Army chief tries to defuse Pakistan crisis: FT

By Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad

General Ashfaq Kiyani, Pakistan’s army chief, on Friday stepped up his efforts to avert a deepening political crisis as opposition parties and anti-government lawyers planned mass protests next week.

Amid a government crackdown on protesters, Gen Kiyani met Asif Ali Zardari, the president, and Yusuf Raza Gilani, the prime minister, yesterday to discuss steps to restore stability and maintain the country’s parliamentary democracy. The general’s growing personal involvement has raised concerns that the military is poised to return to a more political role, in a country that it has ruled for more than half Pakistan’s 62 years as an independent state.

Senior government officials said, the general’s discussions included the restoration of Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, former chief justice of the Supreme Court who was dismissed by Pervez Musharraf, when he was president, in 2007.

Mr Chaudhry’s dismissal prompted a nationwide protest by lawyers. Other contentious issues at the heart of the growing political dispute include last month’s verdict by the Supreme Court to disqualify Nawaz Sharif, the former prime minister and main opposition leader, from standing for political office. His younger brother, Shehbaz Sharif, was also disqualified the same day.

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