Forty onions

Approximately, 85 percent Pakistanis want Musharraf out, 83 percent want the judges restored and 82 percent regard Mian Nawaz Sharif as the most popular political leader in the country today. In character, the president is unlikely to oblige although he promised to leave if the people so wanted.

I say "unlikely" because if he had a sense of honour he would have resigned on February 18 when the Q League - for which he actively campaigned - was squarely defeated in the general election. As a footnote to Musharraf's plummeting reputation, he has also brought the army approval rating drastically down: from over 80 percent to 52 percent.

All this is disturbing, demoralising news for an average citizen as he goes about his daily chores of coping with inflation, street crime, bomb blasts, urban unrest, provincial disharmony, and restlessness in the rank and file of the army over prolonged action in the tribal belt - now in turmoil from Waziristan to Bajaur. As if the domestic scene was not worrying enough, we have threats on our borders.

Once again, drawing rooms are abuzz with discussions if the country will survive the tectonic shifts in the politics of the region.

As the situation worsens internally and externally, Pakistani leaders are abroad. Mian Nawaz Sharif is attending to his ailing wife in London; Asif Zardari is mostly in Dubai vacationing with the PPP chairman and other off springs, preparing to take off to London.