Re: Why is President Musharraf acting so confident?
Confident? :cb:
More ‘spin’ by Aalsi
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\02\24\story_24-2-2008_pg7_4
Musharraf said to be ‘sulking’ in a ‘mental bunker’
WASHINGTON: President Pervez Musharraf, according to a senior official of the former ruling party, is “sulking”, having “retreated into a mental bunker, which is not healthy. He thinks everyone is out to get him and only listens to a small circle. It’s a dangerous mindset to be in at this point in time. He could decide to hit back.”
The report published by the London newspaper Guardian, monitored here, says the “retired general still trots out for afternoon tennis, aides say, and enjoys a game of bridge a few times a week. In the evenings he pulls on a cigar.”
A PML-Q official, meanwhile, said his party was being pressured by US embassy officials hoping for a coalition between the PML-Q and the Pakistan People’s Party. “The Americans want a German-style grand coalition including the PPP,” he said. “They want Musharraf to stick around, even if it’s a diminished Musharraf.”
British officials have been more coy, bristling at suggestions they are following the American lead. But many Pakistanis believe Whitehall is “singing from a hymn sheet drawn up in the White House”.
Western diplomats fear that Nawaz Sharif cannot, or will not, deliver on their greatest concern: hunting Al Qaeda and Taliban militancy. Critics suspect Nawaz of being a closet “fundo”. They recall his infamous attempt to crown himself “commander of the faithful” while prime minister in 1998, and point to his family’s conservative background. His close links with Saudi Arabia have also caused some concern, particularly about possible leakage of nuclear technology. According to the report, Musharraf’s fate also rests on the “ability of the fractious opposition to unite. In a country of giant egos and troubled history, that’s no sure thing. A complex game of blackmail and manoeuvre is underway.”