# Musharraf resigns -- what now for Pakistan? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 18, 2008, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musharraf-resigns-what-now-for-pakistan/460425 "2008-08-18T15:16:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2008, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musharraf-resigns-what-now-for-pakistan/460425/1 "2008-08-18T15:16:57Z")
Story [here.](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121904419698449175.html?mod=googlenews_wsj) Like Nixon, Musharraf is resigning to avoid impeachment. Who will replace him as president? And what will this mean for Pakistan’s relations with U.S., with Afghanistan, and with the GWOT? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musharraf-resigns-what-now-for-pakistan/460425/2 "2008-08-20T16:11:12Z")
Update: [The ruling coalition is already becoming divided.](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/19/AR2008081900298.html) > [@](#): > > With the constitution requiring the election of a new president by Parliament within 30 days, the governing parties must quickly agree on a replacement or risk a damaging power struggle. > > But the sharp disagreement over how to reinstate Supreme Court justices removed by Musharraf last year raised questions about the coalition’s stability. > > Musharraf purged the court in an attempt to avoid legal challenges to his rule, but the maneuver only deepened his unpopularity, propelling his rivals to victory in the elections. > > It also turned the judges into controversial political players. > > The ruling coalition was founded on a pledge to restore the justices quickly. But while former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has pushed hard to get them back on the bench, the leader of the coalition’s biggest bloc, Asif Ali Zardari, has stalled their restoration. > > \ > > The former Supreme Court supported efforts by Sharif, whose government was ousted in Musharraf’s 1999 takeover, to return from exile last year. > > But the justices also had agreed to hear challenges to a presidential order that killed corruption cases against Zardari and his since-assassinated wife, former premier Benazir Bhutto. The order was part of Musharraf’s failed effort to form a pro-Western power-sharing deal with Bhutto. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musharraf-resigns-what-now-for-pakistan/460425/3 "2008-08-20T18:56:56Z")
I hate to say this but probably not good. Musharraf may have been a dictator but he was better than many of the alternatives. Pakistan may end up with an Islamic fundamentalist government or a kleptocracy or a civil war. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musharraf-resigns-what-now-for-pakistan/460425/4 "2008-08-20T19:21:11Z")
…with nuclear weapons. And people wonder why the idea of Iran getting nukes sends a shudder down the spine… -XT ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musharraf-resigns-what-now-for-pakistan/460425/5 "2008-08-20T19:23:35Z")
Yeah, this is probably a very bad thing. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musharraf-resigns-what-now-for-pakistan/460425/6 "2008-08-25T17:05:42Z")
Update: [Nawaz Sharif has pulled out of the governing coalition.](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/7750684) ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2008, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musharraf-resigns-what-now-for-pakistan/460425/7 "2008-08-26T21:24:56Z")
[QUOTE=Little Nemo] I hate to say this but probably not good. Musharraf may have been a dictator but he was better than many of the alternatives. Pakistan may end up with an Islamic fundamentalist government or a kleptocracy or a civil war. [/QUOTE] I’m pretty ignorant of Pakistani politics. I know the major names like Musharraf, Sharif, Zardari, etc. but not what their political differences are (well, other than knowing that Musharraf installed himself in a bloodless coup). So please inform me: Which of the leaders or political parties are most aligned with or against the fundamentalists? That is, as someone who doesn’t want to see Pakistan become a fundamentalist nation, who should I _want_ in power? ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musharraf-resigns-what-now-for-pakistan/460425/8 "2008-08-28T15:18:33Z")
Anybody? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musharraf-resigns-what-now-for-pakistan/460425/9 "2008-08-28T15:31:12Z")
None of the [major parties](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_Pakistan) are aligned with the fundamentalists, except for [Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muttahida_Majlis-e-Amal) For the composition of Parliament see [here.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Pakistan#Political_parties_and_elections) ---
**Author:** ![Burton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Burton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Burton)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musharraf-resigns-what-now-for-pakistan/460425/10 "2008-08-28T15:47:27Z")
Maybe India will make a move to “stabilize” the region. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musharraf-resigns-what-now-for-pakistan/460425/11 "2008-08-28T16:03:06Z")
Musharraf was no saint, but who the hell else wants that job? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2008, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musharraf-resigns-what-now-for-pakistan/460425/12 "2008-09-03T13:44:27Z")
[There was just an attempt to assassinate Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.](http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/09/03/pakistan.assassination.gilani/) ---
**Author:** ![Burton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Burton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Burton)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2008, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musharraf-resigns-what-now-for-pakistan/460425/13 "2008-09-03T16:45:02Z")
"Zardari is better known as “Mr. Ten Percent.” According to reports, while serving as minister for investment and environment when Benazir Bhutto was Prime Minister in the early 1990s, he demanded and was paid a ten-percent payoff (or bakshish in the South Asian lexicon) from foreign contractors doing business in Pakistan. Nawaz Sharief has been similarly accused of stealing money from the Pakistani treasury. The sad reality about Pakistan is that after freeing itself from the death grip of Musharraf, it is stuck with the option of choosing between the leadership of Zardari and Sharief. Zardari’s sole claim to fame (aside from being known as Mr. Ten percent) is that he was the husband of Benazir Bhutto. During the last months of her life, he was living with his girlfriend in a separate residence, while Benazir was scurrying around to make a deal with the U.S. so that she could return to Pakistan and run for office. She succeeded in attaining that objective only to become a victim of the maddening spirals of terrorism. After her death, Zardari created the façade of mourning for the loss of his wife only to emerge first as the guardian of their son, Bilawal Zardari (whose name was changed to Bilawal Zardari Bhutto to lay claim to the legacy of his fallen mother). However, since Bilawal is only 19 years old, Zardari, in the interim, conveniently decided to become the active head of the PPP and to run for the presidency of Pakistan for which he has absolutely no qualifications." [http://www.ehsanahrari.com/2008/08/30/asif-ali-zardari-purging-benazir-bhutto’s-legacy-london-times-august-30-2008/](http://www.ehsanahrari.com/2008/08/30/asif-ali-zardari-purging-benazir-bhutto%E2%80%99s-legacy-london-times-august-30-2008/)