Word: sharif
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Nothing tastes so sweet as a long-anticipated homecoming. Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif hasn't set foot in his native land since 1999, when he chose exile in Saudi Arabia over a life prison term on charges of hijacking then-army chief General Pervez Musharraf's plane. But thanks to a recent ruling by Pakistan's suddenly feisty Supreme Court that Sharif should be allowed to return, the two-time former leader is expected to land in Islamabad on Sept. 10. What happens next is anyone's guess...
...Sharif's return has emerged as a wild-card challenge to Musharraf's increasingly unstable political equilibrium. A proposal for Musharraf to share power with Benazir Bhutto, another exiled former Prime Minister, had been intended to restore confidence in the general's rule and ensure him another presidential term when he faces reelection by a parliamentary assembly next month. The proposed deal involved Musharraf allowing Bhutto to return home and run for Prime Minister early next year in exchange for the backing of her powerful Pakistani People's Party (PPP) for his presidential ambitions. In exchange, Bhutto would be allowed...
...Whatever the outcome of their negotiation, both Bhutto and Musharraf seem to have overestimated the dictator's popularity. More than a dozen parliamentarians from Musharraf's own party have defected to Sharif's faction, and Bhutto's PPP is also fracturing over the prospect of supporting Musharraf. Even with Bhutto's backing, it is no longer certain that Musharraf could muster the votes to retain the presidency. "He is in a shoestring situation," says Iftikhar Gilani, the former Law Minister under Bhutto. "He needs each vote, and he doesn't have a clear majority. Once he starts counting the votes...
Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, a former petroleum minister and close adviser to Nawaz Sharif, the Prime Minister Musharraf overthrew in 1999, tells TIME that discontent within the army is growing. Khan comes from a family of military men - his grandfather was in the army, his father was a brigadier general, his brother was a lieutenant general and he has cousins and nephews who are still serving - who tell him, he says, of "the deep simmering dissatisfaction over how the army is being used for political means." Soldiers have been told not to wear their uniforms on the street, and many...
...stop Musharraf from running again or hinder Bhutto's return from self-imposed exile, or both. There's also the fact that Bhutto's popularity has taken a hit since talk of a tie-up with Musharraf broke, while last week, the Supreme Court ruled that the exiled Nawaz Sharif could return to Pakistan to oppose Musharraf's bid for another term...