Sharif is Back
Reading the timeline below really joins the dots about what's been going on in Pakistan this year. Today the plot unravelled further, with signs that as well as Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif is also planning a comeback. It's clear that the whole debacle over the sacking of Iftikhar Chaudhry, the chief justice, is linked to this point.
However, for all Musharraf's faults, he has done at least one thing - he has held Pakistan together under immense pressure from the Islamists on one side and the US on the other. The entry of both the 'democrats', not just Bhutto alone, will fracture the political scene even further. Neither Bhutto not Sharif have much to be proud of, other than being civilians, and indeed it was they that oversaw Pakistan's steady slide. Democract alone is not going to solve Pakistan's problems, and if the populace goes to the streets in favour of either Musharraf, Bhutto, Sharif, Chaudhry or Shar'ia, it'll set the scene for some bloody four-way clashes.
What it could mean for Afghanistan is anyone's guess.
BBC NEWS | South Asia | Exiled Pakistani PM 'to go home'
9 March: Musharraf suspends chief justice for "abuse of power". Lawyers protest
April: Protests grow, amid clashes with police
12 May: 34 people die as rival political groups clash in Karachi
11 July: 102 people die when army storms radical Red Mosque in Islamabad
July-Aug: Sharp rise in suicide attacks by pro-Taleban militants
20 July: Supreme Court reinstates chief justice
9 Aug: Musharraf rejects emergency rule
23 Aug: Supreme Court says exiled ex-PM Nawaz Sharif can return
