His Achilles heel

LAHORE- The iron man of Pakistan who enjoyed carte blanche for more than eight years, himself invited his nemesis on March 9, 2007 when he sacked Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry as Chief Justice of Pakistan, overreaching his authority under the Constitution without assessing the consequences.

General (Retd) Pervez Musharraf, throughout his stay in office, exuded such a high confidence in his individual decisions and actions which, as says an observer, proved his Achilles’ heel to keep him blind to the realities and the facts. After Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was restored to the office by a 13-member Bench of the Supreme Court on July 20,2007, President Musharraf remained undaunted to the judiciary under Justice Chaudhry and took the November 3 action and clamped down the state of emergency in the country and sacked over 60 judges of the superior judiciary only to ensure his candidature in the Presidential election and to get an easy sailing in the same.

From the inception in power under a seven-point agenda, he laid down the foundations of a structure of system where all institutions and persons were to inescapably look at him for power and guidance to follow his decisions. Even in the last speech to the nation, he did strongly defended his decisions and actions and blamed the govt for failing to deliver the good to the people.

In his address, he pointed out a number of achievements he made to build the country and blamed just a six-month old govt for all ills and problems right now facing the country. Even under a sombre posture in his address, his confidence to plead his case against impeachment was profuse although he skipped a number of vital points therein.