Click to play videoIslamabad: In Pakistan, the rift between President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is widening.
The president-prime minister face off in Pakistan has the military's attention and the warnings from the army's retired proxies have not been long in coming.
Lieutenant General of the Pakistani Army Hamid Gul said, “Nobody can predict what will happen in the long term. If there is a collapse, that is another matter.
There are some politicians who believe the army is all but home and dry.
Cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan said, “The army is already back. Given what is happening between the president and prime minister, this is the weakest government in Pakistan's history. There is no government in Pakistan."
The fractures within the civilian government could deepen in the days ahead. Opposition parties are moving multiple bills in Parliament to repeal the 17th amendment.
The amendments threaten to strip President Zardari of his powers to sack the prime minister and dissolve parliament.
Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif is ready to throw his party's weight behind Prime Minister Gilani if Zardari tries to block the amendment.
As the politicians divide and maneuver, it appears there's nobody to tend the country's multiple fires from the economy to the Taliban surge on the western frontier and increasingly in Pakistan's heartland. Add to that the war hysteria with India which has revived familiar tensions.
The generals are acutely aware that public sentiment is firmly against any military takeover but are also confident that faced with political strife and state collapse, the public will turn to the army – the only institution they believe that is capable of holding the country together at least until some other alternative emerges.
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