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Little Eid respite for Musharraf

Other News Materials 15 October 2007 08:15 (UTC +04:00)

( Gulfnews ) Pakistan has the next few days off to celebrate the end of Ramadan, but by the middle of this week it should be back to a familiar state of being on the brink of a crisis.

While government offices and financial markets are shut through tomorrow for feasting and gifting during Eid Al Fitr festivities, US ally President Pervez Musharraf is unlikely to be able to escape worries over how to prolong his rule.

Al Qaida wants him dead, Taliban fighters are killing and kidnapping his soldiers, exiled civilian leaders Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif are getting ready to come home and Pakistan's previously docile judges are literally on his case.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will reconvene to consider whether Musharraf , who seized control in a coup eight years ago, is entitled to five more years in power having won an election while still army chief.

On Thursday, potential ally and possible rival Bhutto is due to end more than eight years of self-exile in a homecoming to Karachi that will be fraught with security and legal worries.

The Supreme Court has cast Musharraf's plans for the future in more uncertainty by saying it will hear challenges against the legality of his amnesty to protect Bhutto from graft charges, a move widely regarded as part of a deal for the pair to share power after national elections due in early January.

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