New York: After a week of tense showdown
between Pakistan's civilian and military leaderships, the
feared prospects of a coup are "receding", according to
experts who feel the country's powerful generals "have little
incentive" to overthrow the government this time around.
Analysts, in a New York Times report said, the Pakistani
military, which has ended frustrations with civilian
governments with coups in 1958, 1969, 1977 and 1999, "has
little incentive for such a move" this time.
"The economy is in a parlous state, a home-grown Taliban
insurgency bubbles in the northwest, and the generals are
still smarting from the damage to their reputation from the
unpopular nine-year-rule of Pervez Musharraf, which began in
the most recent coup and ended in 2008," the report said.
Pakistani analysts and Western diplomats believe that the
"prospects of a coup are receding, for now."
In addition, the actions of the generals as well as those
of the civilian leaders face the "unprecedented, real-time
scrutiny from a vociferous electronic news media."
The army can also no longer count on the Supreme Court to
"rubber-stamp a takeover," it said.
"I don't think the army will mount a coup because they
don't need one when they have Imran Khan," said C Christine
Fair, an assistant professor at Georgetown University,
referring to the popular former cricket star-turned-politician
who is seeing huge public support.
However the situation remains volatile as Pakistan's most
powerful figures, senior judges, generals and politicians
"engage in a bare-knuckle and unusually public bout of power
games in which the United States finds itself sidelined."
The conflict shows that the military "is rigid and
uncompromising and not prepared to concede an inch of its
turf," the New York Times report quoted Najam Sethi, editor of
The Friday Times and a senior analyst with TV network Geo, as
saying.
"It wants to run foreign policy, it wants to be able to
do whatever it wants, and doesn't want any accountability at
all."
PTI
First Published: Saturday, January 14, 2012, 15:23