WASHINGTON, March 16: Unable to crush street protests that spilled out of Lahore, the Pakistani government decided to restore the chief justice, observed The Washington Post in a front page report on Monday.

“Pakistan leader backs down reinstates top judge,” said a headline on the front page of The New York Times.

“The concession broadcast by Prime Minister Gilani … (followed) a crisis that was destabilising nuclear-armed Pakistan,” the paper noted.

“The breakdown of authority in Lahore was startling for Pakistan,” Maleeha Lodhi, a former Pakistani ambassador to the United States and Britain, told NYT. “This is uncharted territory, there’s great uncertainty, no one knows what is around the corner,” she said.

“Although it appeared to stave off a confrontation, the decision announced in a nationally televised speech by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani left the door open to more upheaval,” warned Los Angeles Times.

“A backlash against the Supreme Court ruling disqualifying the Sharifs coincided with plans by the nationwide lawyers’ movement to stage protests demanding the reinstatement of Mr Chaudhry. The effect of the merged movements proved irresistible,” the newspaper noted.

“Even by Pakistani standards, it was riveting political drama. But it remains to be seen whether the confrontation, despite its apparently peaceful denouement, would paralyse Mr Zardari’s government,” the report noted.

“The turn of events also positions Mr Sharif as the country’s undisputed kingmaker. The two-time former prime minister with close links to Islamist parties is considered much less Western-friendly than Mr Zardari.”

A Chicago Tribune report, which was also published by The Philadelphia Inquirer, noted that the Zardari-Sharif confrontation had raised the possibility of army intervention.

In a report headline, “Big win for Pakistan protesters,” Christian Science Monitor noted that “for the time being, there appears to be little appetite for upsetting the fragile political order by calling early elections. Still, the PPP appears to be keeping its unpopular leader, President Asif Ali Zardari, out of the limelight”.
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