Word: musharraf
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...Many analysts believe that a discreet intervention by the new army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, may have helped Musharraf make up his mind. Over recent months the army has been keen to rebuild its much-damaged domestic image and distance itself from politics. Any active effort on its part to save Musharraf would have only aroused popular disquiet at a time when the army is struggling to tame militancy in the country's wild North-West Frontier Province...
...pockets of the Pakistani capital yesterday, political activists took to the streets, exultantly raising chants against Musharraf. The scenes were reproduced in other major cities, chiefly Lahore, where political power lies with Musharraf's most devoted political enemy, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif - the man Musharraf overthrew in 1999, who now leads the second-largest party in the coalition government. Keen observers of Pakistan's turbulent years could not help but notice the irony. When Sharif's government fell, delighted Pakistanis poured onto the streets to cheer the army's intervention. Now the tables have turned. The civilian coalition government...
...shift was hardly sudden. For years, Musharraf's one-man rule remained largely unchallenged, but his fortunes declined last year when Pakistan's main cities erupted in protest at his decision to sack the country's independent-minded chief justice. "Go, Musharraf, go" became a constant refrain as his popularity sank and his once isolated political opponents grew emboldened. He imposed a state of emergency last November, suspending the constitution and sacking the judiciary. Public hostility toward his regime deepened as lawyers were beaten in the streets, political activists detained and the press muzzled...
...With his authority draining, Musharraf was forced to make a series of ruinous concessions. Washington urged him to broaden his political base and enter a power-sharing agreement with the late Benazir Bhutto. Musharraf allowed Bhutto to come back to Pakistan, and Sharif returned weeks later. In the face of domestic and international pressure, Musharraf had to shed his uniform - the source of much of his authority. Matters grew worse when Bhutto was assassinated in Rawalpindi in late December. And a relatively free and fair general election in February stripped Musharraf of a loyal government as his allies suffered...
...enfeebled President who stepped down today was a different man from the barrel-chested general who strutted across the world stage in the years after 9/11. Initially shunned by the international community, General Musharraf was embraced by the Bush Administration as a key ally in the war on terror. Religious conservatives and even secular liberals routinely criticized him for fighting "America's war." In 2003, he cheated death twice when militants attempted to blow...