World | Pakistan
Downfall can be traced to the day he tried to force out chief justice
Faced with the humiliation of impeachment, former army chief Pervez Musharraf quit as president on Monday, having lost political, popular and increasingly even US support.
- Reuters
- Published: 23:21 August 18, 2008
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Islamabad: Faced with the humiliation of impeachment, former army chief Pervez Musharraf quit as president on Monday, having lost political, popular and increasingly even US support.
Born in New Delhi on August 11, 1943, Musharraf arrived with his parents in Karachi, the country's first capital, a day after the Partition of India in 1947.
A career army officer, he came to power in a 1999 coup, went on to be a close US ally in the war against terror, and narrowly survived Al Qaida-inspired assassination attempts.
His enemies said he betrayed Islam by caving in to US pressure to abandon support for the Taliban government hosting the Al Qaida in Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Musharraf believed he saved Pakistan.
Lingering suspicions
The US government sank more than $11 billion (Dh40.4 billion) into Pakistan, mostly its military, and expected Musharraf to produce results.
His government captured hundreds of Al Qaida fighters, and lost over 1,000 soldiers as it took the offensive to the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. Yet suspicions lingered that the intelligence agencies were playing a double-game, allowing the Taliban safe refuge.
The alliance with the United States was always a hard sell and contributed to Musharraf's unpopularity.
Regarded as a military dictator, he was treated initially as a pariah by the West, but at home was seen as a different kind of general when he first seized power.
Musharraf's favourite film was Gladiator, the tale of an honourable general who saves Rome from a wicked emperor.
Critics say Musharraf suffered from a "saviour complex", believing he was indispensable for the country but in late 2007, people welcomed back from exile Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, the leaders they had become disillusioned with only a decade earlier.
Musharraf had promised to return Pakistan to democracy, but critics say he stifled political freedom. A 2002 general election was widely seen as rigged. The pliant parliament that emerged elected Musharraf president. He turned to it again to re-elect him before its term ended in late 2007.
As challenges mounted, Musharraf reverted to autocratic ways. His downfall will be traced back to March 9, 2007, when he tried to force then Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry to resign.
Chaudhry's defiance mobilised a lawyers' movement to defend the judiciary and galvanised the opposition.
Out of desperation, Musharraf last November imposed emergency rule for six weeks to purge the judiciary before the Supreme Court could rule on the legality of his re-election.
Having secured a second term, Musharraf quit the army to meet a constitutional requirement, and set an election date.
Bhutto was killed on December 27 while campaigning, sparking a forest fire of conspiracy theories, most damaging to Musharraf.
Led by Bhutto's widower Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistan Peoples Party won the vote in February and forged an alliance with Sharif that completed Musharraf's isolation.
Musharraf had always held up the economy as one of his successes but soaring international food and energy prices along with mismanagement undid much of the good.
Musharraf's more lasting legacy may be a peace process with India launched in 2004.
Critics say Musharraf suffered from a "saviour complex", believing he was indispensable for the country but in late 2007, people welcomed back from exile Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, the leaders they had become disillusioned with only a decade earlier.
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