Cornered Zardari comes out swinging

Islamabad: President Asif Ali Zardari, fighting to keep his job amid pressure from opponents in the media, the courts, the Parliament and the military, appears to have reasserted his grip on the presidency for the time being, according to analysts here.

But Zardari's government remains caught between pressure to support Washington in the war against Islamist insurgents in Afghanistan and the need to improve its tenuous relations with the army, which is focused on fighting domestic Taliban extremists and mistrusts the Obama administration's friendship with India, Pakistan's neighbour and arch rival.

In the past week, Pakistan's embattled president has had to relinquish a number of executive powers to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to placate his adversaries. Zardari agreed on Friday to transfer control of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal to the prime minister, and has also given up his right to dissolve Parliament, an authority he inherited through a decree by his predecessor, Pervez Musharraf.

Majority

Now, Zardari's opponents in Parliament are demanding that he give up even more authority, and some have called on him to resign.

Zardari cannot be impeached because his Pakistan Peoples Party dominates the legislature, but it is now being widely predicted that he will serve out his term with greatly reduced powers.

Meanwhile, the president has also become vulnerable to legal action by Pakistan's Supreme Court. An amnesty for past corruption charges against Zardari and a host of other officials expired on Saturday, and although the president cannot be prosecuted while in office, the high court could also rule that his election was illegitimate and then pursue the original cases against him.

But Zardari, backed into a corner by multiple adversaries, has come out swinging. In a defiant speech last week, he lashed out at "political actors" seeking to dethrone him and sharply criticised certain opponents in the media.

He also forced the cancellation of a cable TV show whose host often criticised him.

Such clumsy actions drew further ridicule from the anti-Zardari media. Shaheen Sehbai, editor of the News International newspaper, wrote in a sarcastic column that he "laughed and laughed" at Zardari's "rants". Sehbai has called for the president to "step down with dignity", hand over his powers to Gilani or become a figurehead.

Zardari appears to have temporarily fended off a far more powerful opponent: the army. Analysts said that although the army is still unhappy about Zardari's concessions to Washington and soft stance on India, and has been working against him behind the scenes, it does not want to be linked to a messy or illegitimate change of government.

Dependence

Moreover, military experts noted that the army is heavily dependent on US spare parts and equipment to wage its current air war against the Taliban and cannot afford to sabotage Zardari's ties with Washington just as US officials are calling for a new "strategic relationship" with Pakistan.