pkpatriotic
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Monday, May 12, 2008
By Rauf Klasra
ISLAMABAD: The Americans, led by Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, have once again openly come to the rescue of their beleaguered ally President Pervez Musharraf as Nawaz Sharif returns empty-handed to Islamabad today (Monday) to take some tough decisions that may change the political landscape of Pakistan.
But sources said a pragmatic and tactful Nawaz would not end his political romance with the PPP at the Centre to put his party's government in the Punjab at risk. This is not the first time that the Americans have helped Musharraf to stay in power on his own terms and conditions. They have been working on it even before the general elections in Pakistan, when Benazir Bhutto was made to agree to work with Musharraf. After her assassination, they made Zardari to fall in line and for this purpose Hussain Haqqani was used, who has now been rewarded with an ambassadorial assignment in Washington.
Meanwhile, background interviews with political sources revealed that Nawaz Sharif's obsession with President Pervez Musharraf is a big hurdle in taking a firm decision to end his political romance with the PPP though Zardari has let it be known that he would not follow the PML-N on the issue of the judges' restoration.
Nawaz Sharif, caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, is now rushing back to Islamabad by the same flight that he had used on September 10, 2007 to end his exile but hours later he was sent into exile again.
Political observers feel the PML-N leaders are not likely to be blamed at this stage for "stabbing" the new political government in the back, as it would enable Musharraf to reassert himself in the face of weakening political forces.
Unlike the general perception that Nawaz might walk out of the political alliance on May 12 at the end of the second deadline fixed to restore the judges, the maximum he would do is to withdraw his ministers from the federal cabinet but would continue to extend political support to the PPP government. That this would be another kind of political deception is another story altogether.
These sources said Nawaz was fully aware of the fact that the PML-Q and the MQM would seize the opportunity to join hands with the PPP to force the PML-N to sit in the opposition. He would not let the pro-Musharraf parties gain political advantage at this point of time when Musharraf has been marginalised. He knows that Zardari would not like to sit with the PML-Q whom he himself had declared the "Qatil League".
People in interior Sindh are already unhappy with the PPP for making an alliance with the MQM at the provincial level. If Zardari decides to make an alliance with the Q-League and the MQM at the Centre, this might create opportunities for Nawaz Sharif to make inroads into interior Sindh where his party failed to secure a single seat in the last elections.
It is believed that Nawaz Sharif is currently not in a position to take big political risks like ditching the PPP government or allowing the PML-Q and the MQM to become part of a new coalition government at the Centre. Doing so would help his bitter foe Musharraf to resurrect himself, a prospect he dreads to entertain.
By Rauf Klasra
ISLAMABAD: The Americans, led by Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, have once again openly come to the rescue of their beleaguered ally President Pervez Musharraf as Nawaz Sharif returns empty-handed to Islamabad today (Monday) to take some tough decisions that may change the political landscape of Pakistan.
But sources said a pragmatic and tactful Nawaz would not end his political romance with the PPP at the Centre to put his party's government in the Punjab at risk. This is not the first time that the Americans have helped Musharraf to stay in power on his own terms and conditions. They have been working on it even before the general elections in Pakistan, when Benazir Bhutto was made to agree to work with Musharraf. After her assassination, they made Zardari to fall in line and for this purpose Hussain Haqqani was used, who has now been rewarded with an ambassadorial assignment in Washington.
Meanwhile, background interviews with political sources revealed that Nawaz Sharif's obsession with President Pervez Musharraf is a big hurdle in taking a firm decision to end his political romance with the PPP though Zardari has let it be known that he would not follow the PML-N on the issue of the judges' restoration.
Nawaz Sharif, caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, is now rushing back to Islamabad by the same flight that he had used on September 10, 2007 to end his exile but hours later he was sent into exile again.
Political observers feel the PML-N leaders are not likely to be blamed at this stage for "stabbing" the new political government in the back, as it would enable Musharraf to reassert himself in the face of weakening political forces.
Unlike the general perception that Nawaz might walk out of the political alliance on May 12 at the end of the second deadline fixed to restore the judges, the maximum he would do is to withdraw his ministers from the federal cabinet but would continue to extend political support to the PPP government. That this would be another kind of political deception is another story altogether.
These sources said Nawaz was fully aware of the fact that the PML-Q and the MQM would seize the opportunity to join hands with the PPP to force the PML-N to sit in the opposition. He would not let the pro-Musharraf parties gain political advantage at this point of time when Musharraf has been marginalised. He knows that Zardari would not like to sit with the PML-Q whom he himself had declared the "Qatil League".
People in interior Sindh are already unhappy with the PPP for making an alliance with the MQM at the provincial level. If Zardari decides to make an alliance with the Q-League and the MQM at the Centre, this might create opportunities for Nawaz Sharif to make inroads into interior Sindh where his party failed to secure a single seat in the last elections.
It is believed that Nawaz Sharif is currently not in a position to take big political risks like ditching the PPP government or allowing the PML-Q and the MQM to become part of a new coalition government at the Centre. Doing so would help his bitter foe Musharraf to resurrect himself, a prospect he dreads to entertain.
