President Pervez Musharraf's interview with the Wall Street Journal reveals the former general's wily perspicacity, writes Randeep Ramesh
Pakistan's head of state is not an ornament of the constitution or some kind of toothless figure head. While Go Musharraf Go might be a good slogan, it is probably not enough to see him leave.
President Musharraf does not have to resign just because his opponents won elections. He was re-elected - in a rigged ballot of the last assembly - and has five years to run.
The parties could join hands and get a two-thirds majority required to oust him but there is a lot to say it won't happen. Most obvious is the rapid US endorsement of the polls and George Bush's quickfire comment that "now's the time for the newly elected folks to show up and form their government."
The subtext is that the US would frown on politicians who attempted a democratic coup, which might embroil the army in politics when they should be "fighting terrorists". So Washington is standing by President Musharraf.
The pressure is on the politicians not to run against the president for the sake of stability in Pakistan and the need to fight extremism. The hard sell of a new constitutional settlement in Pakistan has already begun.
In the interview, President Musharraf highlights the role of the country's National Security Council, which he heads as president. This council will "impose checks and balances on the prime minister performing well, the president not impulsively using his authority to dissolve [the] assembly, the army chief not impulsively imposing martial law."
As a former dictactor wearing the stars of a general, Musharraf boasts he has designed a system meant to stop a clash between President and prime minister - which "opened the gates of military interference."
The arrangements concentrate power in the president's hands. Musharraf will be able to sack a prime minister. He will also make the key decisions in foreign policy and national security matters - aka the "war on terror".
That leaves the politicians with the immediate tricky domestic issues of creating new jobs and making up the dire shortfalls of gas and wheat.
Given Bush's vote for the process and in Musharraf, we are unlikely to see Pakistan's president suddenly ejected. That means the politicians will be left with less power and more responsibility. This is a bitter pill to swallow for those who promised the revenge of democracy.
