Word: sharif
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...Minister Benazir Bhutto seems preposterous. After all, they hate each other with an undisguised passion. She has a phobia about military dictators--her politician father was executed by one--and has described General Musharraf as an incompetent ruler who indulges in "puerile brinkmanship." In his view, she and Nawaz Sharif, another former Prime Minister, epitomize the weak, deeply corrupt democracy he overthrew in a bloodless 1999 coup. Just the mention of their names can spoil his mood; Musharraf once told a television interviewer that he would like to "kick them...
...decision by Pakistan's Supreme Court to allow former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to return home from exile makes life a lot harder for embattled President Pervez Musharraf - and for his U.S. backers. The Court found that Nawaz and his brother, Shahbaz Sharif, had been unconstitutionally forced to leave Pakistan in 2000, a year after Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup. It ruled that the brothers "have an inalienable right to come back and stay in the country." In London, Nawaz vowed to return home as soon as he could...
...role as head of the military - something he is showing no sign of doing. (Musharraf won a one-term waiver of this law five years ago, but that expires in November). The President has also been speaking with another exiled former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto - a fierce rival of Sharif - about sharing power after the election. Such a deal would win him more parliamentary support, but Bhutto faces outstanding corruption charges in Pakistan that the Supreme Court, rather than Musharraf, would have to drop to allow her to return...
...there's also the prospect of a resurgent Sharif, the Prime Minister Musharraf ousted in a coup and swore he would never allow to return to Pakistan. Nawaz's tenure ended with the economy on the brink of collapse and amidst allegations of corruption and mismanagement. Although support for the former Prime Minister remained lackluster a few months ago, since news broke late last month of a possible Bhutto-Musharraf union, support for Bhutto and her party has dropped, while Sharif's has risen. "Benazir was leading the polls until she met Musharraf," says Ahsan Iqbal, Secretary of Information...
...development could spell trouble for Washington, which has strongly backed Musharraf since 9/11, and has lately supported the idea of an alliance between him and Benazir Bhutto as widening the base of a moderate center. Sharif's return would give Pakistanis angry with Musharraf an easy way to register a protest against him and his foreign backers. "They [the U.S.] can't gain anything by salvaging a dictator; there is no credible political party that supports Musharraf," says the PML-N's Iqbal. Or as Iftikhar Gilani, Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court and former Law Minister under Bhutto puts...