It’s army, once again

After the days of General Zia it has been a kind of rotational governance — either the general’s protege, Nawaz Sharif, being at the helm of affairs, or the daughter of Zia’s benefactor, Ms Benazir Bhutto, in the seat of power, with smaller players coming in-between. Both have been discredited, though in different ways. Ms Bhutto’s fall from grace has been caused by her jailed husband, Asif Ali Zardari, popularly known as "Mr Ten Per Cent", while Sharif finds himself in the dustbin of history because of his mistaken belief that as Prime Minister he could snatch from the army its traditional role as "the guardian of Pakistan’s izzat", writes Syed Nooruzzaman.

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