Musharraf: The Years In Power

On October 12, 1999, General Pervez Musharraf staged a coup d‰۪etat and became the Chief Executive of Pakistan. He then appointed himself President in 2001. In 2007, following his re-election as President and while the Pakistan Supreme Court was considering a petition on the constitutional validity of the election, he suspended the Constitution, dismissed the Supreme Court, and declared a State of Emergency. The Election Commission then confirmed his re-election. After being sworn in for a five-year term as President, Musharraf terminated the State of Emergency in November 2007 and announced that a general election would be held in February 2008. Musharraf‰۪s party, the PML-Q, was badly defeated in the election, with the slain leader Benazir Bhutto‰۪s party, the PPP, winning the largest number of seats and the PML-N winning a close second in the National Assembly. After being threatened with impeachment by these two parties, Musharraf announced his resignation from the presidency on August 18, 2008. Mohammedmian Soomro, Chairman of the Senate, took over as acting President, a responsibility given to him by the Constitution, until Asif Ali Zardari, co-chairman of the PPP and widower of Benazir Bhutto, was elected President on September 6, 2008