The Pakistan Spectator – a local blog – comments on Nawaz Sharif’s brief trip home:
The rationale of today’s drama was that Nawaz Sharif hadnt got the “Asheerbad” of Washington, and US wants a Musharraf-Benazir setup in Pakistan and that is why Uncle Tom directed the whole affair. Pakistani nation, Pakistani judiciary, Pakistani press, or Pakistani opposition at one side and the whims of Statue of Liberty at the other, and we all saw who won.
Its not the question of Nawaz Sharif. I am not really dying for him, far from it. I am just lamenting the contempt of court and the way all the Punjab was sealed. I am weeping because I have doubt now about my freedom and my independence. A two-penny policeman can do anything with me.
What’s a banana republic? A state without a spine of its own, dependent on foreign capital, subject to foreign influence and politically unstable. A state where, typically, the predominant influence is that of the United States.
Strong stuff, but reflective of a common belief here that outsiders are pulling, or attempting to pull, Pakistan’s strings.
Eyebrows were raised when the Saudi Arabians stepped in to tell Nawaz not to return home. Conspiracy theorists argue that the Saudis would not have put their heads above the parapet without American support.
According to Joshua Hammer, the US has been shocked by Musharraf’s sudden fall from grace:
As far as Western attitudes towards Musharraf, when I was in Islamabad a top American official went on for probably forty-five minutes singing Musharraf’s praises, saying that this guy was absolutely the best thing to happen to Pakistan…
He said that basically no secular, democratically elected government could have achieved what Musharraf did in his time in office. He said Musharraf has been a great ally for us; he’s brought along the country, moved it away from radicalism, and was absolutely the best thing for Pakistan.
I don’t think he had any idea of the sort of earth-shattering changes that were going to happen over the next few months. I think the U.S. was completely, if his views are any indication, completely blindsided by what happened two months later.
It’s also true that Benazir Bhutto is seen as the next-most-pro-Western alternative to Musharraf – and that a Musharraf/Bhutto pact would be widely welcomed. But outside support has damaged Musharraf in Pakistani eyes, and may now be doing the same to Benazir. According to the Guardian:
Mr Sharif’s dramatic return and expulsion may have also reinforced his standing among Pakistanis at the expense of Ms Bhutto, who is favoured by the west. She wants corruption charges against her to be dropped so she can have a chance to become prime minister for a third time after general elections due later this year.
But Ms Bhutto may have damaged herself by striking a bargain with an unpopular military leader. Some members of her own Pakistan People’s party are uncomfortable with their leader’s willingness to cut a deal with Gen Musharraf. For his part, Mr Sharif insists that Gen Musharraf leave office.
