By attacking Musharraf now, Zardari can have Sharif back in the fold and defang the planned street agitation. If this is the gambit, will Zardari succeed? And if it is not, will he be able to restore the prestige the PPP lost by entering a US-brokered deal with Musharraf?

If push comes to shove, the MQM in Karachi can be used as the trump card that Musharraf still holds, even as he goes down. But the situation can still be salvaged and a middle ground found between the PPP and the president if potential interlocutors, the army and the US, could devise a compromise. It will have to be the PPP offering indemnity to the November 3 actions taken by Musharraf followed by his resignation at an agreed time down the road in exchange for stripping him now of his powers as the president.

The judges? Well, like Zardari said, the PPP never made their cause part of its election campaign.

The danger is that if all fails, it could be back to October 12, 1999 — another coup underwritten by the US, given its “war on terror” priorities, with or without new exiles being shipped out.

The writer, an editor with Dawn, is based in Karachi murtazarazvi@hotmail.com