Pakistan’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, made the right choice on Monday in agreeing to reinstate the independent-minded former Supreme Court justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Unfortunately, it took huge street protests and the threat of chaos to persuade him to do the right thing. Mr. Zardari will have to do a lot more to calm the political turmoil and confront the extremists who threaten Pakistan’s survival.
Mr. Zardari made a major concession in agreeing to Mr. Chaudhry’s return and is weaker as a result. Nawaz Sharif, the opposition leader, was already the country’s most popular politician, and he gained even more by championing the cause of the chief justice, who was ousted by Pervez Musharraf, the former president.
Mr. Zardari and Mr. Sharif led a coalition government after Mr. Musharraf was pushed out last year but broke up ostensibly over the Chaudhry issue. With that resolved, they should try again to put aside their corrosive rivalry and work to combat the Taliban and Al Qaeda and address Pakistan’s many other urgent problems.
We are relieved that the protests led by Mr. Sharif and a vigorous lawyers’ movement ended without significant bloodshed. Pakistanis successfully demanding change from their leaders is an unpredictable new factor in the country’s politics.
Yet the process was flawed. It was unsettling to watch police officers in Lahore, Mr. Sharif’s power base, allow Mr. Sharif to escape house arrest. Pakistan’s coup-prone Army did not try to seize power. Instead, the chief of staff prodded Mr. Zardari and Mr. Sharif to compromise. That is certainly an improvement over the past. But it is also a reminder of the weakness of Pakistan’s democratic institutions.
One of the biggest questions is how Mr. Chaudhry, now a national symbol of democracy and the rule of law, will use his influence and his restored powers. Mr. Zardari supposedly opposed his return out of fear that the jurist would revive a corruption charge against him. We hope Mr. Chaudhry opts to advance the cause of impartial justice, not political retribution. Pakistan’s leaders have walked the country back from the brink. They must go much further before it reaches solid ground.
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