What happened
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf stepped down, rather than face impeachment charges. He was replaced by an ally, Mohammedmian Soomro, until the opposition-controlled parliament selects a successor within 30 days. The government is split into two main factions, one led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and the other by Asil Asif Zardari, the widower of slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. (Bloomberg)
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Musharraf’s failed push to turn Pakistan into “a progressive model for the Muslim world” will be seen as a wasted opportunity, said India’s The Hindu in an editorial. But his surprisingly “honorable exit” is a testament to the pillars of a fairly healthy state: “the people of Pakistan, their political parties, news media, and civil society institutions.”
Many of Pakistan’s people, said Nicholas Schmidle in Slate, think the weak political parties used impeaching the unpopular Musharraf as a distraction from Pakistan’s deteriorating economy, its ongoing “judicial crisis,” and the growth of Islamic militants. Zardari and Sharif agreed on axing Musharraf, but they seem unable to do anything else.
The struggles between Sharif’s party and Zardari’s, said Ahmed Rashid in The Washington Post, and between the civilian government and the military, are Pakistan’s biggest challenge. None of these factions likes or trusts any of the others, but most Pakistanis still “see the coalition government as the country’s last chance for democracy, and they want it to work.” With cooperation and outside help, it just might.
