There was an air of change when Pakistan's National Assembly held its inaugural session -- but also déjà vu, reports Graham Usher from Islamabad Two images dominated the first session of the new Pakistan parliament on 17 March. One was of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif -- in a silk suit and new crop of hair -- walking towards Islamabad's whitewashed National Assembly (NA). The last time he was there was 2 October 1999. Ten days later, he was ousted in a coup by the NA's current president, Pervez Musharraf. "Musharraf said I would never again walk through this door," said Sharif, on the threshold. "But look," he said, walking. The other was the short, stocky figure of Asif Ali Zardari, widower of Benazir Bhutto and now leader of her Pakistan People's Party (PPP), crossing the same threshold. The last time he was in the assembly was in 1996, as a minister in his wife's second government. He was to spend eight years in jail on several criminal charges, many placed by Sharif and his Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) governments. Everything changes in Pakistan except the players. Once mortal enemies, Zardari and Sharif are today coalition partners in a government opposed to the "dictator" Musharraf. This is one fruit of the elections of last month that brought the PPP and PML- N landslide victories. But does "the last day of dictatorship" -- in Zardari's phrase -- mean "the first step" of democracy? "The people's expectations are higher than ever before. If we cannot deliver on the democratic mandate they have given us, we ought to be ashamed," said Hina Rabbani, NA member. She should know. She was a minister in the outgoing, pro- Musharraf government. Now she is with the PPP. Like many in the last year in Pakistan she has changed sides. But is the change genuine? The new government is certainly facing challenges. Above all, there is an Islamic insurgency that is assuming Iraqi proportions. So far this year there have been 16 suicide attacks in Pakistan, leaving more than 500 people dead. Last week suicide and other bombs rocked Lahore and Islamabad. There was a difference in scale. In Lahore the bombers were targeting offices housing Pakistan's Special Investigation Authority, a security force whose remit is to hunt down banned jihadist outfits, especially those with links or inspiration drawn from Al-Qaeda. The Islamabad bomb was aimed at CIA operatives working on counter-insurgency with the Pakistani army. On 16 March the empire struck back. A US pilot-less drone rocketed a house in South Waziristan on the Afghan border. At least nine men were killed, including one Arab and two Turkomen. In such carnage it is difficult to disentangle Pakistan's war from America's. The Pakistan Taliban says the Lahore and Islamabad attacks are "reactions" to Pakistan and US military operations in the borderlands. It has also offered dialogue and a ceasefire if the new government abandons Musharraf's "pro-American policies". US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says she is "confident" the new Pakistan government will continue the same policies as the old. Who is right? "We will not be bound by Rice," says Khwaja Saad Rafiq, a PML-N MP. "We will make policies that are in the interest of Pakistan, not in the interest of Washington. And we know without dialogue there will be no progress". The second challenge the new government is facing is Musharraf, the "dictator" the new NA is obliged to "oust", says Rafiq. Both the PPP and PML-N say they will reduce his presidential prerogatives, which include the power to dissolve an elected parliament. They have also vowed to reinstate 63 judges Musharraf sacked last year during a period of emergency rule. The president says he will resist both moves. It looks like confrontation. It is, says Ahsan Iqbal, PML-N spokesman. "I am 200 per cent sure that in six months either Musharraf will be here or this NA will be here. But both won't be here. The one will devour the other." With a government and parliament ranged against him, Musharraf is on the defensive, preaching peace and harmony. He knows his survival rests on fracturing the coalition, if not between the two main parties, then within them. This is the third challenge. Following Bhutto's assassination in December, most assumed Pakistan's next prime minister would be the man she had anointed for the job: PPP Vice-President Amin Fahim. Last week Zardari told Fahim he was no longer in the running. There were two reasons for the snub, say sources. One was the fear that, as prime minister, Fahim could form an alternative power- base in a party that is still only tentatively united behind Zardari's leadership. The other was pressure from the PPP's "anti- Musharraf" wing that saw Fahim as too close to Pakistan's military establishment. He was Bhutto's point man with Musharraf during her eight-year exile and helped negotiate her return in October. Instead, PPP sources say Zardari has now decided to take the premiership himself, once he has completed the formality of winning a by-election. But Fahim is refusing to budge -- and the tension between the PPP's old and new leaders is palpable. When Zardari entered the chamber on 17 March most of the members rose as one and started to applaud, thumping their hands on their desks. Fahim also rose. But no one saw him clap. This is perhaps why enthusiasm for Pakistan's new order remains tempered by doubt. Yes there is a new unity among historically adversarial parties based on democracy, justice and independence. And yes, Musharraf is down -- though not yet out. But there is a sense that Pakistan's new assembly remains an old arena for old men fighting old wars. Pakistan's younger men are fighting other wars -- in Lahore, Islamabad and South Waziristan.
