Pakistan’s government is hanging by the narrowest of threads tonight as the loss of immunity for hundreds of members of the ruling party and mounting evidence of corruption leads to calls for President Zardari to resign.
Though spokesmen for the president ruled out resignation and he has promised to fight tooth and nail to keep his office, it seems unfathomable that his government will emerge from these latest scandals unscathed.
Earlier this month, reports emerged that Zardari, from a humble family and spending his entire life in government positions, had amassed a fortune of over US$1 billion, almost exclusively the spoils of “commissions” he demanded for approving corrupt business deals.
Add on to that the 280 members of the government, as high ranking as the Defense and Interior Ministers, who are now barred from leaving the country in the face of corruption charges of their own, and you have a recipe for the collapse of a government that has not had a convincing majority in over a year.
Good, get rid of him. Bring in Sharif or someone else who will follow the will of the people. Any Pakistani government that drops cooperation with the US and does what its people want will reduce a large part of the instability in the country. Ironically, this will actually probably serve US interests (in the long term), by *not* serving US interests (in the short term.) 🙂
http://www.watchinghistory.com/2009/10/future-of-…