After the formation of the PPP-led coalition headed by Syed
Yousuf Gilani, conflicts developed. The PML(N) led by Nawaz Sharief
pulled out of the government when their demand for the reinstatement of the dismissed Chief Justice and judges were not met.

Subsequently, the PPP and the PML(N) agreed to move for the impeachment of President Musharraf. When the impeachment process was in motion, Mushraffquit as president. For the election of the new president, Asif Ali Zardari was nominated by the PPP and his allies. He won the election defeating the PML (N) candidate.

Zardari had become notorious during the Prime Ministership of Benazir Bhutto, taking bribes and he had been imprisoned and faced a host of corruption charges. In order to signal to the United
States that he would cooperate fully in the US sponsored “war against terror”, the only foreign head invited for the inaugural ceremony was the Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The economic situation has been steadily deteriorating. By the beginning of October, there were enough foreign exchange reserves to only finance imports for a month. Price rise and unemployment has badly affected the people.

In the meantime, the insurgency by the pro-Taliban elements has grown in the North West Frontier Provinces and the Fata. The United States sent its Joint Chiefs of Staff to Islamabad to warn the Pakistan government that it should take strong military action in the border areas.

Later the Joint Chiefs of Staff again met the Pakistan Army chief on board a US aircraft carrier in the Indian ocean to demand coordinated action on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region. This meeting was widely criticized in Pakistan.

In July, President Bush had signed a secret directive authorizing ground assaults in Pakistan across the Afghan border. Following this, an attack by special forces was launched on September 3 against suspected Taliban militants within Pakistan.

The Pakistan army Chief Kayani issued a strong statement against such incursions and declared that the army will protect Pakistan’s sovereignty at all costs. The civilian government had to back Kayani’s stand given the widespread popular opposition to American intervention. In Pakistan there is a wide gap between the people who are totally opposed to America’s intervention in Pakistan and Afghanistan and the ruling establishment which has long been a subordinate ally of the United States.