7 THE MILITARY AND DEMOCRACY
The military government of General Pervez Musharraf yielded power to civilians in 2007–2008 in the wake of severe legitimacy problems triggered and amplified by contentious opposition to his rule. Prompted by Musharraf ’s fateful decision to fire the Supreme Court chief justice in March 2007, lawyers, other members of civil society, and political parties mobilized against the dictator, ultimately eroding his hold on power by persuading the military institution to launch an extrication coup in 2007. Musharraf had earlier tried to bolster his domestic position by striking a US-brokered power-sharing deal with Bhutto. He sealed his own fate on November 3, 2007, however, when he suspended the constitution and imposed a state of emergency rule to avert a legal challenge to his “uniformed” presidency. As domestic and international pressure mounted on the general to relinquish his army post and to hold elections, Musharraf fi nally retired from the army in late November, after having secured a second presidential term from the outgoing parliament. He organized a parliamentary ballot in February 2008, which resulted in a narrow victory for the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). The party formed a short-lived coalition 215
