In Islamabad, it's not only "the economy, stupid," it's the Islamic insurgency. Those are the most urgent threats to Pakistan, and yet it was the country's weak democratic institutions and political rivalries that nearly provoked sweeping civil unrest this week. Though partly responsible for the crisis, President Asif Ali Zardari nonetheless pulled the nation back from the brink of violence, inadvertently offering glimmers of hope in the process.
Pakistan is struggling to find an equilibrium among its executive, legislative and judicial branches of government and the powerful military that has run the country through much of its short history. One casualty in that struggle had been the country's chief justice, who was removed from the Supreme Court two years ago by the former president and military ruler, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Street protests over the court led to Musharraf's resignation, and when the country returned to civilian rule, Zardari promised to reinstate Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry and four other justices. But Zardari delayed for more than a year, apparently fearing that Chaudhry would dig up old corruption charges against him. He also enjoyed the fact that a friendlier court had banned leaders of the rival political dynasty from office in Punjab province, thereby neutralizing Zardari's nemesis. Or so he thought.
