Issue date: 8/29/08 Section: Opinion

Media Credit: Tiffany Tran [Click to enlarge]

He later conducted a referendum of dubious validity and used the result to declare himself president. The move forced him to play fast and loose with the constitution and pitted him against the judiciary who backed down in that first instance.

Sept. 11 marked a turning point in his career. With the U.S. breathing down Pakistan's neck because of its involvement with the Taliban and possibly Al-Qaeda, President Musharraf found himself between the devil and the deep blue sea. On one hand was his country's relationship with the Taliban, an entity they had helped create and with whom a significant portion of the people sympathized and on the other, a posturing and threatening superpower.

President Musharraf chose to join the War on Terror claiming later that it saved "Pakistan from being declared a terrorist state." This was a view that resonated with the progressive minority in the country but created widespread resentment in the nation's otherwise loyally Islamic majority.

The end of his career was marked by increased agitation by the Islamic Right. Al-Qaeda put him on their hit-list and he survived half a dozen attempts on his life, all of them suicide attacks. Under increased pressure from the U.S. and growing concerns of Talibanisation in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province, President Musharraf ordered the Army to start military operations against insurgents (Al-Qaeda operatives moving in from neighboring Afghanistan) and indigenous fundamentalist elements that had declared war against the government in the hopes of implementing their stricter version of Islam on the region. The neo-Taliban movement retaliated by conducting unheard of suicide attacks in cities across Pakistan.

On the political front the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Iftikhaar Chaudhry began to flex his judicial muscles and started to openly question President Musharraf's policies. In a truly dictatorial move, President Musharraf removed the Chief Justice from office. This led to unprecedented agitation among the lawyers accompanied by elements of the citizenry. In a landmark decision the full bench of the Supreme Court overturned the President's decision and reinstated the Chief Justice.

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