An Unstable Power Triangle

According to the latest batch of Wiki Leaks cables, the triangle of power in Pakistan remains unstable because the man who actually runs the country, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, trusts Asif Ali Zardari and dislikes Nawaz Sharif. The writer of the cable, Ambassador Anne Patterson - who must be happy she is no longer posted in Islamabad - also notes that the general cannot afford to be seen being too cosy with Zardari because of his unpopularity (20 per cent public approval as against 80 per cent for Nawaz Sharif) and that Zardari fears he could be ousted by the army. There was a time when Pakistan - wrongly - thought that a triangle of power in Islamabad ensured stability. The president under Article 58(2)(b), plus the army chief on one side and the prime minister on the other, was the three-way distribution of power that was supposed to preclude the imposition of martial law in the 1990s. What happened was a sad series of toppling in which the president repeatedly ganged up with the army chief to dismiss elected governments under the dreaded article. The decade turned out to be the most disastrous in the country's history, a truth that was realized by two repentant mainstream parties when they wrote up the Charter of Democracy in 2006.