6 MUSHARRAF AND MILITARY PROFESSIONALISM
A
fter seizing power on October 12, 1999, General Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency and appointed himself the chief executive (CE) of the country. He placed the constitution in abeyance, suspended the national and provincial assemblies, and sacked the prime minister, his cabinet, and all four provincial governments. The Emergency, which brought the “whole of Pakistan under the control of the armed forces,” was the result of the “collective deliberation and decisions” of Musharraf, the nine army corps commanders, and the chiefs of the navy and the air force.1 Musharraf created a National Accountability Bureau to initiate a politically motivated accountability drive to target his government’s opponents, especially the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML-N). In August 2000, Sharif was sentenced to life imprisonment for hijacking the plane carrying Musharraf from Sri Lanka on the day of the coup.2 In December 2000, Musharraf agreed to exile the former prime minister and his family to Saudi Arabia for ten years in a deal brokered by the Saudi royal family.3 186
