Good news from Pakistan

Iftikhar Chaudhry, the former Chief Justice of Pakistan's Supreme Court, is being restored to the role Gen. Musharraf fired him from.  Juan Cole provides an overview (Hat tip: Tariq over at the PoMED)

The immediate crisis in Pakistan was averted Monday morning when Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani announced that he was going to reinstate Iftikhar Chaudhry as chief justice of the supreme court. Chaudhry had been dismissed by dictator Gen. Pervez Musharraf in 2007 in a particularly lawless way.

Pakistan Muslim League (N) leader Nawaz Sharif had defied the attempt of the government of President Asaf Ali Zardari to confine him to house arrest and was leading a procession to the capital from Lahore when he heard the news, at Gujranwala. He then called off the “Long March”, which aimed at rallying for the reinstatement.

Sharif was himself an extremely high-handed and dictatorial prime minister who violated press freedom and tried to move the country toward more Islamic law, and he wasn’t exactly a friend to poor people, so I personally don’t trust his pledge to help Pakistan achieve real democracy.”

I'm more upbeat than Cole.  I don't think there's any particular reason to trust Sharif, but I put far more faith in the lawyers' movement that's been pushing on this issue for some time.    Tariq at POMED adds

I will add, though, one thing: popular cricketer and politician Imran Khan thinks the man to watch now is Gilani.

I don't know much about the current PM, so no comment on that front.  In any events, it sounds like the U.S. played a largely constructive role in this crisis, so good on us.  Cole thinks that the police's unwillingness to crackdown may have been more decisive, that makes sense to me, but all I ask is that we act as a positive influence not that we drive all results.