By Pepe Escobar (Asia Times)
"[Musharraf] truly is somebody who believes in democracy."
- President George W Bush
Future historians will review the Pakistan of November 2007 as a classic of soap opera geopolitics. The main plot screams "revenge". Rattled by a know-all exiled elitist (Benazir Bhutto) imposed on him by a scheming Washington, the hapless "Mush" - as President [soon to be ex-]General Pervez Musharraf is informally referred to by middle-class Pakistanis - decided not only to sing his own version of My Way but to follow his own timing.
In a little over three weeks, Musharraf proclaimed his own "surge" (aka emergency rule); sacked the Supreme Court; rounded up the usual suspects (journalists, lawyers, students, human-rights activists); kept at least 2,000 of them in custody (according to the Interior Ministry); got a puppet court to legitimize his way towards "re-election"; amended the constitution through executive order; hung up his uniform; and will become the next (civilian) president of Pakistan, with General Ashfaq Kiani replacing him as head of the army. Full Story
"[Musharraf] truly is somebody who believes in democracy."
- President George W Bush
Future historians will review the Pakistan of November 2007 as a classic of soap opera geopolitics. The main plot screams "revenge". Rattled by a know-all exiled elitist (Benazir Bhutto) imposed on him by a scheming Washington, the hapless "Mush" - as President [soon to be ex-]General Pervez Musharraf is informally referred to by middle-class Pakistanis - decided not only to sing his own version of My Way but to follow his own timing.
In a little over three weeks, Musharraf proclaimed his own "surge" (aka emergency rule); sacked the Supreme Court; rounded up the usual suspects (journalists, lawyers, students, human-rights activists); kept at least 2,000 of them in custody (according to the Interior Ministry); got a puppet court to legitimize his way towards "re-election"; amended the constitution through executive order; hung up his uniform; and will become the next (civilian) president of Pakistan, with General Ashfaq Kiani replacing him as head of the army. Full Story
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