In the Line of Fire ; a Series of Political Missteps Sees President Pervez Musharraf's Carefully Cultivated Image of a Well-Meaning Reformer Take a Severe Battering and Raises Questions About His Continuance in Power. But the General Feeling Is That His Survival Instincts Would See Him Through.

Summary

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Trained as an army commando, General Pervez Musharraf prides himself on being a man of crisis. Sure enough, his tenure at the helm of affairs in Pakistan since 1999 has witnessed its fair share of crises. Foremost among them being the trial and controversial exile of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, whom Musharraf deposed; the US-led attack on Afghanistan and its political repercussions on Pakistan; the military stand-off with India after the attack on the Indian Parliament; the nuclear proliferation scandal involving the country's revered scientist A.Q. Khan; collapse of the Agra talks; the infamous US 'war on terror' waged from Pakistan's soil; Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl's murder; and the audacious attempts on the General's own life. True to his reputation of being a wily-and lucky-survivor, Musharraf has emerged from the storms unscathed.

Nevertheless, it is highly unlikely the General may have relished the astounding surfeit of policy disasters buffeting him and his Government for the last 12 months. The latest imbroglio with the judiciary, that saw the legal fraternity and Opposition members taking to the streets to protest his attempts to sack Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, is the most recent in a series of catastrophes that Musharraf has had to contend with. His carefully cultivated image of a well-meaning reformer has certainly taken a battering. It is still a moot point whether his public relations managers will be able to resurrect his image in the eyes of the nation and the international community before September, when his re-election as president comes under the scanner.

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In the Line of Fire ; a Series of Political Missteps Sees President Pervez Musharraf's Carefully Cultivated Image of a Well-Meaning Reformer Take a Severe Battering and Raises Questions About His Continuance in Power. But the General Feeling Is That His Survival Instincts Would See Him Through.

The fracas in Balochistan had signalled the downslide. Pakistan's largest province, in terms of land area, has always been restive, with tribal sardars often dictating terms to the Federal Government. Critics flay the high levels of poverty and illiteracy in the sparsely populated province as well as what they term the unfair exploitation of its vast natural and mineral resources. Over the years, successive federal governments have kept a tenuous hold on the province by bribing and cajoling the sardars who are regularly accused of misusing federal grants for their own personal ends and of running brutal private fiefdoms.

Under Musharra...

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