Adil Najam
Since yesterday the “I” word - impeachment - has begun to be thrown around a lot.
Some quarters seem to think that it just happen this time. Others suggest that it is more talk than action and the numbers needed to pull this are still not there.
Coming out of the “critical” Nawaz Sharif-Asif Zardari meetings one keeps wondering how much of this is an effort to keep the coalition going and how much is a real push to change the essential political equations of Pakistan. There are reports that Gen. Musharraf is taking this move seriously enough to cancel his trip to China (to attend the Olympics opening ceremony). On the other hand some of Gen. Musharraf’s supporters are claiming that no such cancellation has happened. We do know, however, that he is taking this challenge seriously and lining up his supporters.
All in all, there is too much noise to say what is happening. But something is clearly happening. Does the PPP-PML(N) have the numbers they need to go ahead? Does the President have the numbers he needs to stop it? And what of all the external actors and where they may lean, why and for what?
Interestingly, we had run a ATP Poll back in June asking you what you thought would have happened to Gen. Musharraf by October 2008? The majority (38%) had thought that he would be impeached by then. A significant number (31%) thought that by October 2008 we woudl be still muddling through as we are now.
We do not intend to open the Poll again, but it does seem that either of those two answers could turn out to be true again. Indeed, even our earlier Poll on the subject, from October 2007, may still be relevant in its results!
So, since we can’t make full sense of exactly what all of this adds up to, we thought we woudl ask our best source: You. What do you think? What is happening? What might happen? And why?
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The army is not stopping the return of the judges, it is the politicians.
Dear Saqib, no danger of breaking any records.. have you see that post on Univeristy rankings!
Also, I think its just a few people here who keep posting the same comment or idea again and again and agin and making a nuscience of themselves.
I think Judiciary is now a bigger threat to the Army than the politicians. So they and their supporters are the least sympathetic to it. Politicians have seen many courts for only they have ever been subjected to court cases but the military people have never faced them despite bringing the country to such ruins. But as we have seen over the last few years the Judiciary has been forcefully brought to knees by a military dictator drunk with power fully supported by the Army.
How do we break the wheel? :(
Kiya drama hai yaar. Judges will be restored after Musharraf is impeached. The one issue that brought the dictatorship to its knees is a secondry issue now. Free Judicary is a bigger threat to our democratic rulers than the army. Na nau mann teel hoga na radha nachay gi.
To the ATP Administrator: Are we about to break the amount of comments record for the current story??? :)
I wish, all politicians should be charged with treason. Their assets should be frozen and eventually used by the government (Which would end up a pretty huge amount). It’s the tax WE pay that they’ve looted anyway.
Then they should be made to stand in a line and executed by firing squad.
This would atleast let the younger and more educated generation (With real degrees and no family history of beaurucracy) to come up and stand for elections. Atleast they would have live consciouses and little experience of looting money.
We need a new start. It’s always the same old corrupt people who win elections. And when they die, members of their immediate families (Like husbands and sons) take their places. This is a wheel which just goes round and round and round! And we expect to come out of this. Blind hope I say unless the wheel is broken.
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