The upheaval has complicated U.S. efforts to wind down the war in neighboring Afghanistan, contributing to Islamabad’s failure to come up with a compromise to again allow NATO supplies to pass through Pakistani territory. The routes, vital for U.S. withdrawal of a decade’s worth of materiel, have been closed for seven months.
The latest leadership crisis unfolded Thursday after an anti-narcotics court issued an arrest warrant for the official whom President Asif Ali Zardari wanted for the job — outgoing Textile Minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin, a stalwart of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party.
The case, which also has implicated the recently ousted prime minister’s son, involves the illegal importation of tons of ephedrine, required to manufacture methamphetamine, in 2010, when Shahabuddin was health minister.
Both men have denied the accusations. As of Thursday evening, Shahabuddin had not been arrested.
Narcotics warrant
Babar Sattar, a lawyer and columnist, noted that the warrant followed a stray remark in open court this week by Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, who asked — after Shahabuddin emerged as a likely nominee — why he had not been arrested in connection with the ephedrine-import scandal.
“The timing of these things makes me cynical,” Sattar said. “You also get a sense that the judiciary is taking pleasure in embarrassing the ruling regime.”
The new leading candidate for prime minister is Raja Pervez Ashraf, a former water and power minister, major cable networks reported Thursday night. Party officials would not confirm the reports, but a presidential spokesman said the ruling coalition had settled on a choice to be announced Friday morning.
As is usually the case in the murky machinations that govern Pakistani politics, the import of the narcotics warrant was unclear but widely debated. Some Pakistanis discerned mischief on the part of the military because the charges stemmed from an anti-drug agency headed by a general.
Others viewed it as another example of the judiciary muscling in on politics. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court disqualified Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on the grounds of contempt of court after he refused for months to reopen an old corruption case against Zardari.
The ruling ousted Gilani from office, forcing the dissolution of his cabinet.
Bogus and politically motivated charges are often brought against leaders here, but the latest developments have added to the sense that Pakistan’s government is rudderless and in disarray at a time when its relationship with the United States, its chief economic patron and uneasy ally in fight against al-Qaeda, has collapsed.
Loading...
Comments