Tellingly, in February 2008, President Abdullah Gul approved a landmark constitutional reform allowing female students to wear the hijab at university despite strong objections by the country's secular elite. The hijab ban in universities dates back to the 1980s but was tightened in 1997 when army generals, with public support, ousted a government they deemed too religious. The army has remained largely quiet during the latest hijab debates.

Ironically, the massive election victory of Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party and other political parties in the February 2008 elections is hailed as a victory of moderate forces and defeat of the religious parties. After 29 years of Bhutto’s execution, Yusaf Raza Gillani of his Pakistan Peoples Party has become the Prime Minister with a unanimous vote of confidence by the National Assembly which is not yet a fully sovereign body since it can be dissolved by President (Retired General) Parvez Musharraf at his whims as it happened in 1990, 1993 and 1996.

The new government has very limited space to function since the country remains under a military spell. Unlike the charismatic Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the new Prime Minister will have no spine to challenge the military which now a permanent institutionalized role in the government policy making process through the National Defense Council that includes four army generals.

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