Good piece in The Hill from Eileen M. O’Connor of the American Committee for Democracy and Justice in Pakistan. She points out that the Zardari administration, for all its own issues, is threatened by both the military and the Pakistani Supreme Court:

the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the NRO also upheld a controversial article of Pakistan’s constitution, much to the dismay of some of the brave lawyers who took to the streets to defend the court’s judicial independence and integrity last year. Article 62 was conceived in 1985 by General Zia-ul-Haq and declares that members of parliament (which includes the currently elected president, Asif Ali Zardari, and all ministers of the Cabinet) are disqualified from serving if they are not of “good character,” if they violate “Islamic injunctions,” do not practice “teachings and practices, obligatory duties prescribed by Islam,” and if they are not “sagacious, righteous and non-profligate.” Non-Muslims must have “a good moral reputation.”

Relying in any way on such entirely subjective and political standards, such as “Islamic injunctions” and “good moral reputation,” increases polarization in the country and brings into question the political independence of the Pakistani Supreme Court, which those lawyers bravely defended on the streets as critical to the rule of law.