The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Islamabad

Pervez Musharraf has survived combat as a career soldier and assassination attempts as president. Now the will of his own people has pushed him to the precipice. A sweeping opposition win in elections has diminished the U.S.-backed leader's political standing as never before and many predict his days in power are numbered. Musharraf has already given up his command of the army, and his rock-bottom popularity at home has diminished his effectiveness to his Western allies in the fight against Islamic extremism. "I don't see him surviving. It is just a question of time," said Shafqat Mahmood, a political analyst who is a prominent commentator in Pakistani newspapers and television. Monday's elections, in which the ruling party mustered just 15 percent of the vote, exposed how little support Musharraf has among Pakistan's 160 million people. Many are alarmed at rising Islamic militancy, weary of prolonged military rule and angry at high food prices. The parties of Bhutto and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, whom Musharraf ousted in a 1999 coup, came close to winning the two-thirds majority needed to impeach the president.