It has been eight years since General Pervez Musharraf first woke up to the need for political legitimacy to bolster his military rule. It turns out that he need not have worried, what with the history of America's support for military dictators in Pakistan, and the 'war on terror' raging along the northern border. While that alone was enough to keep him entrenched in power as Pakistan descended into the maw of extremism and internal conflict, there was always the mild irritant of the need to 'return to democracy'.
Gen Musharraf nonetheless remains the West's (read: the US) "best option" in a nuclear Pakistan besieged by extremists, even as at home he is largely viewed as an American stooge. His ratings have hit rock-bottom in the wake of a series of difficulties: military operations in the restive tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, suppression of the insurgency in Balochistan with bombs, a spate of suicide bombings (38 in the first nine months of this year, killing more than 350), and constitutional and judicial crises erupting from increasingly desperate bids to cling to power.