NEW YORK, Sept 14: Lamenting that there is a dearth of fresh leadership in Pakistan, an American newspaper however, said “as long as (Gen Pervez) Musharraf clings to control of the military and the government, Pakistanis are likely to grow more frustrated” with choices available to them.

In an editorial “Poor Pakistan,” the Chicago Tribune said on Friday that the return of Ms Bhutto would hardly promise the dawn of a new era in Pakistan.”

The newspaper observed cryptically: “In Pakistan the only thing worse than a civilian government is a military government and vice versa.”

It said that “the strange tango between President Pervez Musharraf and former Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif makes you wish for a third kind of government there.”

“By one measure, all that plotting might be considered progress. At least the plotters are all still alive. In 1977 the Pakistani military overthrew the elected prime minister and later put him on trial and hanged him,” it said.

But Musharraf, Bhutto and Sharif are political survivors, and it is likely that at least one of the three will be in charge following elections that are expected to be held by mid-October, the Tribune observed.

Saying that “the return of Sharif and Bhutto would, by rounding out the electoral field, at least help firm up the bona fides of the coming elections,” the Tribune said “but it is worth remembering that in Pakistan, which has only twice in its 60-year history enjoyed a peaceful and democratic political succession, good and bad aren’t always so easy to parse.”