THE LFO charade must end. It’s taking a toll of the credibility of both the government and the MMA. It’s stalling any worthwhile progress towards a real restoration of democracy and making a mockery of the existing pseudo-democratic system. It’s also telling on the nerves of all those following the 10-month controversy over the issue.

The military must state clearly whether or not it wants to give up trying to run the country and go back to the barracks, taking with it all the baggage it has dumped on civilian institutions and departments. The MMA must decide whether the package now given to it is acceptable; it cannot afford to hedge any longer and try to drag on the process of negotiation indefinitely.

The military may have been offered the best deal possible by the MMA — a year’s time for the president to give up his COAS job. The MMA too may be looking at a gift horse in the mouth: its point of view has been accepted on several counts, and it should consider verbal guarantees on the uniform question sufficient to move forward. Even if a written commitment is available on behalf of the president in this regard, there is no saying whether that promise would be kept when the time comes. What difference in practical terms does it make anyway if we have a president in uniform or a president in civilian clothes unless the military withdraws totally from interfering with the political process?

If the government is ready to bring the LFO before parliament and for the president to go through a fresh electoral process, that should be seen as no small victory for the opposition. The MMA is clearly ready for a compromise. The quiet backing it enjoyed from Establishment quarters before the election and its readiness to do a deal now has earned it the sobriquet, among the more cynical, of being the regime’s B team. It should be upfront about saying that this is the best bargain available, and it has decided to accept it while reserving its right to raise the remaining points of contention again and again in parliament, without disrupting the work of the two houses. Or it should adopt the ARD position, which totally rejects the idea of the president continuing simultaneously to be the army chief. If it stands alongside the ARD, the MMA would put the whole thing back in the government’s court, which will then have to decide whether it wants the present chaotic situation to continue, with the opposition stalling the functioning of parliament, or is genuinely interested in ensuring a civilized return of power into the hands of those to whom it rightfully belongs —— the people and their elected representatives. This daily business of opening and closing doors on negotiations is getting tiresome —— as is the sbsurdly satements by the information minister suggesting that everything is hunky-dory.

The military should be particularly concerned about the undercurrents in the Punjab heartland. The political elite of that province, which was ready to back the army for reasons of the elite’s own perception of its role as custodian of the country’s ideology, is disenchanted. The overthrow of Mr Nawaz Sharif perhaps was the turning point in the elite’s alienation from the army. The fact that Mr Sharif himself, although a creation of the army, is not ready to strike a compromise with the military is an indication of how the situation has changed. The military’s insistence on sticking to power is precipitating tensions that are affecting every sphere of national life and making it difficult even for the loyal opposition to be seen as siding with it.