The clock is ticking
Weekend bloodshed in Karachi, nationwide political turmoil, and border clashes between Pakistani and Afghan troops have heightened the sense that a potentially unstoppable, many-fronted crisis is about to engulf Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf.
After almost eight years of smartly pressed, barely legitimate uniformed rule from his colonial era residence in Rawalpindi, Gen Musharraf is fast shedding friends at home and abroad. This is not wholly surprising. In Pakistan, it is often said, military strongmen rarely depart the scene happily or even alive.
"The battle lines are now drawn. There is Musharraf and the ruling political party and the MQM (the Karachi-based Mohajir movement) on one side and the rest of Pakistan on the other," said Najam Sethi, editor of the Daily Times.… Seguir leyendo »