World News Story

05 December 2008 10:23 BST

Profile: Pervez Musharraf

Pervez Musharraf's decision to avoid an impeachment by his country's coalition government ends a political career which has been in its death throes for over a year.

Last autumn the then-army chief looked determined to stay in power – he was even prepared to steamroll over the Pakistani judiciary in his bid to win another term as president.

Since then his party's electoral defeat in February began the slow slide towards today's resignation, with a political suicide deemed preferable to the public execution planned by his rivals.

It is a stunning end to a career which saw him rule Pakistan with an iron fist after seizing power in a 1999 coup for nine years.

Mr Musharraf's brilliant diplomacy with the west, which saw him chosen as a favourite ally in the war on terror despite his undemocratic credentials, confounded his opponents.

But it was the escalating tensions of his society's radicalised elements which ultimately proved his undoing.

A military man

The young Pervez, a bright student, attended school in Karachi. A career in media management or mathematics seemed to beckon but he chose another path, graduating from the Pakistan Military Academy in 1961.

It was this decision to pursue a military career which was to shape his life; Mr Musharraf was not a civilian 'Mr' for most of his life. He rose through the ranks thanks to experience in the Indo-Pakistani wars of 1965 and 1971 and, by 1991, found himself in command of an infantry division.

As chief of staff, head of Pakistan's military, he played a key role in the 1999 Kargil conflict in Kashmir with India. The roots of his dispute with then prime minister Nawaz Sharif date from this period. Mr Sharif, who had promoted Gen Musharraf to his senior position, subsequently claimed he had nothing to do with the Kargil offensive. Their unstable relationship quickly bubbled over.

The dictator

The 1999 coup followed Mr Sharif's attempt to dismiss Gen Musharraf from his position as head of the army. Senior military figures rallied round their leader, forcing Mr Sharif from office and into an exile that would last for eight years.

Key to the success of the coup was the quashing of the judiciary – and the electorate. Measures were taken to suppress both. But they were flawed and the seeds of what was to become an unsustainable position in the summer of 2008 had been sown. Judges refused to sign a new oath giving unquestioning obedience to the military. A referendum confirming his move was widely boycotted.

Fortunately for Gen Musharraf, his Pakistan Muslim League (Q) party won a majority in parliamentary elections. That gave him the endorsement he needed but there remained concern about his status as army chief. A concession was made to an Islamic party coalition that he would step down as army chief by 2004 - he reneged on it.

Despite his political troubles at home the would-be general was making good progress with western leaders. In the aftermath of 9/11 he denounced Islamic extremism and chose to support the US-led coalition of forces ousting the Taliban from Afghanistan. The implications of this decision were enormous. Many ordinary Pakistanis, as well as those living in the tribal regions on the Afghan border, began to feel he had sold out to the Americans. Slowly but surely the federally administered tribal regions of Waziristan became an increasing political headache.

The decline begins

After a switch of prime ministers in 2004 and a narrow vote-of-confidence victory in the same year, Gen Musharraf began to be bedeviled by corruption issues. A new figurehead opponent began to emerge: Iftikhar Chaudhry, the chief justice, who refused to bow to the president's demands for subservience.

Their antagonism came to a head in March 2007, when Mr Chaudhry was sacked from his post. A popular movement quickly gathered backing his reinstatement and, after a panel of supreme court judges overrode the decision, Gen Musharraf was forced into a humiliating U-turn.

Having barely recovered from this embarrassing setback the country – and Gen Musharraf's presidency - was plunged into crisis once more. A number of religious fundamentalists holed up in Islamabad's Red Mosque building were the problem at hand. Refusing to bow down to their demands, Gen Musharraf ordered the Pakistani army to deal with them. Over 100 radicals died when the siege came to a head.

The incident led to the collapse of a ten-month-old ceasefire with pro-Taliban extremist groups, triggering a campaign of violence which left the country utterly destabilised in the coming months.

Securing another term

The beginning of the end followed with the return of political rivals. Benazir Bhutto joined Mr Sharif in returning from exile to challenge October's presidential election. Gen Musharraf wasted time in failed power-sharing talks with Ms Bhutto. Lawmakers voted him back into office on October 6th, but the supreme court looked like challenging the result.

On November 5th the president appeared on state television, declaring a state of emergency which would last until the middle of December. He sacked the rebel judges and installed those sympathetic to his aims. Unsurprisingly, they dropped the challenge against his presidency. But the damage had been done: western governments dropped their support for him and he was forced to finally abandon his army role. A bruised and battered Musharraf, 'Mr' Musharraf once again, emerged.

When Ms Bhutto was assassinated on December 27th electoral defeat for his PML-Q party was finally assured. Her Pakistan People's party (PPP) romped to victory but needed support from Mr Sharif's supporters to form a coalition government after the February elections.

After initial uncertainty his rivals, now in government, put in train plans to impeach their enemy. Finally, after years of frustrating his opponents, the president's resistance was at an end. August 18th saw his resignation from the presidency in an hour-long broadcast. For a would-be dictator, Pervez Musharraf always struggled to keep his hold on power. In the end he was forced to let go.

Alex Stevenson