Army doesn't have answers to Pakistan's problems
An unprecedented public consensus in the country is that the army "does not have the answers to Pakistan's problems" and should stay out of governance and politics, said a leading daily Saturday. An editorial in the Dawn said that in these times of "fiendish complexity and downright confusion, simple narratives break down time and again". "The Supreme Court has taken on the government in a highly destabilising fight that many fear could end up interrupting the democratic project yet again," it said.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has warned off anyone contemplating 'extra constitutional' measures, promising that the court would not countenance a violation of the constitution. "Both aspects of the court's interventionism are equally real: it has kept a democratically elected government under inordinate pressure, thereby possibly opening the door to a scuttling of the system, while at the same time acting as a bulwark against direct military rule, the legacy of the refusal to bow before (former president) Gen Musharraf a second time continuing to live on," said the daily.
It went on to say that as far as the possibility of direct military rules goes, "there is perhaps an unprecedented public consensus in the country that the army does not have the answers to Pakistan's problems and should stay out of governance and politics". "That the people have found an ally in the Supreme Court at this critical juncture may prove to be a historical contingency with long-lasting effects," it said.