Popular sentiment may be misplaced but is crucial to any electoral exercise. People do not like Musharraf because he is seen as an autocrat; they also detest him because he symbolises Pakistan’s impotence in the face of an increasingly recidivist United States. On both issues, the Right and the Left are cheek by jowl.

Popularity ratings have already put Sharif and his League on top. If he does return, as he would if he is an astute politician, the losers are likely to be Bhutto and Musharraf. The ruling League does not matter because most of them will have joined up with Sharif anyway.

Bhutto and Musharraf may then go down “As two spent swimmers that do cling together/ And choke their art...”

The wild card is Musharraf declaring Emergency or even martial law. If that happens, the jig will be up.

The writer is op-ed editor ‘Daily Times’ and consulting editor ‘The Friday Times’. Views are his own