Theatre of absurd

If Pakistan's current political situation was to be shown on the stage, it would have to be as a farce. Today we have two comedians: the political parties, and the militants. The electorate gave the coalition partners a two-thirds majority to oust Musharraf and bring back Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.
However, more than four months after the new government was elected, precisely nothing has been done in either direction. To be honest, one cannot fault the PML-N in this connection. They have done their best to get both jobs done. However, unfortunately Musharraf's Deal with Benazir, continued after her death by her spouse, who is standing squarely in the way.
The gentleman has got all the benefits he could have derived from the agreement: all his corruption cases have been cleared; he has thus been saved both from the Swiss and Pakistani jails. Further, he is now free to contest elections and be elected as the prime minister. If he is not so inclined, then in any case he is still the leader of the PPP and hence the boss of the prime minister. However, the price is being paid by the nation. Undoubtedly as per the Deal, two of Musharraf's closest associates remain in charge of national affairs: Malik Qayyum continues as the government's legal advisor, and Rehman Malik is in charge of interior, the most important ministry. Therefore, it can rightly be stated that Musharraf's policies are being pursued even today.
Restoration of Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and his colleagues suits neither Musharraf nor Zardari: the former because the court could rule out his election as president and he would be out of his job; the latter because the court could rule the actions of November 3, including the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), ultravires of the constitution. This would revive the cases against Zardari, and he would be back to square one. So it is not surprising that both of them are doing all that is possible to prevent restoration of the judges.