| After yet another attempt on his life, President General Pervez Musharraf must feel like a man condemned, sentenced for the remainder of his natural life in the gilded cage that doubles as the presidency of Pakistan. At no time since October 1999, has he been so isolated, so alone in a post that includes splendid isolation as part of its job description. |
| Over the past four years – in the U.S., the natural life span of a presidency – President Musharraf has moved with such rapid speed forward that he has left behind many of those who collaborated with him in the task of changing the polity of Pakistan. The blueprints of that political revolution, the road map for the social reconstruction down to the lowest level of responsible self-government, and the prescription for economic revival that he and his original team had sought to achieve have lost the first sharpness of their initial focus. |
| Since 1999, Pervez Musharraf has evolved from being a sectoral chief into a national head and now an international statesman, rubbing shoulders with superpowers. He has also become a prime target, a president in fear of his life within his own country. It cannot be a comfortable position for any man; it is an impossible position for a self-appointed leader of 150 million people.[EXTRACT] |
Published in DAWN 30 December 2003, titled: In a gilded cage, and reprinted in WHEN BUSH COMES TO SHOVE & OTHER WRITINGS (2006). |
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