Bhaanmati ne kunba joda, as they say in Urdu: The ruling coalition’s bigwigs, Messrs Zardari, Sharif, Khan and the Maulana, for once reflect the confusion gripping the people of Pakistan. Neither the people nor their brinkmen leaders know what will happen next, at a time when real, bigger issues stare the country in the face. Till late on Thursday evening, no one could even decide whether to send Musharraf home or to Beijing. Pakistan is one, dragging “K” soap opera, as it were.

There has never been a dearth of issues, least of all on the question of ruling Pakistan. Internal and external problems abound today, dwarfing the issue of the restoration of the judges sent packing by Musharraf as he declared emergency on November 3 last year; the question of the president’s impeachment too is less of a real issue for a people facing economic hardship, uncertainty and terrorism — not necessarily in that order. But these two questions alone seem to occupy the leaders’ minds.

Relations with India and Afghanistan are arguably at the lowest ebb in many years; those with Washington are at their ambivalent best. Terrorist attacks in the north-west and nationalist insurgency in Balochistan are crying out for attention, while street crime, the monsoon and the steep food prices flood the land. The people are literally marooned. There is, in effect, little governance or even emergency provision of relief and fire-fighting that are so badly needed.

To many, these are tell-tale signs of more troubled times ahead; the makings of yet another dismissal of an elected government by an all-powerful president, unless, of course, Musharraf is totally out of luck. The ruling coalition partners, with the exception of the MQM, after much bickering over the preceding weeks have agreed to ask Musharraf to seek a vote of confidence from parliament. The Sharif League can interpret this as the start of impeachment proceedings against the former general who had sent its government packing in 1999 and exiled its leaders, while the PPP could live with the comfort that it did not actually start any such proceedings.

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