Good sense prevails in Pakistan
We are hugely relieved at Pakistan's pullback from the precipice of a dangerous slide into destabilisation. As opposition leader Nawaz Sharif's defiant long march on Islamabad was building into a crescendo, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani announced a package of concessions on Monday defusing the tension to a very large extent. What was threatening to become a full-blown political crisis centring around reinstatement of Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhury as Chief Justice along with six other judges has, hopefully, been averted.
The whole gamut of opposition demands are seemingly being met. Yousuf Gilani has, apart from announcing the government decision to reinstate the deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhury and the other judges, ordered release of PML activists arrested during the week-long movement. Importantly, the Pak PM has promised review of the Supreme Court verdict on the eligibility of Sharif brothers for elective positions. Nothing has, of course, been said about the imposition of governor's rule in Punjab.
There may be interpretations galore about the events saying that cracks were developing in the ruling party and that Zardari had to cave in to pressures from all sides. But it is just stating the obvious that misses out on the deeper aspects of the outcome. While this is a moral victory for Sharif and a triumph of popular will seeking to see major political forces work together to let democracy function, notably this is also reflective of a certain spirit of national conciliation: the Pak Prime Minister made the historic overture to the opposition leader following a consultative process that he, President Zardari and the army chief had engaged in. The cause of democracy which has had a roller-coaster ride in Pakistan through frequent military takeovers has been strengthened by the latest show of political maturity including the decision to let the judiciary function independent of political interference.
We in the Saarc region have stake in the stability of Pakistan, a nuclear powered state. The whole world expects Pakistan which faces dangers from within through the rise of rabid militancy that claim human lives every now and then, to stabilise, strengthen its institutions of democracy and pursue the goals of economic well-being of its people.
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