Now that Shaukat Aziz as the Prime Minister of Pakistan, SA Tribune thinks that Musharraf is dispensible.
Musharraf has completed five years of his rule and at the end of that period he is today almost living under house arrest, confined to a bunker. He cannot come out into the public. If he has to go anywhere, the entire city has to come to a standstill. In the last few weeks he has not ventured out of the Presidency, not even for any Independence Day event.
He does not trust even his own top Generals. Within his Army he is seen as a COAS who has blocked the careers of those on top and has promoted and picked men of his choice causing a lot of heart burning elsewhere. He is hated by the terrorists, despised by politicians, of both the Opposition and the Treasury benches, though they may not have the courage to say so at his face.
The ordinary man on the street never trusted him before and distrusts him more now as life for him has gone from bad to worse, despite all the tall claims of macroeconomic successes and dollar reserves. Voters did not come out in his phony referendum and they never voted for any one because of Musharraf. Without the heavy hand of intelligence agencies and official machinery, even Shaukat Aziz would not have agreed to contest, let alone win, the Parliamentary seats he easily won today.[via oxTalk]
Shaukatz Aziz is no politician. He is not from the military either. In Pakistan, politicians do not matter anyway. But unless you have the trust of the army, you cannot last that long. It will be interesting to see how the new PM handles the Jihadis, the Americans on the Western border and the Indians on the Eastern border.
