Well hindsight is great, but back in 1999 Nawaz sharif was getting out of control (sajjad ali shah supreme court attack is one example) and then he decided to change an army chief when he was out of the country and then block the karachi runway so he probably would be sent to jacobabad to be arrested, though i don’t know how true it is that musharraf’s plane wold have to divert to india due to low fuel, and I don’t have any sympathy for his “democratic set up”. Musharraf’s mistakes started after the 2002 elections when the honest set up after 1999 was wound up due to political decisions. Musharraf would be popular today even if he had resigned in late 2006 or early 2007 as he had 66% approval rating for being a dictator and all.
I don’t like some views of Imran Khan (discussion would take thread elsewhere) but since we are in the gutter anyways, it is better to experiment with him now than later. What is stopping these parties to become mature now when America is giving a chance to Pakistani democracy and musharraf’s media reforms have made it hard for military to just walk in?