Dawn carries a news report (September 5) on Zardari being a clear favourite for president — “With the presidential election due on Saturday, PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has emerged as the front-runner, although unlike his two rivals he has not travelled outside Islamabad..”.

Another report quotes Zardari: “ If I am elected president, one of my highest priorities will be to support the prime minister, the National Assembly and the Senate to amend the Constitution to bring back into balance the powers of the presidency and thereby reduce its ability to bring down democratic governance,”

Ayaz Amir, in an interesting opinion piece in The News (September 5) says “if Zardari as president is what democracy ordains, so be it...And although I don’t want to prejudge the event by saying that this necessarily will be a disaster, let us take comfort from the fact that all things change and nothing is permanent”. He ends his piece on a somewhat sarcastic note with a reference to the psychological counselling Zardari received in the US and says “Zardari’s recent behaviour ... and some of his recent utterances ... suggest that he may still be in need of psychological counselling...” S. Rahman presents a more optimistic analysis in The Nation — “The emerging post-September 6 scenario is going to offer us golden opportunities to undo the past blunders and constitutional violations...the collective power of our political cadres, institutions and civil society alike, is going to arrest all the over-ambitious tendencies forever paving the way for a lasting democracy that will never ever be subverted”

... contd.