Pervez Musharraf

Musharraf پرويز مشرف
12th President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
Incumbent
Assumed office October 12, 1999
Preceded by	Muhammad Rafiq Tarar
Personal details
Born	August 11, 1943 Delhi, India
Nationality	pakistani Indian Immigrant to Pakistan
Political party	None
Spouse	Begum Sehba Musharraf

(PA – 6920) General Pervez Musharraf (Urdu: پرويز مشرف); born August 11, 1943) is a military statesman and currently the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army. He took power on October 12, 1999 after a coup d'état ousting Nawaz Sharif, the democratically elected Prime Minister of Pakistan, and declared himself President on June 20, 2001.

Family background

Syed Pervez Musharraf, the second of three brothers, was born in Daryaganj in Delhi, India on August 11, 1943. After the Partition of India, his parents immigrated to Pakistan and chose to settle in Karachi. He is of Muhajir descent and considered to be the first Pakistani Muhajir to be able to get to the highest rank both in Pakistani government and military. He comes from a middle class family, his father having worked for the foreign ministry as a clerk in the Pakistan embassy in Turkey. He spent his early years in Turkey, from 1949 to 1956. Musharraf is married to Begum Sehba, who is from Okara; they have one son, Bilal Musharraf, and a daughter, Ayla, and have four grandchildren, two from each child. Bilal is settled in the United States and is a green card holder.

Early life

Musharraf attended Saint Patrick's High School, Karachi, graduating in 1958 before going on to attend Forman Christian College in Lahore. For seven years his family lived in Turkey as his father got a job in Ankara. He reveals in his memoirs that he was in a critical condition after falling off a mango tree as a teenager, and he treats this as his first direct experience with death.

Military career

In 1961, he entered the Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul, graduated 11th in his class and was later commissioned into the Artillery Regiment. A graduate of the Staff College, Quetta, and the National Defence College, Rawalpindi, Musharraf is also a graduate of the Royal College of Defence Studies of the United Kingdom. In 1965, Musharraf reveals in his memoirs that he was charged with taking unauthorized leave and was about to be court-martialed for it, but was let off due to the war with India.

Musharraf participated in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 as the 2nd Lieutenant in the 16 (SP) Field Artillery Regiment. His regiment saw action as part of the First Armoured Division’s offensive in the Khemkaran sector, where a major offensive was planned against the Indian Army. Despite possessing a quantitative advantage and significant superiority in armor, the 1st armoured division (labelled "pride of the Pakistan Army") suffered a crushing defeat and Khemkaran became known as a graveyard of Pakistan tanks.. By all accounts the vital advance failed at the Battle of Asal Uttar, as Pakistan lost a golden opportunity to make major strategic gains, and was a turning point in the war.

Later, in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 he served as a Company Commander in the SSG Commando Battalion. Originally scheduled to be flown to East Pakistan along with other SSG troops, he was redeployed in Punjab as war broke out and all flights over India were cancelled. He later admitted that he "broke down and wept" when he heard the "disgusting" news of Pakistan's surrender to India. Later he commanded Regiments of Artillery, there after an Artillery Brigade and then went on to command an Infantry Division. In September 1987, heading a newly formed SSG at Khapalu base (Kashmir), he launched an unsuccessful assault to capture the Indian held posts of Bilafond La in Siachen Glacier.

On promotion to the rank of Major General on January 15, 1991, he was assigned the command of an Infantry Division. Later, on promotion to Lieutenant General on October 21, 1995 he took over command of the I Corps. In 1998, following the resignation of General Jehangir Karamat, he was personally promoted over other senior officers by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, as an obedient General and took over as the Chief of Army Staff. In 1999, he led the Pakistan Army during the Kargil Conflict. Gen. Musharraf also attended SSG and was the trainer of Pakistani commandos.

Role in Kargil Conflict

Main article: Kargil War

From April to June 1999, Pakistan and India were involved in the Kargil Conflict which was planned and executed while General Pervez Musharraf was Pakistan's Army chief. Ex-CENTCOM Commander Anthony Zinni, and ex-PM Nawaz Sharif, state that it was the General who requested Sharif to withdraw the Pakistani troops, whereas Musharraf claims that the decision was made by Sharif, who was under United States pressure. Sharif placed the onus of the Kargil attacks squarely on the army chief Pervez Musharraf. The war ended in disaster for Pakistan which lost not only the military battle but also paid dearly on the political and diplomatic fronts.

This conflict resulted in eventual mistrust between civil and military leaderships and this division ultimately led to Sharif's decision to dismiss Musharraf.

Coup d'état

Main article: 1999 Pakistani coup d'état

Musharraf became de facto Head of Government (using the title Chief Executive and assuming extensive powers) of Pakistan following a bloodless coup d'état on 12 October 1999. That day, the constitutional Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attempted to dismiss Musharraf and install Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director Khwaja Ziauddin in his place. Musharraf, who was out of the country, boarded a commercial airliner to return to Pakistan. Senior Army generals refused to accept Musharraf's dismissal. Sharif ordered the Karachi airport closed to prevent the landing of the airliner, which then circled the skies over Karachi. In the coup, the generals ousted Sharif's administration and took over the airport. The plane landed with allegedly only a few minutes of fuel to spare, and Musharraf assumed control of the government. Sharif was put under house arrest and later exiled. He and other democratic leaders have subsequently been prevented from entering Pakistan. Reportedly, the disagreement between Musharraf and Sharif centered around the democratically elected Prime Minister's desire to find a diplomatic resolution to the conflict.

The existing President of Pakistan, Rafiq Tarar, remained in office until June 2001. Musharraf formally appointed himself President on June 20, 2001, just days before his scheduled visit to Agra for talks with India.

Presidential elections

Shortly after Musharraf's takeover, several people filed court petitions challenging his assumption of power. On May 12, 2000, the Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered Musharraf to hold general elections by October 12, 2002. In an attempt to legitimize his presidency and assure its continuance after the approaching restoration of democracy, he held a referendum on April 30, 2002 to extend his presidential term to five years after the October elections. However, the referendum was boycotted by the majority of Pakistani political groupings, which later complained that the elections were heavily rigged, and voter turnout was 30% or below by most estimates. A few weeks later, Musharraf went on TV and apologized to the nation for "irregularities" in the referendum.

Musharraf also forcibly removed many of the Supreme Court Justices who had voted against his usurpation of power. These included Justice Taqi Usmani, a world authority on International financial law and Constitutional law. Newspaper editors who were critical of Musharraf, such as the editor of the Balochistan Post, have also been exiled.

General elections were held in October 2002 and a plurality of the seats in the Parliament was won by the PML-Q, a pro-Musharraf party consisting of feudal landlords whose power and hold on politics Musharraf had promised to destroy. However, parties opposed to Musharraf effectively paralysed the National Assembly for over a year.

The deadlock ended in December 2003, when Musharraf made a deal with the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal party, an alliance of Islamic parties sympathetic to Talibans agreeing to leave the army by December 31, 2004. He subsequently refused to keep his promise. With that party's support, pro-Musharraf legislators were able to muster the two-thirds supermajority required to pass the Seventeenth Amendment, which retroactively legalized Musharraf's 1999 coup and many of his decrees.

Electoral College vote

In a vote of confidence on January 1, 2004, Musharraf won 658 out of 1,170 votes in the Electoral College of Pakistan, and according to Article 41(8) of the Constitution of Pakistan, was "deemed to be elected" to the office of President until October 2007.

Role after 9/11

Support for the War on Terror

Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, Musharraf sided with the United States against the Taliban government in Afghanistan after an ultimatum by the United States. Musharraf agreed to give the United States the use of three airbases for Operation Enduring Freedom. Secretary of State Colin Powell and other administration officials met with Musharraf. Musharraf's reversal of policy and help to the U.S. military was necessary in the U.S. bombing that rapidly overcame the Taliban regime. On September 19, 2001, Musharraf addressed the people of Pakistan and stated while he supported the Taliban, unless Pakistan reversed its support, Pakistan risked being endangered by an alliance of India and the USA.. In 2006, Musharraf testified that this stance was pressured by threats from the U.S.

Relations with India

Musharraf was Chief of Army Staff at the time of Pakistani incursions into the Indian-held Kashmir, in the summer of 1999. After suffering many reverses, the Pakistani Army was ordered to retreat. Some reports suggest that Musharraf retreated after huge pressure from the former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from the American President Bill Clinton, who feared the conflict could turn into a nuclear catastrophe.

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Musharraf with Atal Behari Vajpayee, former Prime Minister of India at the Agra Summit during 2001

However, in Battle Ready, a recent book co-authored by ex-CENTCOM Commander in Chief Anthony Zinni and novelist Tom Clancy, the former alleges that Musharraf was the one who pushed Sharif to withdraw the Pakistani troops after being caught in a losing scenario. According to an ex-official of the Musharraf government, Hassan Abbas, it was Musharraf who planned the whole operative and sold the idea to Nawaz Sharif. The view that Musharraf wanted to attempt the Kargil infiltrations much earlier was also revealed by Former Pakistani PM Benazir Bhutto in an interview to a leading daily newspaper, where he had supposedly boasted that "he would hoist the flag of Pakistan atop the Srinagar Assembly" if his plan was executed PML(N), a leading Pakistan party added that Musharraf had planned the Kargil intrusions but panicked when the conflict broke out with India and decided to brief then Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif. As the Kargil incident came just after the Lahore Peace Summit earlier that year, Musharraf was viewed with mistrust in India.

On December 13, 2001, a group of militants attacked India's Parliament with bombs and guns. India, who blamed Pakistan for the attack, mobilized for a potential war. Musharraf denied any Pakistani involvement with the attacks. Intense pressure from Washington followed. The Washington Post (Jim Hoagland, January 17) said that "the United States extracted promises from Gen. Musharraf that Pakistan's intelligence service and army will cease giving food, weapons and other logistical help to infiltrators who carry out raids into India and Indian-controlled Kashmir. The army will no longer provide mortar fire to cover the militants, who have been cut adrift by Musharraf".

In the middle of 2004, Musharraf began a series of talks with India to solve the Kashmir dispute. Both India and Pakistan have the tactical capability to launch nuclear strikes on every city within each others' borders. The two countries are continuing to aggressively increase their nuclear capabilities by actively producing even more nuclear weapons and perfecting their missile technologies by routinely conducting tests of ever more sophisticated missiles.

As well as discussing the Kashmir dispute, both leaders discussed the following issues: Wullar Barrage and Kishangaga power project, Baglihar Dam on the Chenab River being built by India in Jammu and Kashmir, Disputed Sir Creek estuary at the mouth of the Rann of Kutch, Siachin glacier, Issues of Gurdaspur and Ferozepur's status, Hindu-Muslim Relations, Autonomy for the Sikhs in Indian Punjab, Minority rights, Indian contentions that Pakistan is sponsoring "cross-border" terrorism.

Denouncing extremism

On January 12, 2002, Musharraf gave a landmark speech against Islamic extremism. He unequivocally condemned all acts of terrorism, including those carried out in the name of freeing Kashmir's Muslim majority from Indian rule. He also pledged to combat Islamic extremism and lawlessness within Pakistan itself.

He has also used it to ban funding of madrasas and mosques from outside the country. At the same time as banning foreign funding of Islamic educational institutions, he made it compulsory for them to teach a whole host of additional subjects such as computing. This meant that many had to close due to the halt of funds from Pakistanis working abroad resulting in not being able to teach the additional subjects that he had made compulsory. Musharraf also instituted prohibitions on foreign students' access to studying Islam within Pakistan, an effort which began as an outright ban but was later reduced to restrictions on obtaining visas.

Assassination attempts

On December 14, 2003, General Musharraf survived an assassination attempt when a powerful bomb went off minutes after his highly-guarded convoy crossed a bridge in Rawalpindi. Musharraf was apparently saved by a jamming device in his limousine that prevented the remote controlled explosives from blowing up the bridge as his convoy passed over it. It was the third such attempt during his four-year rule. Eleven days later, on December 25, 2003, two suicide bombers tried to assassinate Musharraf, but their car bombs failed to kill the president; 16 others nearby died instead. Musharraf escaped with only a cracked windscreen on his car. Militant Amjad Farooqi was apparently suspected as being the mastermind behind these attempts, and was killed by Pakistani forces in 2004 after an extensive manhunt.

Richard Armitage comments controversy

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Cover of the UK edition of In the Line of Fire: A Memoir

During a September 24, 2006 interview with CBS News's 60 Minutes program (interviewed by Steve Kroft), Musharraf described how then-U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage had called Musharraf's intelligence director shortly following the September 11, 2001 attacks and threatened military action if Pakistan did not support the U.S.-led War on Terror. According to Musharraf, Armitage warned: "Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age." Furthermore, during an interview with Jon Stewart of The Daily Show on September 26, 2006, Musharraf stated that then-Secretary of State Colin Powell also contacted him with a similar message: "You are with us or against us." Musharraf refused to elaborate further, citing the then-upcoming release of his book, In the Line of Fire: A Memoir (ISBN 0-7432-8344-9). Armitage has denied that the U.S. used such harsh words to threaten Pakistan whereas President Bush has refrained from publicly acknowledging the possibility of the exact wordings being used. However, according to the press statement he said that "I was taken aback".

Dual-office controversy

A pro-Musharraf party, the PML-Q, won a plurality in the elections of October 2002, and formed a majority coalition with independents and allies such as the MQM. Nevertheless, the opposition parties effectively deadlocked the National Assembly, refusing to accept the legitimacy of Musharraf's authority. In December 2003, as part of a compromise with the main Islamist opposition group, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, an alliance of Islamist radicals including the Jammat Islami whose leaders have known links to bin Laden, General Musharraf said he would step down as Army Chief by January 1, 2005. In return, the MMA agreed to support a constitutional amendment that would retroactively legalize Musharraf's coup, and restore some formal checks and balances to Pakistan's system of government. In late 2004, pro-Musharraf legislators in the Parliament passed a bill allowing Musharraf to keep both offices.

Criticism and perceptions of Musharraf

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General Pervez Musharraf, President and Chief Executive of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, addressing the UN General Assembly on November 10, 2001

At present, Musharraf is considered an acceptable as well as suspect Pakistani leader by Western governments. His words are not in conformity with his action. He professes action against terrorism but he was the only head of state who supported and recognised the Taliban post 9/11. He lent support to the jihadis fighting in Kashmir and it is believed that Pakistan still has many active terrorist training camps. It is also believed that, out of fear and necessity, he lent support to US forces in the war against terrorism despite his heart being with the Jihadis. Support for General Pervez Musharraf is conditional on his cooperation with Coalition Forces in the War on Terror. Many believe that Musharraf is sincere in his desire to bridge the Islamic and Western worlds and has previously spoken strongly against the idea of the inevitability of a "clash of civilizations" between them. Furthermore, he has coined the phrase "enlightened moderation" and is believed to be an ardent promulgator of the same. At least two close members of his family live in the United States: his brother, a doctor, lives near Chicago, Illinois; and his son, who lives in Boston, Massachusetts. Musharraf's son Bilal runs a venture-funded high-tech startup in Boston.

President Musharraf's own views are considered relatively liberal and he has expressed on several counts admiration for Turkey's secular reformer Mustafa Kemal. Despite this, he has also stated his respect for the authoritarian martial law administrator of Balochistan, General Rahimuddin Khan, who governed the province for an unprecedented seven years.

Corruption

One of the expectations when Musharraf came to power was that the rampant corruption existing in government machinery would be cleaned up. Musharraf himself stated that a crackdown on corruption would be initiated but years into his administration, many neutral analysts have noted that the military regime is letting the corrupt go free. In fact, according to a survey by Transparency International, Musharraf's regime is now perceived by many Pakistanis to be more corrupt than the previous democratic governments led by Ms. Bhutto and Sharif. Critics of his administration point to the fact that Pakistan, which was placed at 79 in the ranking 5 years back is now ranked at 142 putting them at one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Columnists like Irfan Hussain state that the present regime is more corrupt than the one it replaced, which was accused of corruption, and that "crooks are flourishing more than ever before". There have also been allegations that corrupt servicemen aren't being prosecuted because of the Military Junta's clout. Pakistani media too have alleged that individual corruption of the previous government was replaced by institutionalised corruption of the Pakistan Army, awarding land deeds and a life of luxury to its officers. During his trip to the US to promote his book, he was accused by many back in Pakistan to have cost the government exchequer up to $1 million, for which he was criticised by opposition parties.

Support for the War on Terror

Since his involvement as a senior officer of Pakistan's special forces during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Musharraf has had excellent personal relations with several sections of the US security establishment.

It is widely believed that Musharraf was coerced by the United States into turning his back on his former allies, the Taliban government of Afghanistan. Certainly his speeches on national television expressed his belief that he 'had no choice' but to act in unison with the United States.

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Musharraf with United States President George W. Bush at the Presidency in Islamabad, Pakistan

Musharraf's support for the USA was indispensable in defeating the Taliban in Afghanistan with the ease in which it was routed. This was done after his swift and strategically sound decision to cease Pakistan's long-running support of the Taliban. Pakistan cut the Taliban's oil and supply lines, provided intelligence and acted as a logistics support area for Operation Enduring Freedom. It has also allowed US forces to operate inside Pakistan; and Pakistani forces, especially the military controlled Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, have been implicated in the use of torture on suspected militants.

Under U.S. pressure, Musharraf has launched a major military offensive in the tribal region of Wana, displacing many resident families in the hunt for militants, and has caused a national insurgency movement made up of disaffected militants and former residents of Wana whose homes were demolished by the army in its heavy bombing campaign.

However, after the more recent resurgence of the Taliban, the United States is taking a harder look at Pakistan's continuing role in the Taliban insurgency, according to reports in the New York Times Seth G. Jones, a political scientist at the RAND Corporation, said that there was increasing evidence that Pakistani intelligence agents had been financing, training, providing intelligence and assistance to Taliban insurgents. Whether the orders come from General Musharraf himself is not clear, Mr. Jones said, but he said it was clear that he knew about the support, and that he so far had failed to stop the militancy.

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US President George W. Bush and President Musharraf answer reporters in the East Room of the White House in late 2006.

Musharraf speaks fluent English and has given many interviews and speeches on various US and European TV channels and other media. He is also known for giving contrasting views in his interviews. He has spoken at think tanks such as the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California, in June 2003. His support for the US-led War on Terror has been a cause for increasing public support for right-wing Islamic parties in Pakistan. The US's image in Pakistan has suffered ostensibly after the war in Iraq without an authorising UN resolution. Musharraf has bluntly refused to send any Pakistani troops to Iraq without a UN resolution and also due to public pressure in Pakistan.

After lengthy talks with his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, he said on September 7, 2006 he was committed to crushing the Taliban, their al Qaeda allies and "Talibanisation", a reference to the spread of hardline Islam. "The best way to fight this common enemy is to join hands, trust each other and form a common strategy," he told reporters in Kabul, days before the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks that prompted the US-led invasion of Afghanistan. "Any militant activity will be addressed with force. No Talibanisation. No Taliban activity on our side of the border and across the border in Afghanistan," Musharraf said. The issue of cross-border movement clouded President George W. Bush's visit to Islamabad early 2006 and Musharraf's pledge comes ahead of a trip to the United States and Cuba and an expected meeting with Bush.

Elections during Musharraf's administration

On 12 May 2000, the Supreme Court ordered Musharraf to hold national elections by 12 October 2002; elections for local governments took place in 2001. Elections for the national and provincial legislatures were held in October 2002, with no party winning a majority. In November 2002, Musharraf handed over certain powers to the newly elected Parliament. The National Assembly elected Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali as Prime Minister of Pakistan, who in turn appointed his own cabinet.

On January 1, 2004 Musharraf won a confidence vote in the Electoral College of Pakistan, consisting of both houses of Parliament and the four provincial assemblies which are dominated by the landed elite of the country, most of whom have been given governmental posts under Musharraf. Musharraf received 658 out of 1170 votes, a 56% majority, but many opposition and Islamic members of parliament walked out to protest the vote. As a result of this vote, according to Article 41(8) of the Constitution of Pakistan, Musharraf was "deemed to be elected" to the office of President. His term now extends to 2007.

Prime Minister Jamali was made to resign on 26 June 2004. His resignation is widely believed to be on the command of General Pervez Musharraf. Jamali, in the first place was appointed by Musharraf, who controls the PML(Q). He formed PML(Q) by horse-trading with different parties (largely the PML(N) and the PPPP). Most of the ministers of the cabinet were senior members of other parties, who joined PML(Q) after the elections just because Musharraf promised them important offices in the government. Musharraf replaced Jamali due to his poor performance and in his place Musharraf appointed Shaukat Aziz, a former Vice President of Citibank and head of Citibank Private Banking as the new prime minister. Musharraf choose Shaukat Aziz due to his successful measures in revitalizing Pakistan's economy as the Finance Minister. The new government is mostly supportive of Musharraf, who remains the President and Head of State in the new government. Musharraf continues to be the active executive of Pakistan, especially in foreign affairs. Although whether he stays the president after he gives up the post of Chief of Army staff is still to be seen.

Nuclear proliferation

Recently, Musharraf has come under fire from the West after the disclosure of nuclear proliferation by Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the metallurgist known as the father of Pakistan's bomb. Musharraf has denied knowledge of or participation by Pakistan's government or army in this proliferation despite deep domestic criticism for singularly vilifying Khan, a former national hero. Musharraf continues to enjoy strong support of the White House and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. AQ Khan has been pardoned in exchange for cooperation in the investigation of his nuclear-proliferation network. However, he is still under house arrest, and likely to remain so till the end of his days. The fate of those who were found to have conspired with Khan is yet to be decided.

Musharraf in the media

In a list titled "The World's 10 Worst Dictators" prepared by Parade magazine in 2005, Pervez Musharraf is placed at number 7 in the ranking. This is what the magazine had to say about him. "General Pervez Musharraf seized power in a military coup that overthrew an elected government. He appointed himself president of Pakistan in 2001 and then attempted to legitimize his rule by staging an election in 2002. However, the election did not come close to meeting international standards. Musharraf agreed to step down as head of the military but then changed his mind, claiming that the nation needed to unify its political and military elements and that he could provide this unity. He justified his decision by stating, 'I think the country is more important than democracy.' "

References

• Pervez Musharraf, In the Line of Fire: A Memoir (2006)

See also

• List of national leaders
• Politics of Pakistan
• Line of Succession to President of Pakistan
• Nawaz Sharif
• Musharraf view on Enlightened moderation
• Mirza Tahir Hussain

External links

Official websites

• Official Presidential website
• Official Biographical website
• Official Repository of Presidential Speeches

Biographies and profiles

• In the Line of Fire: A Memoir - FREE download, reviews, forum and more
• Biography on storyofpakistan.com
• Time magazine cover story on Musharraf
• Profile in 2001 by the BBC
• Biography, 25 December 2003 by the BBC
• Profile in September 2004 by the BBC
• Unofficial biography at pervez.musharraf.net

Articles by Musharraf

• "A Plea for Enlightened Moderation", by Pervez Musharraf, Washington Post opinion piece

Interviews

• An hour with Pervez Musharraf, Charlie Rose (video)
• Address by Pervez Musharraf to U.S. Institute of Peace (text, audio & video available) June 2003
• The Telegraph, United Kingdom, 20 June 2004
• Time magazine, United States, 25 September 2005
• Washington Post, United States, 29 January 2006
  • Musharraf: "There is no milk and honey flowing after you get these two people", referring to Osama and Zawahiri and that military might alone cannot defeat terrorism.
• Pakistani President Musharraf speaks to students and diplomats about the future of Pakistan, Fora TV, September 23, 2006 (Video)

Referendum

• Referendum report
• BBC report on referendum
• Speech on national TV, in which Musharraf apologizes for "improper" voting in the referendum
  • "...at lower level due to unnecessary enthusiasm and carelessness, inefficiency and ignorance there might have been some improper case of voting in some areas. If this is true I regret it from the core of my heart. I feel sad and sorry for it," said Musharraf.

Electoral College vote

• "Pakistan Gives Musharraf Confidence Vote as President"; New York Times; January 1, 2004]

Other articles

• President Clinton's statement regarding the 1999 coup
• "US threatened to bomb Pakistan back to 'the Stone Age'"
• Supreme Leader urges stronger Iran-Pakistan relations

Surveys

• Survey by The Gallup Organization
• Report by Washington-based Pew Research Center

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