Click to play videoNew Delhi: President Zardari has bowed to the forces ranged against him and on Saturday night - after marathon consultations with Prime Minister Gilani - he approved a government review petition to be filed in the Supreme Court against the disqualification of the Sharif brothers from contesting polls.
He announced that Governor's Rule in Punjab could be revoked and also agreed to reinstating the judges sacked by former president Pervez Musharraf in 2007 on the basis of the Charter of Democracy signed by late prime minister Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif in 2006.
However, the future of deposed chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhary remains unclear.
This may be reason enough for Nawaz Sharif to celebrate, but given Zardari's propensity to backtrack, Nawaz is being cautious.
"The nation wants a change and it will come. We have decided to go ahead with the Long March. This government is a sham," Nawaz said.
Meanwhile, the army is on standby in Islamabad and approaches to the Pakistan Parliament are being barricaded. The government has raised security concerns stating that there are 'intelligence reports' of a possible terror attack on the lawyer's rally. Several protesting lawyers and opposition activists have been arrested.
But there seems little doubt Zardari had read the tea leaves right for the first time.
Information Minister Sherry Rahman quit on Saturday after Geo TV was blacked out by cable TV operators acting under instructions from the presidency, Army Chief General Kayani was pushing Prime Minister Gilani to assert himself against President Zardari and Washington is clear that Zardari was unnecessarily diverting focus from the war against the Taliban by settling poltical scores.
The next 48 hours could be crucial in terms of Zardari moving on his commitments and an end to Pakistan's political standoff.
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