The PML dominates parliament. It was created as an umbrella pro-government bloc to help Musharraf to promote his agenda and give him a defined role when he eventually sheds his uniform. Other defections from the PML may follow.
During the coming months, Pakistan is likely to witness military operations in sensitive tribal regions to track down foreign insurgents. There is a new military initiative in the Baluchistan province against insurgent tribes and the installation of Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain, a non-political technocrat, as Prime Minister. The issue of sending troops to Iraq will also have to be faced. Two generals are due to retire in October and will need to be replaced. Under the constitution, Musharraf must relinquish between one of the two hats he currently wears - Chief of Army Staff or President - by the end of 2004. Exiled former premier Benazir Bhutto is expected to return to the country soon with the aim of revitalizing her opposition Pakistan People's Party.
Pir Pagara studied at Oxford. He returned at the request of Pakistan's first premier, Liaquat Ali Khan, in the early 1950s, and was launched into national politics on the PML platform. As the head of an armed militia called Hur, he supplied thousands of volunteers to the Pakistan army in the 1965 and 1970 wars against India, which helped him forge strong ties with the military. Now he is ready to face Musharraf.
At a hastily called press conference on Wednesday, Pir Pagara, one of the most powerful spiritual personalities in the country, with about a million disciples among the tribes of Sindh, said he would reconstitute his Pakistan Muslim League (Functional) party as an independent entity, explaining, "We merged with the ruling party after the President gave me lots of assurances. We were united for the cause of the Pakistan Muslim League, not for the cause of the Jat." [a reference to the Jat tribe of Prime Minister Hussain, who appointed Jats to key positions in the PML]
A member of the press asked whether it is true that due to Pakistan's tribal society, many will not accept a non-political technocrat like Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz (now Prime Minister-designate) "who is not interested in the ruling party members nor their interests." Pir Pagara nodded his head in the affirmative and commented, "The President's men are guiding him [Shaukat] the wrong way."
Pir Pagara made it clear that until Musharraf personally speaks to him and accepts his complaints about the present and future premiers, he will not listen to or meet with anybody. Whether or not he changes his mind, the first serious manifestation of political dissent has begun.
