The Pak Protest March

The protest march of Pakistani lawyers from Karachi to Islamabad could be one of the best things that happened there in a long time. The authorities tried to stop it at the beginning, but the assembly got too big and the move much too popular. By the time the procession gets anywhere near Islamabad, it could be absolutely too big even for the army to put down without having a genocide on its hands. And then the army would not be able to control anything at all. But the situation is already much worse than it might appear on the surface. In Pakistan there is hardly any government that any other country can talk to. The lawyers are with Nawaz Sharif, who insists that the bureaucracy is determined to have him bumped off. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani is in jitters over the control of the entire northwest of Pakistan (including Peshawar) by the Taliban. He had two meetings in quick succession with the army chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who assured him of his support. He is naturally worried because President Zardari is against him as is Nawaz Sharif. Nawaz Sharif is against Zardari as well. So one sees a neat scenario for all the paranoia that one can dream up. And this is also a scenario where former dictator Pervez Musharraf need not feel obliged any more to keep his promise of staying out of Pakistan politics. In fact, no scenario is better suited for the return of the dictator and usurper as a vote-seeking politician than this one when the army chief he himself installed is there to give the leg-up he may need. The fact that even a de jure government does not seem visible in Pakistan just now does not seem to worry Pakistan’s political leaders. THE SENTINEL