Bhutto Negotiates Back Into Power

While Nawaz Sharif is left twisting in the wind after he was ceremoniously kicked out of Pakistan, his rival, Benazir Bhutto, is busy negotiating with President Musharraf on some odd power-sharing arrangement that would make her prime minister and Musharraf staying on as president.

The current set-up, with Musharraf as its architect, concentrates most of the power in the president’s hands, not the prime minister’s. This is not what Benazir Bhutto is use to (or wants), and I hope she’s not deluding herself on this score. Now, knowing this, is Benazir Bhutto willing to be Musharraf’s sock pocket? This is, after all, Shaukat Aziz’s current role: a pretty-faced figurehead, who is willing to act out the script given to him. I doubt Bhutto will stick to script once in power: she is much too power-hungry and ambitious, like her father before her.