ISAS Briefs

The brief euphoria that followed the 18 February 2008 polls in Pakistan seems to have died down and the harsh realities of an immature polity are beginning to surface. Despite the decision of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) to form the government, as well as President Pervez Musharraf's promise to work with the new government, the prophecies of an Islamist takeover and/or Pakistan's disintegration have become a recurrent theme.