VOA标准英语2008年-Bid to Impeach Pakistan's Musharraf May Be Uphi

Pakistan's civilian¹ government says it wants to impeach² President Pervez Musharraf. Why the government feels the need to move now is not clear. As VOA Correspondent Gary Thomas reports, the former military ruler was already sidelined politically following elections earlier this year.
　
Pervez Musharraf

There is little question that a majority of Pakistanis want to see President Musharraf gone. His party was soundly trounced by an opposition³ coalition⁴ in the February parliamentary elections. A just-released poll of Pakistani voters by the U.S.-based International Republican Institute shows 83 percent of the respondents said they would like the new government to remove him.

But the bid to impeach the president raises two seemingly contradictory⁵ questions. What took the coalition government so long to make what would appear to be a popular political decision? On the flip⁶ side, why move against a president who is, for all intents and purposes, is effectively devoid⁷ of power?

The coalition has been divided by arguments about not only what to do about President Musharraf, but what to do about the judges he fired last year, precipitating⁸ a political crisis.
　
Nawaz Sharif (File)

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whose party is the junior partner in the governing coalition, has consistently and repeatedly called for President Musharraf to step down or be removed, and for the judges to be restored.

But Christine Fair of the RAND Corporation says the Pakistan Peoples' Party, the senior partner, has been more willing to cut deals with the president, particularly because such bargaining won an effective legal immunity⁹ for party leader Asif Zardari, the husband of the late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated¹⁰ during the election campaign. Zadari has been accused of corruption¹¹. He has repeatedly denied any misconduct.

"The very things that got it [the PPP] and also Nawaz Sharif so many votes are the very things that it is disincentivized from moving on," Fair said. "It does not want to restore the judges. It really does not want to impeach Musharraf because it made deals with Musharraf. And the National Reconciliation¹² Order, of course, is the basis that absolves¹³ Zardari from so much from the alleged¹⁴, and probably likely, wrongdoing."

Teresita Schaffer, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for South Asia, says it is very likely that Sharif's patience wore out, and he threatened to pull out of the ruling coalition, unless his demand for impeachment¹⁵ was met. But, she adds, another power-sharing deal might have been worked out.

"If there were a deal in which Zardari got to be president and Nawaz got to be prime minister again, how would that work? You know, on one level, it sounds like the basis for a concordat," she said. "At another level, it sounds like a nightmare."

President Musharraf could preemptively resign. As president, he also retains the power to dismiss the parliament. But most analysts¹⁶ believe that would be a huge misstep that would only accelerate his impeachment.

The wild card remains¹⁷ the military. Then-General Musharraf took power from Nawaz Sharif in a coup¹⁸ in 1999, and, until late last year, he was both president and head of the army.

The RAND Corporation's Christine Fair says the army is not too fond of him for his more controversial actions, but it also wants to avoid any messy proceedings¹⁹ that could smear²⁰ the army's reputation.

"The army is in kind of a pickle²¹. It does not want to defend Musharraf," she said. "But it also does not want its institutional equity²² to be drug [dragged] through the mud, when it is already down and out. So, I seriously doubt that they are [the government] going to get the numbers for an impeachment, and I think that that is probably going to be communicated to them [the government] one way or the other. And I think the army is going to be pretty active in subverting²³ an impeachment."

With the re-emergence of civilian government, the military has pointedly²⁴ said it wants to get out of politics. Teresita Schaffer, now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says an impeachment could force the army and the onetime general back into each other's arms.

"I have felt for some time that the army did not want to stick its neck out any more on Musharraf's behalf," she said. "And, of course, Musharraf does not control the instruments of government. He cannot snap his fingers and have 2,000 people arrested like he used to be able to. At what point, and with what combination of provocations²⁵, have things reached a point where the military leadership will say, 'You know what, this is not working, we are going to have to go back to our old way of doing things."

A successful impeachment requires a two-thirds vote of both the lower house National Assembly and the upper chamber²⁶, the Senate.

 

1 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

2 impeach   

v.弹劾；检举

参考例句：

• We must impeach the judge for taking bribes.我们一定要检举法官收受贿赂。
• The committee decided to impeach the President.委员会决定弹劾总统。

3 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

4 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

5 contradictory   

adj.反驳的，反对的，抗辩的；n.正反对，矛盾对立

参考例句：

• The argument is internally contradictory.论据本身自相矛盾。
• What he said was self-contradictory.他讲话前后不符。

6 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。

7 devoid   

adj.全无的，缺乏的

参考例句：

• He is completely devoid of humour.他十分缺乏幽默。
• The house is totally devoid of furniture.这所房子里什么家具都没有。

8 precipitating   

adj.急落的，猛冲的v.（突如其来地）使发生( precipitate的现在分词 )；促成；猛然摔下；使沉淀

参考例句：

• Precipitating electrode plate is a key part in electrostatic precipitation equipment. 静电收尘板是静电收尘设备中的关键部件。 来自互联网
• The precipitation bond adopts a sloped tube to enhance the precipitating efficiency. 沉淀池采用斜管，提高了沉降效率。 来自互联网

9 immunity   

n.优惠；免除；豁免，豁免权

参考例句：

• The law gives public schools immunity from taxation.法律免除公立学校的纳税义务。
• He claims diplomatic immunity to avoid being arrested.他要求外交豁免以便避免被捕。

10 assassinated   

v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏

参考例句：

• The prime minister was assassinated by extremists. 首相遭极端分子暗杀。
• Then, just two days later, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. 跟着在两天以后，肯尼迪总统在达拉斯被人暗杀。 来自辞典例句

11 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

12 reconciliation   

n.和解，和谐，一致

参考例句：

• He was taken up with the reconciliation of husband and wife.他忙于做夫妻间的调解工作。
• Their handshake appeared to be a gesture of reconciliation.他们的握手似乎是和解的表示。

13 absolves   

宣告…无罪，赦免…的罪行，宽恕…的罪行( absolve的第三人称单数 )； 不受责难，免除责任 [义务] ,开脱（罪责）

参考例句：

• Not making a decision absolves procrastinators of responsibility for the outcome of events. 不做决定让他们不会为事情的最终结果承担责任。
• Moist soil absolves absorbs more heat than loose, dry soil covered with much mulch or vegetation. 湿润的土壤，相比有覆盖物或有植物的稀疏、干燥土壤能够吸收更多的热量。

14 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

15 impeachment   

n.弹劾；控告；怀疑

参考例句：

• Impeachment is considered a drastic measure in the United States.在美国，弹劾被视为一种非常激烈的措施。
• The verdict resulting from his impeachment destroyed his political career.他遭弹劾后得到的判决毁了他的政治生涯。

16 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

17 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

18 coup   

n.政变；突然而成功的行动

参考例句：

• The monarch was ousted by a military coup.那君主被军事政变者废黜了。
• That government was overthrown in a military coup three years ago.那个政府在3年前的军事政变中被推翻。

19 proceedings   

n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
• to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼

20 smear   

v.涂抹；诽谤，玷污；n.污点；诽谤，污蔑

参考例句：

• He has been spreading false stories in an attempt to smear us.他一直在散布谎言企图诽谤我们。
• There's a smear on your shirt.你衬衫上有个污点。

21 pickle   

n.腌汁，泡菜；v.腌，泡

参考例句：

• Mother used to pickle onions.妈妈过去常腌制洋葱。
• Meat can be preserved in pickle.肉可以保存在卤水里。

22 equity   

n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票

参考例句：

• They shared the work of the house with equity.他们公平地分担家务。
• To capture his equity,Murphy must either sell or refinance.要获得资产净值，墨菲必须出售或者重新融资。

23 subverting   

v.颠覆，破坏（政治制度、宗教信仰等）( subvert的现在分词 )；使（某人）道德败坏或不忠

参考例句：

• This viewpoint sees the Multinational Corporation as capable of circumventing or subverting national objectives and policies. 这种观点认为，跨国公司能够遏制和破坏国家的目标和政策。 来自辞典例句
• By simply subverting an expectation, a novelist can undermine a prejudice. 藉由完全推翻期待，一个小说家可以逐渐破坏一种歧视。 来自互联网

24 pointedly   

adv.尖地，明显地

参考例句：

• She yawned and looked pointedly at her watch. 她打了个哈欠，又刻意地看了看手表。
• The demand for an apology was pointedly refused. 让对方道歉的要求遭到了断然拒绝。 来自《简明英汉词典》

25 provocations   

n.挑衅( provocation的名词复数 )；激怒；刺激；愤怒的原因

参考例句：

• We cannot ignore such provocations. 对于这种挑衅，我们不能置之不理。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• They must immediately cease all their provocations. 他们必须停止一切挑衅。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

26 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。