WASHINGTON, March 15: The United States remains heavily involved in resolving the current political crisis in Pakistan, maintaining regular contact with the main players even after the protesters started their long march to Islamabad on Sunday.

Throughout the crisis, which intensified after President Asif Ali Zardari dismissed the Punjab government, Washington has maintained a multi-layer involvement with Islamabad.

Two players on the ground are US Ambassador Anne Patterson in Islamabad and the Pakistani envoy in Washington, Husain Haqqani.

While Mr Haqqani is focussed on protecting President Zardari’s interests in Washington, Ambassador Patterson is striving to reduce tensions between the government and opposition forces in Pakistan.

Bigger players — particularly Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and US special envoy Richard Holbrooke — supplement Ambassador Patterson’s reconciliatory efforts by making regular telephone calls to Mr Zardari and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif.

Earlier this week, this correspondent happened to see an exchange of notes between US and Pakistani policy-makers containing arguments both for and against the two main players, President Zardari and Mr Sharif.

The Americans fear that if the current protest spreads, they may once again end up supporting an unpopular leader, as they did with Gen Musharraf.

Besides, they do not want to sever their links with Mr Sharif. They see him as a powerful politician with a strong chance of forming the next federal government in Pakistan, now or later.

And if this happens and they continue to oppose him, the Americans may end up having a government in Islamabad that, at best, will be an unwilling partner in the war against terrorism.

There are people in Washington, both in official circles and in the think-tanks, who argue that Mr Sharif’s links to religious parties make him more useful than Mr Zardari for winning over the 70 per cent militants who US Vice-President Joe Biden says are ‘reconcilable’.

So they urge the Obama administration to try and win over Mr Sharif rather than further alienate him.

The Pakistani government, however, uses different arguments for encouraging the Americans to continue to support the Zardari government.

The government argues that former Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and two others judges not yet restored have become too political because of their association with the street protests to remain viable candidates for the higher judiciary.

The government says that if it does not stop Mr Sharif from using street protests to undermine the government so soon after an election, Pakistani democracy will forever remain under the threat of one or another group mobilising in the streets for a popular cause instead of deciding matters in elected chambers.

The government says that only last week, the Senate elected a Zardari loyalist as its chairman. Mr Zardari’s grip on the elected National Assembly remains firm and even with some disaffection in the ruling PPP Mr Sharif lacks the numbers to impeach the president.

The government points out that in case the army forces Mr Zardari to resign in an intervention short of a direct takeover, the Pakistani constitution requires that the Senate chairman take over as president ensuring Mr Zardari’s continued influence. If Mr Zardari does not back down, Mr Sharif has no constitutional means of forcing his hand. A military takeover would neither bring back the ousted chief justice nor help Mr Sharif gain power.
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