The establishment and the presidential camp in Pakistan are said to be pondering over a strategy aimed  at repairing the damage sustained by the government following the Lal Masjid operation and the Supreme Court’s decision reinstating Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry as the Chief Justice, a daily reported here on Thursday.

The Dawn newspaper quoted sources as saying one of the proposals being considered involves the replacement of Shaukat Aziz with Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain as Prime Minister.

Mr Hussain later on could be given the task of garnering public support for an extension of the tenure of the present assemblies by one year. A cabinet reshuffle could take place after the change at the top.

Some hectic high-profile and unusually detailed meetings in the last 72 hours among President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Pakistan Muslim League president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, National Assembly speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain, PML secretary-general Mushahid Hussain Sayed and top power brokers of the presidential camp  give credence to the talk of proposed changes.

Process of change
According to sources, the process of change may be initiated soon after a consensus is reached between the major players.

Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who rushed back by the first available flight from London, cutting short his routine medical check-up after an urgent call from the president on Sunday, had an exhaustive meeting with Gen Musharraf in the company of Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, when the three of them discussed a number of suggestions vis-à-vis damage control. The change at the top was the main topic of this lengthy meeting, the sources claimed.

When asked about these reports, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain,  who has since discussed the new strategy with the people concerned, neither confirmed nor rejected the possibility of a “big change at the top’’.