IN MUSHARRAF'S WAKE, FACTIONS LEFT TO VIE FOR POWER
Jane Perlez
International Herald Tribune, August 19, 2008
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Facing imminent impeachment charges, President Pervez Musharraf announced his resignation on Monday, after months of belated recognition by American officials that he had become a waning asset in the campaign against terrorism.
The decision removes from Pakistan's political stage the leader who for nearly nine years served as one of the United States' most important - and ultimately unreliable -allies. And it now leaves American officials to deal with a new, elected coalition that has so far proven itself to be unwilling or incapable of confronting an expanding Taliban insurgency determined to topple the government.
"Whether I win or lose the impeachment, the nation will lose," Musharraf said, explaining his decision in an emotional televised speech lasting more than an hour. He will stay in Pakistan and will not be put on trial, government officials said.
The question of who will succeed Musharraf is certain to unleash intense wrangling between the two rival political parties who form the governing coalition and to add a new layer of turbulence to an already unstable nuclear-armed nation of 165 million people.
"We've said for years that Musharraf is our best bet, and my fear is that we are about to discover how true that was," one senior Bush administration official said, acknowledging that the United States had stuck with Musharraf for too long and developed few other relationships in Pakistan to fall back on.
Jane Perlez
International Herald Tribune, August 19, 2008
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Facing imminent impeachment charges, President Pervez Musharraf announced his resignation on Monday, after months of belated recognition by American officials that he had become a waning asset in the campaign against terrorism.
The decision removes from Pakistan's political stage the leader who for nearly nine years served as one of the United States' most important - and ultimately unreliable -allies. And it now leaves American officials to deal with a new, elected coalition that has so far proven itself to be unwilling or incapable of confronting an expanding Taliban insurgency determined to topple the government.
"Whether I win or lose the impeachment, the nation will lose," Musharraf said, explaining his decision in an emotional televised speech lasting more than an hour. He will stay in Pakistan and will not be put on trial, government officials said.
The question of who will succeed Musharraf is certain to unleash intense wrangling between the two rival political parties who form the governing coalition and to add a new layer of turbulence to an already unstable nuclear-armed nation of 165 million people.
"We've said for years that Musharraf is our best bet, and my fear is that we are about to discover how true that was," one senior Bush administration official said, acknowledging that the United States had stuck with Musharraf for too long and developed few other relationships in Pakistan to fall back on.
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