Mistaken advice, predicated by wishful thinking, led Musharraf to believe the PML-Q would win the elections. The results have come as a rude awakening.
The sweeping victory of the PML-N in the Punjab provincial elections has taken everyone by surprise. But only the coming months will reveal what challenges lie ahead for the party.
After a gripping eight-day siege, security forces manage to take control of Lal Masjid. But amongst the rubble, extremists across Pakistan may find inspiration in the defeat of their brothers, as Maulana Ghazi dies a ‘martyr’.
General Musharraf’s farcical exercise of bringing in “grass roots democracy,” has left the country even more fragmented, with politics sharply divided on ethnic and caste lines.