Coalition of the Unwilling
Nawaz Sharif pulls out of Pakistan's government, leaving a dangerously feeble regime even weaker.
Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who led the second biggest party in Pakistan's ruling coalition, withdrew his support from the government today, charging his main political partner, Asif Ali Zardari, with having broken a string of promises. "These repeated defaults and violations have forced us to withdraw," Sharif announced at a press conference.
The breakup comes only a week after Sharif and Zardari's combined efforts achieved their one clear success: forcing the resignation of Pakistan's president and longtime military strongman Pervez Musharraf. Indeed, getting rid of Musharraf was about the only thing that had kept their government together since it was formed in April.
The coalition led by Zardari, who is the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) co-chairman and Benazir Bhutto's widower, was already feeble. And Sharif's pullout leaves it less able than ever to confront Pakistan's critical problems: inflation, power shortages, a battered stock market, an anemic currency, investor skepticism and an increasingly belligerent Islamist insurgency that is linked with Al Qaeda. But by bringing in the Karachi-based Muttahida Quami Movement, Zardari should be able to muster just enough support to keep his handpicked prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, in power. "Zardari will have a very narrow margin," says one Western diplomat based in Islamabad. "But he should be able to swing it."
Zardari and Sharif had problems from the start, especially over the thorny issue of restoring 60 judges to their offices, including the Supreme Court's activist Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudry.
Sharif was clearly bent on revenge against Musharraf, who had ousted Sharif as prime minister in a bloodless 1999 military coup, then put him on trial for treason and exiled him a year later. Sharif wanted Chaudhry restored to the bench as the quickest way to topple Musharraf. He and most Pakistanis reckoned that Chaudhry, whom Musharraf sacked twice last year, would invalidate as unconstitutional Musharraf's re-election as president last October.
But Zardari dragged his feet on the judges issue, fearing that Chaudhry would strike down as unconstitutional the Musharraf-granted amnesty decree, which had expunged a slew of corruption charges against Zardari, his late wife and several other leading PPP figures. So with the crucial judges issue hanging fire, Zardari and Sharif decided to impeach Musharraf.
To keep Sharif on board during that process, Zardari made a series of promises to the former prime minister, saying that once Musharraf was out of the way, the judges' restoration would follow immediately. Most recently, in early August, Zardari is said to have taken an oath on the Qur'an that the judges would be back on the bench within 24 hours of Musharraf's resignation. Zardari's aides deny that he took any such oath. But Zardari, it seems, had no intention of keeping his word on the judges issue in any case, thus bringing the coalition to the breaking point.
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Member Comments
Posted By: Sultan Ahmed @ 09/08/2008 11:02:37 AM
Comment:
cOALITION OF UNWILLING,
have some considerable arguments,
be sure would acceptable ,never not unacceptable,
A great conspiracy was hatched,
against Z.A.Butto,
on the islam cleric parties were in the feild,
start movement,named NIZAM-MUSTAFA,
many hypocrits contacted with power,
who dislike to see pakistan as nuclear power,
they were supported by torential rain of dollars,
and drenching rain of weapons,
as provided in the war aginst Russia,
when he occupied Afghanistan.
Butto was arrested and prosecuted hanged innocentely,
because there was no witness in the case,
no independent reliable circumstancial evidence,
no crime weapon was recovered from accused,
there was also no confessional statement on the record.
But he was hanged
and a door of state history was close
father of Benazir Butto, founder and chairman of
newly formed party pakistan People Party.
Choudher Zahoor Ullahi,was a active and rich political leader,
who opposed butto when he was in jail and facing trial.
he supported zia and influenced rejecting the mercy pitition of mr butto.
In the revenge ,
ppp prepared some activist,
choudhery was attacked
when he with a justice of the hahore coming out the court's premisise,
father of choudhery shujayat hussain died at the sopt.
When i consider those days,
i see,
they were united ,
under the leadership of general zia,
there were unique relations
between zia and nawaz sharife,
in the very short time ,there was air crashe
and zia ul haq removed the forever.
Keeping whole circumstances in minde
we are complled to think ,
really think,past history of the country'spolitical scaniro,
is great harbinger of unwilling...........coalition of the unwilling
Posted By: torkham @ 09/07/2008 11:41:11 AM
Comment: Zardari created the coalition with Sharif to consolidate his position within his party and with smaller parties
in other provinces. His character of wheeler-Dealer remains intact and he successfully used that with the doctors in New York to declare him mentally incapacitated? In order to escape court procedures in London
and Zurich. Having so far freed himself from Sharif on issue of restoration of Judges and only allowing the
ones who have given in writing that they will abide by his rules, to retake the oath in their respective courts.
One question remains can he wiggle himself out of the agreements he has signed with US administration
through his closest advisors. The troika of Durrani-Haqqani-Malik.
Posted By: Iconoblaster @ 09/03/2008 6:11:37 PM
Comment: Its foolish to blame God for the incompetence and corruption of the governments of men... and plainly wrong to claim that all nations get the governments "they" deserve.... this is a dishonest device to dismiss the injustices particular governments do, and the innocent individuals they victimize. Does topgungsm believe that the Jews of Poland and Czechoslovakia were responsible for their own murders by the governments imposed on their countries? Are the Chechens responsible for the oppression of their people by Moscow? Were the Armenians to blame for the actions of the Turks who killed them? MOST people in the world have no real power over the governments that rule them. MOST individuals on the planet are fully occupied with the struggle to survive and raise their families, and are in no position to defy or to demand anything from whatever thugocracy may be in charge of their national government at a given time.