 | « Back to article | Print this article |
While Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has made it clear that he would not succumb to the opposition's pressure to resign and face the challenges, noted journalist Najam Sethi pointed that the president has got no moral right to remain in power, and stressed that the military would sooner or later step in.
"It seems to me that Zardari''s administration has lost its moral authority to govern. Power is slipping away. People are looking instead towards the Chief Justice. The military is pretending to be out of it but the military will have a very decisive say in everything," The Globe and Mail quoted Sethi, as saying.
The crisis in the troubled country deepened further on Friday, when the National Accountability Bureau, Pakistan's official anti-corruption watchdog, issued an arrest warrant against Interior Minister Rehman Malik on corruption charges, which were levelled more than a decade back.
The chaos continued when Pakistan Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar and a team of delegates accompanying him were barred from boarding a flight to China by officials of the Federal Investigation Agency.
Later, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani suspended Interior Secretary Qamaruz Zaman Chaudhry for the instance.
Asma Jahangir, chairwoman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, feared that the country seemed to be sliding towards yet another coup.
"The issue is whether the (democratic) system is going to pack up again," Jahangir questioned.
The Supreme Court, she said, would not have been so bold as to overturn the controversial amnesty law unless it felt confident of backing.
Pakistan's traditional power centre is the army, which has ruled the country for most of its existence, Jehangir pointed out.