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Musharraf has finally taken off his military uniform. Tomorrow he will be sworn in as President again. Shedding the khakis must have been painful for the Pakistani general. Though his handpicked successor general Kiyani seems to be a faithful, no one knows what might happen. The Pakistani army has a characteristic tendency to remain independent of civilian control. And Musharraf is now a civilian.
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The US is happy with the state of affairs. Kiyani is pro-US and even in the eventuality of a military takeover in the future, America will have someone dependable to deal with.
Coming back to Musharraf he is unlikely to rescind the emergency in a hurry. It will be helpful for him to get candidates supportive of him to get elected in the coming January elections. The wily ex-general is not going to let go of such leverage so easily.
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Neither is he going to allow independent minded judges like Iftikhar Chaudhry to sit in the Supreme Court again. He has lost his army outfit; he will not risk losing the presidency too. With a free judiciary one cannot be sure.
Meanwhile the sparring matches have started between traditional political rivals-Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif. Benazir has the full backing of the US. She is fully with the Americans in their fight against Al Qaeda ensconced in the tribal areas.
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Sharif has good links with the Islamists and is not in favour of readily kowtowing to US commands. This kind of stand will help Sharif to get some of the votes from more radical voters. Moreover support from Islamist parties would give him the extra push to help him clamber onto the prime ministerial chair.
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But the moot point is will Musharraf allow the two bickering rivals to contest the elections freely? Musharraf would not like the Pakistani parliament stuffed with too many of Benazir and Sharif’s men [and women]. He must be feeling extra insecure after the loss of the military uniform. It is very likely Musharraf will try to engineer the coming elections in his favour. Benazir and Sharif will then unite together against the wily ex-soldier. This will only lead to more instability in Pakistan.
