively orders the release of all judges arrested during the state of emergency last November.
For his part, Nawaz Sharif is trying to deprive Musharraf of his trump card - U.S. support. Musharraf is one of America's closest allies in the fight against terrorism. On his own, he sent a 100,000-strong corps to the tribal region on the border with Afghanistan, where al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters are believed to be hiding. This move sharply exacerbated the situation there. Sharif argues that Musharraf used the war on terror to consolidate his own power. "We want peace all over the world, but we do not want to stage a massacre under the pretext of bringing peace to others." All tribes on both sides of the border would sign under these words.
Musharraf's positions have been noticeably weakened, but it is important to know this general who the opposition has never left alone, and some national peculiarities of political struggle in Pakistan.
The advent of the military to power is an unconstitutional, but quite ordinary event. On October 12, 1999, the military came to power for the fourth time in Pakistan's 60-year-long history. Chief of army staff, Musharraf became president in June 2001 without doffing his uniform. However, during his presidency both the parliament and cabinet worked until the end of their terms. This is a rare if not unique phenomenon in national history.
Musharraf also initiated a program of transition to democratic forms of rule. This experiment is not very successful, which suggests the following question - isn't civil rule contraindicative to Pakistan in principle?
