Political turmoil in Pakistan

Pakistan’s governing coalition fell apart this week just days after it forced President Pervez Musharraf to resign, plunging the major U.S. ally in the war on terror into political turmoil. Nawaz Sharif, a former prime minister who leads the Pakistan Muslim League-N, pulled his party out of the government after it refused to immediately reinstate the judges Musharraf had fired. The Pakistan People’s Party, led by Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, remains in power, but only with the support of several smaller parties it can’t really rely on.

Nevertheless, Zardari announced that he would seek the presidency—the country’s most powerful position and one conferred by the legislature. Most analysts believe that Zardari, despite his foundering coalition, will muster the necessary votes and gain that post next week.

The collapse of the coalition was inevitable, said The Economist. The only thing Pakistan’s two main parties had in common was hatred of Musharraf. Once they forced him to resign by threatening impeachment, Zardari and Sharif were bound to turn on each other. “But this is still a blow to a country badly in need of the political stability and cooperation that they had promised.” Islamic militancy is growing, the Taliban is entrenched in the tribal regions, and the economy is in tatters.

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But Zardari is not the man to turn things around, said Bronwen Maddox in the London Times. With a history of mental illness and corruption, he is widely distrusted. “What is more, the army cannot stand him,” and in Pakistan, no one can govern without military backing. Most worrying, Zardari has become “suddenly evasive” about whether he would relinquish the extra powers Musharraf gave the presidency—notably the ability to dissolve parliament.

The U.S. may not necessarily regret the emergence of another Pakistani strongman, said Jane Perlez in The New York Times. The Bush administration relied on Musharraf for military support to suppress the Taliban. He didn’t always deliver, but he did provide Washington with “a sense of leverage.” Policymakers say that considering the dangers of chaos in a nuclear-armed Pakistan, Zardari—who at least pays lip service to democracy and fighting Islamic extremists—may be the U.S.’s best alternative.