KARACHI, 8 November — When the inaugural session of Pakistan’s National Assembly, scheduled for today (Friday, Nov 8), was postponed on Wednesday for “about a week”, it became obvious that the government of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf was still struggling to fashion a coalition that would protect its constitutional plan. Since this delay was demanded by the leader of the “King’s Party”, the Quaid-e-Azam faction of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML), it also suggested that some desperate late minute deals were in the offing.

And reports in leading newspapers yesterday have revealed a dramatic twist in the continuing political deadlock that would essentially bring the two embittered adversaries, the Pakistan People’s Party of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the present ruling establishment, in an expedient embrace. But there were still many unanswered questions on how the coalition building game in a hopelessly divided National Assembly would finally be resolved.

The News has learned, from the proverbial “reliable sources”‚ that a government of “national unity” with Amin Fahim of the PPP as prime minister is to be formed as the government-PPP deal “has materialized because of the US intervention.” There was a reference to Benazir Bhutto’s meetings with US officials in Washington last week. The report said that she “has succeeded in forcing the government to accept the terms she set forth.”

These terms, apart from an effective share in power at the center and the provinces, would naturally involve the release of her husband Asif Zardari, who is under arrest for six years, and the possibility of her return to the country in the near future.

But this sudden turn in events has launched a new phase of turmoil and uncertainly in the political arena. Until Wednesday, the stage seemed set for a coalition between the PPP and the alliance of the religious parties, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), its main thrust being opposition to the Legal Framework Order (LFO) of President Musharraf. This had apparently alarmed the establishment because the “King’s Party” did not seem to be able to muster a comfortable majority. Consequently, the political wheeler-dealers went into new parleys in their secret chambers.

Irrespective of what this fresh shuffling of the pack would produce, the overall sense of political disarray has generated widespread concern about the success of the ongoing democratic process.

It almost seems certain that the October elections would not yield the kind of stability and hope that President Musharraf had so diligently sought. That would also have serious implications for Pakistan’s role in the US-led alliance against international terrorism.

Already, the impressive surge of anti-American and substantially pro-Jehad elements in MMA has cast a deep shadow on the strategy of President Musharraf, who seemed determined to curtail the influence of the parties of two former prime ministers and resorted to unsavory political stratagems to, particularly, block the return to power of Benazir’s PPP. That he now appears compelled to strike a deal with the PPP to subvert the formation of a strong anti-Musharraf majority in the Parliament is only one aspect of the ambiguities of the present situation.

Even with a PPP-government partnership, the clamor that the MMA and other “pro-democracy” groups are sure to mount would put great stress on the new arrangement that is being hammered out. Also, there still remain may doubts about the success of the secret talks that are in progress between the PML-Q and the PPP leaders. There is ample speculation on who would get how many high offices. Some reports say that the PML-Q was unwilling to accept a PPP nominee as the prime minister.

Evidently, the postponement of the National Assembly’s session means a further delay in the transfer of President Musharraf’s power of the chief executive to the new prime minister. A firm new date for the inaugural session is still not available.

Observers have noted that the government move to delay the session came just a day after the 15-party Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) and the MMA had agreed to put up joint candidates for prime minister and the speaker of the assembly. Incidentally, PPP has been the leading light of ARD that is headed by veteran leader Nasrullah Khan, who is now calling an all parties conference to discuss the issue.

Against this backdrop, Dawn reflected the opinion of concerned citizens in asking the question, in its editorial on Thursday: “What is going on?” It notes that though clear-eyed political observers seem worried about the situation, the major political players seem unconcerned. It added: “Behind all this seems to loom the hovering shadow of the establishment. How to find a way for the military to stay on and yet not give the impression of doing so?” To conclude, it said: “There is much too much humbug and hypocrisy around, and a dash of deceit for good measure. All this, as we being in a month of fasting that is meant to cleanse the soul.”