Word: musharraf
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...Musharraf is under no illusions about the size of the task before him. Asked if his is the toughest job in the world, he replies with quiet bluntness: "I think at the moment, yes." Under U.S. pressure, Musharraf has pledged to keep his promise to end one-man rule through national legislative elections in October. He has already appointed himself President, and according to Pakistan's constitution, the President must give up control of the military, which would mean ceding the army's might--and his power base--to another general. But Musharraf has given no indication that...
...brawn-over-brains pattern continued throughout his career. At the military academy, someone else won best in class, but Musharraf carried the flag at graduation, an honor awarded to the cadet who best combined academics with physical training. Anointed a three-star general and head of the Mangla army base, located at the most sensitive stretch of the Line of Control dividing Kashmir, he was famous for speeding through work by 2 p.m. so he could spend the rest of the day sailing and playing Ping-Pong, tennis or squash with the men. "There wasn't a game he couldn...
That loyalty, however, is being tested. By going moderate, Musharraf has alienated many of his former supporters and fomented the bitter sense that he is merely America's lackey. Just listen to an active member of Jaish-e-Muhammad, an extremist group implicated in attacks in India-controlled Kashmir. "Musharraf has crossed all limits," he says, insisting on anonymity. "There will be more suicide attacks. We are ready to sacrifice our lives." Pakistan police say groups like Jaish-e-Muhammad, which possibly have links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda, want Musharraf's whole Yankee-loving crowd eliminated. Such...
...When Musharraf led his bloodless coup, he wasn't considered a ruthless strongman or an unusually cunning operator. Many hoped he would put corrupt officials on trial and restore some political freedoms. In his first two years in power, however, he fumbled that goal, allowing democracy to remain a distant, foggy ideal. Then came Sept. 11. He was asked by George Bush to help bring down the Taliban, a group nurtured by the Pakistan government and military. The decisive repositioning of Pakistan by Musharraf won him a new reputation for deft statesmanship. In the 1971 war with India, the President...
...question 10 months later is whether he dared too much. Musharraf has to hold firm in the face of a maelstrom of conflicting forces: pressure from the U.S., Indian saber rattling, embittered domestic fundamentalists and extremists--and now the demands and intrigue of Pakistani politics, an arena Musharraf openly despises...