On Tuesday, Dawn welcomed the Inter-Services Public Relations’s announcement that the army would not be involved in the conduct of the general election on February 18. The army said it was responsible for law and order issues, but the conduct of the election would be the domain of the Election Commission. Could this be the start of General Ashfaq Kayani’s attempt to rescue the image of the Pakistan army, asked Nasim Zehra in an analysis in The News. The army’s top brass, she wrote, is aware of the “broader political and foreign policy context” in which it must meet internal security tasks. “To some extent there is déjà vu to this realisation within the army brass. After long stints of military rule the army’s prestige and popularity will always take a dip. For example the general’s attempt to resurrect the army’s image is no different from General Aslam Beg’s 1988 attempt to clear the army’s image in the immediate aftermath of Pakistan’s longest serving and most destructive military dictator, General Zia-ul-Haq. Twenty years later in 2008, in a different political and security context the army’s image has taken a greater pounding.”

Ahsan’s freedom

Aitzaz Ahsan’s 90-day detention came to an end on Thursday. When fresh detention orders were served, the lawyer-politician who had represented Chaudhry’s legal case against his suspension in March, pointed to a technical flaw in the procedure. By night the fresh detention orders were withdrawn (Dawn, February 1). A day earlier the newspaper reported that Musharraf had met Ahsan’s daughter Saman in Davos in a move facilitated by Klaus Schwab, executive chairman of the World Economic Forum. Musharraf is believed to have told her to ask her father to curb his opposition to the current regime.

... contd.