Word: musharraf
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...Musharraf Farooqi, the 39-year-old translator, is an unlikely savior. Growing up in Pakistan, he read of Amir Hamza's exploits in abridged Urdu versions adapted for children - virtually the sole form in which the epic survived into the 20th century. Farooqi, who admits to not being the most diligent student, would drift into daydreams inspired by the stories in class, imagining, he says, that he was a demon "running around with a tree trunk and clobbering humans with it." In university, he frequently shirked his prescribed engineering curriculum for a pile of dog-eared folk tales scrounged from...
What on earth did she see in him? For the duration of her short-lived marriage of convenience to President Pervez Musharraf, Benazir Bhutto's friends and political rivals wondered how she, a populist democrat, could live with him, a military dictator. The mystery deepened when Musharraf declared a state of emergency and began a massive crackdown on democratic institutions--and Bhutto responded with only mild criticism, refusing to rule out a power-sharing arrangement with him. Some said her motivation was pure self-interest: she was that desperate to return to power. Others bought Bhutto's explanation that...
When she ended their dysfunctional dalliance on Nov. 13--Bhutto announced she would not work under Musharraf and demanded his immediate resignation--her political rivals were just as relieved as her friends. It meant that the deeply unpopular dictator would be denied his last political lifeline. "It's impossible to work with him," Bhutto told journalists by telephone. Just as important, the opposition to his increasingly autocratic rule, led primarily by lawyers and human-rights activists, would be massively strengthened by the backing of a political leader with national, grass-roots support. "Bhutto has finally come to our side," says...
This is not reassuring news for the Bush Administration, which continues to regard Musharraf as a vital ally in the war on terrorism. But if Washington is constrained by its ties to the dictator, Bhutto is now liberated. And she has the opportunity many politicians crave: a chance to redefine herself. Having inherited her political mantle from her father Zulfikar--sent to the gallows by a previous military ruler--she has often been labeled a child of privilege, haughty and aloof from ordinary Pakistanis. Her two stints as Prime Minister were plagued with ineptitude and accusations--which she denied...
...that's just the start. With Benazir Bhutto now under house arrest, it's unclear where her supporters in the army stand. And if Musharraf really were to hold a free election in February, who would win? The last time there was a free election in the Middle East, Hamas won in Gaza...