DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - U.S.A./PAKISTAN: HOW MUCH LONGER WILL PAKISTANS NUKES BE UNDER CONTROL OF MOSLEMS FRIENDLY TO MUSHARRAF?!?!?

Pressure grows for Musharraf to go
Even some of his former strongest supporters are deserting the Pakistan President, reports
by Bruce Loudon

WITH his civilian power base fast fracturing and public anger over his attempts to sack the country's Chief Justice reaching a new pitch, Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf last night faced the prospect of a new challenge to his authority - a campaign of civil disobedience aimed at bringing down his regime.

Democratic opposition parties met in Islamabad over the weekend with the conservative Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal - once among the President's strongest supporters - and agreed to a campaign of civil disobedience aimed at thwarting General Musharraf's attempt to win another five years in office.

The meeting, which came as thousands of protesters surrounded the Supreme Court building to stage yet another mass demonstration in support of suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, was significant for the cross-section of leaders it drew.

General Musharraf plunged the country into a judicial crisis on March 9 by suspending Justice Chaudhry and ordering a panel of judges to hold an inquiry into misconduct charges against him. The act was seen as an attempt to remove an independent Chief Justice who might prove an obstacle to General Musharraf's bid to win another five-year term in office later this year. But it has spectacularly backfired.

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1) Pressure grows for Musharraf to go