After the tragic death of some 150 people, and when more than 600 people are wounded, it’s evident that the deal between Benazir and Musharraf has gone ripe, instead of going sour. Where Benzair is heavily busy in political point scoring, and playing Sindh Card for Sindh, and Al-Qaeda card for United States, Musharraf is also becoming inclined towards her, while trying to keep the PML-Q intact.
Now there is no problem for Benazir, Musharraf or Chuadhry Shujaat, because all is set, and everything is in place and the only thing is the seamless execution of the deal to the ultimate point. The only thorn remains in the sweet deal is of Nawaz Sharif. In the current political scenario, there simply is no place for Mian Brothers or in other words PML-N.
For Benazir, if Nawaz Sharif returns than it’s a surefire thing that Nawaz Sharif would clean sweep in Punjab and NWFP, and she would be restricted to Sindh only, where Balochistan will as usual see a coalition government. For Musharraf, if Nawaz Sharif returns and his obvious victory in two big provinces, PML-Q will virtually be wiped off the face of earth, and Musharraf wouldn’t have anything to control Benazir. And Musharraf knows that Nawaz Sharif couldn’t ever strike a deal with him.
So for Musharraf, return of Nawaz Sharif is simply out of question. Though Benazir would certainly want to get rid of the pressure hammer of PML-Q by the hands of Musharraf, but would she accept it at the cost of two provinces? And Punjab has the maximum seats in the national assembly, and the return of Nawaz Sharif could also hamper the seemingly sure chances of Benazir to become the next prime minister of Pakistan.
So its in the best interest of both Musharraf and Benazir and yes of course in the interest of Chaudhry Shujaat to somehow stop Nawaz coming back home. Even MMA, bag of religious parties, wouldn’t want Nawaz Sharif back in the country, as they wouldn’t want to lose their control in NWFP, and that could be reason why Fazl-ur-Rehman is playing lackey for the present regime.
