ISLAMABAD: Suicide blasts and sinking financial markets added pressure on Pakistan’s government to tackle the nation’s mounting problems yesterday after President Pervez Musharraf quit but a split threatens to tear the coalition apart.
Assassinated Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s widower, Asif Ali Zardari, who heads Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the largest party in Parliament, emerged as a likely candidate to become the next president of nuclear-armed Pakistan, as the second biggest party in the coalition threatened to pull out.
Then, in the afternoon, the country’s newscasters turned their attention from political speculation to breaking news of one of the country’s deadliest-ever bomb attacks. Two suicide bombers blew themselves up outside Pakistan’s main defense industry complex as workers were leaving at the end of their shift, killing 59 people, a hospital official said.
Allies and investors had hoped close US friend Musharraf’s resignation on Monday would bring a quick end to political wrangling and a shift of focus toward tackling increasing violence and economic problems.
The coalition government has plunged back into a struggle over how to restore dozens of Supreme Court judges including former Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry. The coalition’s second biggest party, that of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, is threatening to quit the alliance unless a decision is taken today to restore judges dismissed by Musharraf last year.
Sharif wants to restore the justices, who could help him if he decides to seek revenge against Musharraf, who ousted the former premier in a 1999 coup, jailed him and then banished him to exile in Saudi Arabia. But Zardari is less enthusiastic accusing Chaudhry of being too political.
Analysts say Zardari also may be worried the former chief justice would revive corruption cases against him or facilitate legal action against Musharraf — a destabilizing move sure to dismay the country’s Western backers, especially the US.
The People’s Party said yesterday it was committed to restoring the judges but that it had other priorities as well, including improving the lives of ordinary Pakistanis who are struggling with chronic food and fuel shortages.
Another divisive issue is likely to be the question of the next president. The PPP is proposing Zardari. “The majority of the party thinks that Asif Zardari should be president,” said a Bhutto party spokeswoman, Farzana Raja, adding a decision on the party’s candidate was expected today.
Sharif, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, threatened to pull his party out of the ruling coalition if it failed to decide by today to reinstate the judges. “The future of this coalition is linked to the restoration of judges,” Sharif’s spokesman Sadiqul Farooq told The Associated Press. “If the judges are not restored, we will prefer to sit on opposition benches.”
The exit of Sharif’s party from the coalition would not force an election, analysts say. The PPP, Parliament’s biggest party, should be able to gather enough support to remain in government.
A regional party based in the southern province of Sindh, Zardari’s home region, has also said it wants to see Zardari take over as president. He has declined to say if he wants the job.
