The impeachment of its former chief would have embarrassed the army. To ensure it kept its nose out of politics for a change, the government had therefore urged Musharraf to quit. And the army, under its recently appointed chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, did not demur. Nor did America; it called the impeachment an “internal” issue. In the dying days of his supremacy, Musharraf was therefore reduced to haggling over his retirement plan.

He wants to live honourably in Pakistan, in a mansion he is building outside Islamabad. The PPP’s leader, Asif Zardari, the widower of the party’s murdered former leader, Benazir Bhutto, could tolerate this. But Sharif, who was no stickler for the rule of law during his own two riotous terms, says the coupster must be punished. “I have no vendetta,” he explained, seated in his opulent mansion near Lahore, guarded by two stuffed lions. “Though he handcuffed me, humiliated my family, tried to destroy my party, put me in a dungeon in a 500-year-old fort, put me in exile for seven years; that is all gone. I hold nothing against him personally.” For now, Musharraf seems safe from prosecution. But he may yet quit Pakistan for a spell.

The government meanwhile has troubles of its own. Its decision to impeach the president was less a sign of strength than of terminal wrangling between Zardari and Sharif. At the heart of their dispute are 60 judges, sacked by Musharraf during the emergency. Sharif needs friendly judges to overturn a ban on his eligibility to stand for election, and wants them restored. But Zardari, granted an amnesty from corruption charges under Musharraf, reckons the deposed judges would be less friendly than their successors. As Zardari stalled over reinstating the judges, Sharif in May withdrew his nine ministers from the government. It was largely in an effort to woo him back that Zardari agreed to Sharif’s other main demand: to impeach Musharraf.

... contd.