What a pathetic country? Pathetic politicians...with no political institutions to speak of.
Oh well!
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From today's WSJ..
ASIA NEWS
MARCH 15, 2009, 2:23 P.M. ET
Protests Against Pakistani Government Turn Violent
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG and ZAHID HUSSAIN
ISLAMABAD–President Asif Ali Zardari struggled to maintain his increasingly tenuous grip over Pakistan Sunday as police tear-gassed stone-throwing protesters and authorities tried – and failed – to put the main opposition leader under house arrest.
What began four days ago as a political standoff between Mr. Zardari and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is now "beginning to look like an endgame" for the deeply unpopular president with cabinet ministers quitting and popular discontent growing, said Safdar Abbasi, a senior member of Mr. Zardari's Pakistan People's Party. Analysts and politicians cautioned that it could play out over months rather than days, however.
Sunday's violence in the eastern city of Lahore, Mr. Sharif's stronghold, renewed speculation that Pakistan's military – which has ruled Pakistan for more than half it's 61-year history – could step in to restore order just over a year after the restoration of democracy in this nuclear-armed nation. There was also growing alarm among officials from the U.S. and other Western allies that the crisis had distracted Islamabad from battling the Taliban and al Qaeda.
Pakistan's government said over the weekend it was shifting some soldiers from that fight to protect the capital, where government opponents were planning to converge Monday to press for the restoration of judges fired by Mr. Zardari's predecessor, Pervez Musharraf.
"It may affect our fight against terrorists, but we don't have any choice," the de facto interior minister, Rehman Malik, told reporters in Islamabad.
Mr. Zardari, the widower of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, has so far resisted intense pressure to compromise with Mr. Sharif from within his own party, the military and top U.S. officials, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She called the Pakistani leader on Saturday. Mr. Sharif is demanding the reinstatement of the judges and the end of federal rule in Punjab, Pakistan's most populous province.
Those close to Mr. Zardari say the president believes he can hold on and will eventually end up firmly in control of Punjab and his own party. While he has made no public comment on the crisis so far, government officials have repeatedly offered to negotiate with Mr. Sharif.
Mr. Zardari's government on Saturday, however, offered one small concession, saying it would appeal a February Supreme Court decision that barred Mr. Sharif from holding elected office because of a prior conviction. His brother Shahbaz, former chief minister in the province of Punjab, was also barred by the Supreme Court from holding office because of irregularities in his election.
The court rulings prompted Mr. Zardari to immediately dismiss Shahbaz Sharif's Punjab government and replace it with PPP loyalists. Nawaz Sharif did not hold any office at the time.
Mr. Zardari is only six months into a five-year term, and he retains enough support in parliament to make an impeachment unlikely. But analysts and members of his own party said they believed the only way to end the crisis was to force Mr. Zardari to make good on campaign promises to reduce the powers of the presidency – boosted under Mr. Musharraf – to the more ceremonial role it once was. That would leave Mr. Zardari relatively powerless, and it's not clear he would stay on in such a situation.
It wasn't clear how Mr. Sharif would fare if the military stepped on. He was deposed in 1999 after refusing to let Mr. Musharraf's plane land, an incident many senior officers still view as an attempted assassination. For his part, Mr. Sharif has made it clear that he wants civilian rule to survive and has not urged the military to take over.
Mr. Zardari and Mr. Sharif had been sparring over the judges for months. But the issue had remained largely in the background until February's ruling, which effectively ended the political careers of Mr. Sharif, who today is among Pakistan's most popular politicians, and his brother.
Mr. Zardari, in contrast, has become increasingly unpopular. And after a harsh crackdown on opponents – hundreds of have been jailed and the transmissions of a major television news station have been partly cut – he now also appears to be losing the party he inherited from his wife. Two senior members of the Pakistan Peoples Party – Information Minister Sherry Rehman and Raza Rabbani, the leader of the party in the Senate -- have resigned in recent days.
"The grassroots support is melting away. This party cannot survive if he does not continue the popular politics of Madam Bhutto and her father, Zulfikar Bhutto, the party's founder," Mr. Abbasi, a senator, said in an interview. "The current leader has withdrawn into his bunker."
Despite being a central character in the drama playing out here, Mr. Zardari has hardly been seen, remaining holed up in Islamabad's sprawling, white presidential palace, a building he has rarely left in months because of what officials say are security concerns.
On Sunday, it was surrounded by a ring of commandeered shipping containers, creating what one newspaper called an "iron wall" in the heart of Islamabad.
Mr. Sharif, in contrast, has given a series of increasingly incendiary speeches, urging his supporters to fight on. "Whoever tries to stop them will be destroyed," he told a rally of cheering supporters Saturday evening in Lahore.
Hours later, a phalanx of heavily armed police surrounded his family's estate on the edge of Lahore and placed him under house arrest for three days, officials from his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party said.
Shahbaz Sharif told the Geo television news station – which has been cut from government satellite TV providers but is still available through private operators – that he was hiding in Rawalpindi, a city adjacent to the Islamabad, and would join the protests Monday in the capital.
"Zardari has put the nation into this deep crisis by breaking his promises,'' he said. "These fascist tactics cannot stop the masses who want justice.''
In Lahore, police clashed with members of the lawyers' movement and Mr. Sharif's supporters, who had gathered near the high court shortly after noon. Both sides hurled rocks at each other, and the police repeatedly tear-gassed the mob. Clashes were also reported in other cities in Punjab.
As the police and protesters fought running battles, Mr. Sharif, whom the police hadn't prevented from leaving his house despite his supposed house arrest, headed for the city in a convoy of cars and jeeps that plowed past the barbered wires and barriers set up to pen him in.
The police stood aside, and by late afternoon had backed off in the city too. It wasn't clear whether the police had been ordered to retreat by national officials loyal to Mr. Zardari or by provincial officials, most of who support Mr. Sharif's party.
But by dusk, Mr. Sharif's convoy had been joined by thousands of other cars and trucks packed with cheering and flag-waving supporters and was making its way toward the Grand Trunk Road leading to Islamabad where they plan a sit-in at parliament Monday. Along the way, Mr. Sharif's supporters had hired cranes to remove the shipping containers blocking the road.
—Shahzada Irfan in Lahore contributed to this article.
AuthorTopic: Pak heading for military rule again? (Read 180 times)
July 17, 2006, 09:41:34 PM