Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani met on Monday amid growing political turmoil. As the troika met, the Supreme Court gave the government the two-week breather it had sought and adjourned the hearing of the National Reconciliation Ordinance implementation case till October 13.
The Supreme Court has directed the government to restore cases against all NRO beneficiaries, including President Zardari and interior minister Rehman Malik. The NRO was promulgated by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf in 2007 to withdraw political cases against some politicians and bureaucrats.
Mr Musharraf’s handpicked successor, Gen. Kayani, has been in the news ever since the gulf widened between the judiciary and the executive, with some political pundits predicting an imminent military coup, which would end the country’s fragile democracy restored only in 2008. However, sources said Gen. Kayani had assured that democracy would not be derailed. After the troika meeting, Prime Minister Gilani rejected the impression that the government’s days were numbered.