Will Pak lift ban on Sharif brothers, experts debate

Nifty BSE | NSE 31/05/12 Are Mutual Funds betting on Nifty?

After the momentous developments of last weekend, there is a focus on the situation in Pakistan and attempts to interpret what is happening in that country.

The Secretary General of the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid), Mushahid Hussain expects that in the next fortnight a reversion to the old coalition and also the Supreme Court will probably lift the ban on the Sharif Brothers. Several experts are of separate views on the issue.

The Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Times, Najam Sethi is of the view that there have been a number of commitments between Nawaz Sharif and Mr Zardari that have been guaranteed by the army and America. He added that now one has to see what happens in the next 30 days or so. He thinks that the situation is prime now and tensions are going to start rising in the next ten-twelve days.

While, Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Asma Jahangir is of the view that the whole of diplomatic community in Islamabad was up in panic. "Anybody could see that that kind of a crowd arriving in Islamabad would be the end of the system, the system would have wrapped up, there were allied parties like the Awami National Party (ANP) and Mutahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM) also worried on this account."

Former Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal is of the view that it is a bit of shame where a country of Pakistan's size and potential and presumably self respect should allow this kind of interventions.

The Financial Times South Asia Bureau Chief, James Lamont suspects that as part of the deal making going on in Pakistan that the Sharif brothers would probably have to come back to power in Punjab or else there will be a boil over and they can't afford that.

Here is a verbatim transcript of an interview aired on CNBC TV18. Also see the accompanying video.

Q: There is a widespread view that Asif Zardari is weakened some might even say battered, would you agree with that assessment or would you say it is exaggerated?
Sethi: I don't think he is battered at all. He is leaking his own wounds and planning for the next round which will doubtless takes place in the next month or so but there is no doubt that morally speaking he has lost a lot of ground and there are also differences within the party that are now crept to the surface which are damaging him. He is trying to do damage limitation, he is trying to make all the right sounding noises but at the end of the day there is no doubt of the fact that he has had to concede a considerable amount of political leverage.
Q: So your assessment is weakened but not battered, is that correct?
Sethi: Yes that is right.
Continued on next page.......