Time's up, Mr Musharraf

No longer the potential solution, the general has become a big part of Pakistan's problem

AS MILITARY dictators go, Pakistan's General Pervez Musharraf has always seemed rather a decent sort. An affable man who gives the appearance of speaking his soldierly mind, he prompted quiet cheers from many of his countrymen when he usurped power from a corrupt civilian government in 1999. After September 11th 2001, he won the backing of America and its allies, risking popular anger by swiftly enlisting his country in the war against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Proclaiming himself an apostle of “enlightened moderation”, he seemed, despite his embarrassing lack of democratic credentials, a relatively safe pair of hands to be in charge of a 165m-strong moderate Islamic nation—one that possesses nuclear weapons and is prey to a frightening extremist fringe.

Over the years, however, General Musharraf has squandered the goodwill he enjoyed at home and abroad. Many at home were angered by his alliance with America in a war they saw as directed at both Islam and their ethnic-Pushtun kin in Afghanistan. His persistent refusal to take off his army uniform and allow unrigged elections alienated liberal opinion.

So most of his support had evaporated even before he staged his second coup. That came on November 3rd, when he dismantled the constitutional facade built to prettify his rule and imposed, in effect, martial law. Hundreds of secular and Islamist politicians, lawyers and human-rights activists were locked up. Private television-news channels were taken off the air. For a decent seeming man, it was an act of political indecency. He may have been surprised by the vehemence of the condemnation he has faced, especially from America. But, like a borrower whose insolvency would bring down a bank, he may calculate that much of his former backers' anger is bluster, covering a fear of their own impotence. Many want him gone; America itself is demanding that he introduce some semblance of democracy. But it is not obvious how to force his hand without endangering the stability of Pakistan itself.