It is the right time for president Musharraf to step down and get out of the murky situation before it is too late for him. Instead of hanging on to power he should try to negotiate his safe and honorable retreat from the power corridors. If he hasn’t seen the writings on the wall and if he still thinks he could continue as the president then either he is too myopic or too power hungry. Even his former army colleagues are in open revolt against him. They are demanding his outright resignation besides impeachment over Kargil debacle.

One must appreciate the tenacity and stubbornness of president Musharraf not to resign despite all the humiliation that he has been exposed to. The judicial community is heaping all kinds of profanities on him including the refrain on slogan “go Musharraf go”. This appears to be a replay of what happened to president Ayub Khan in the last days of his fading hold on power.

There is a moment of peak glory and there is also a moment of decline in ever one’s life. Musharraf’s days of glory and strength are over. There is a democratic process set in motion in Pakistan that has its own agenda and priorities. In that scheme of things president Musharraf seems to be an outcast and irrelevant. The people are crying hoarse for him to leave the citadel of power. The latest adverse economic backlash that has deprived the common people of a comfortable morsel of bread and other daily necessities easily and affordably are all attributed to him and the government of prime minister Shaukat Aziz that was at the helm during his presidency. There is massive mess and an unprecedented social upheaval in Pakistan. The masses are poorer than before and the cost of life is skyrocketing unabated.

Despite this woeful situation Musharraf wants to keep riding the power horse. Now such an approach would prove to be a Trojan horse for him as the time passes. The latest hard hitting outburst of PPP’s cochairman Asif Zardari against the president should serve as an eye opener to impel him to resign as soon as possible. Mr. Zardari who till recently was considered as Musharraf’s undeclared supporter has categorically denounced Musharraf by saying that people of Pakistan were more interested to get rid of Musharraf than having bread and electricity. Reacting to his terse statement the president’s spokesman said that the presidency has taken a serious notice of Zaradri’s statement. It could mean that if Zardari would oppose the president the latter could reverse the blanket amnesty given to him. The second statement of Mr. Zardari issued from Saudi Arabia can better be called a warning salvo. Mr. Zardari once again asked the president either to resign voluntarily or be prepared for his unceremonious and rather dishonorable ouster by the parliament via an impeachment.

There are varying approaches to reinstate the dislodged judges of Supreme Court. The agitating judges want unseated judges to be reinstated by a simple executive order. This view point is supported by Nawaz Sharif and his party which has emerged as the runner up in the February elections. The PPP’s strategy to deal with the thorny issue of judges is via a constitutional package that they think would also create a framework to place a check on the judiciary’s mal- functioning. As far sending Musharraf home, there is broad consensus among all the three parties namely, lawyers, Muslim League (N) and PPP for him to voluntarily quit. President Musharraf himself seems to be in favor of his ouster via a two third majority in the parliament. As far the people of Pakistan, they might have casual interest in the judges’ issue, but they would like Musharraf to go first as soon as possible.

If under the pressure of the street power collectively being brought about by civil society activists, lawyers, students, media and high ranking retired army and civilian officials, the political parties notably Nawaz league, president Musharraf gives in and resigns, the PPP will lose much of the public support for tacitly helping Musharraf and also delaying reinstatement of judges via a constitutional package. The dithering on the part of PPP has made it a suspect in the eyes of the opponents of Musharraf and supporters of immediate restoration of sacked judges of Supreme Court. The gathering impression is that PPP was trying to bail out Musharraf who is left with very meager support among the people of Pakistan. He is left with no credible or heavyweight allies in the political domain. In due course of time, there could be a backlash among the general public against PPP in terms of its popularity rating. On the contrary the Muslim League factions could get a boost in terms of public trust.

The constitutional package could be introduced later in the assembly for a massive overhaul of the judiciary along with other amendments in the constitution. But before that PPP should put its weight behind the demand to restore judges through an executive order. But perhaps Zardari would not like to see a chief justice back in the saddle without checks under the fear that the latter might reopen the cases hushed up under the blanket of an unprecedented amnesty that was one man specific. This is such a tangled dilemma for the PPP that despite being the majority party it doesn’t seem to overcome it. The more the PPP government drags its feet on the judges’ issue, the more it would get public rebuke.

The judicial activism now in high gear in Pakistan can turn out to be the starting point for a veritable revolutionary overall change in the country. The institutional framework has been mal- functional or non functional from the beginning. In the past, there have been half hearted or deceptive efforts to rectify the messy situation and to reform the institutions. But there were never tangible breakthroughs to streamline the governance of the newly born state of Pakistan. It is foregone that the states and societies run efficiently on stable and honest institutions as also on a culture of justice and fair play for all. Hopefully the Lawyers movement can prove to be the first drop of a blissful rain for bringing out far reaching structural changes in the society and body politic of Pakistan.