Word: musharraf
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...President Franklin D. Roosevelt said about then Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza. "But he's our SOB." That lesser-evil outlook might just as easily have described the U.S. attitude toward Pakistan's General-turned-President Pervez Musharraf, who resigned on Aug. 18 in the face of looming impeachment. Nor was it only the West that saw Musharraf as preferable to the chaos and venality of the political system he overturned to seize power in 1999. He carried the support of the urban middle class, which was desperately looking for the stability and modernity that had eluded a political system dominated...
...resignation speech today, Musharraf took a tone of unquestioning self-confidence familiar to readers of his highly self-regarding autobiography, In the Line of Fire. "Where was Pakistan in 1999?" he intoned. "No one knew us, no one spoke to us, and no one listened to us. Now, we have put Pakistan on the map and people take notice." Looking intently toward the camera, he declared, "This country faced unprecedented challenges. And I turned every challenge into an opportunity ... I'm leaving satisfied with my actions...
...focus is turning toward Pakistan's delicately stitched-together coalition government, for which Musharraf has proved a source of common enmity and cohesion. The two parties led by Sharif and Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, could start wrangling over Musharraf's freshly evacuated seat. Zardari has deflected suggestions that he's interested, but suspicions linger that he may wish to become the next head of state - if only as a ceremonial figure. The coalition has vowed to claw back the wide-ranging powers with which Musharraf endowed the presidency...
...Still, Musharraf's exit is likely to provide the coalition a significant if brief popularity bump. The Karachi Stock Exchange rose 4%, and the rupee rose marginally against the dollar. But with inflation at 25%, alarming levels of capital flight, soaring costs of food and fuel, and rising unemployment, the economic outlook remains bleak. And as Pakistan-based Taliban become more confident, Islamist militancy is a growing concern...
...coalition partners accused Musharraf of "mismanaging the economy" and allowing terrorism to flourish. But if over the coming months the weak civilian partners fail to arrest the decline of the economy and the rise of militancy, they may face a galling nostalgia for the one-man rule of the Musharraf years...