Pervez Musharraf was appointed as Chief of Army Staff when Nawaz Sharif later attempted to replace him, but it was too late. Sharif's government was toppled much like Bhutto's, with the military once again seizing power. Pakistan faced its fourth about of direct military rule in 1999.
Dr. Ayesha Jalal's book The Struggle for Pakistan states, “Fearing a military coup, the Pakistani prime minister was only too willing to oblige. A week before the drama that led to the overthrow of the PMLN government, both the Sharif brothers publicly condemned the Taliban, leading to speculation that the government was pushing an American agenda in the region. This fuelled resentments in GHQ and was one of the less well-publicized reasons for the coup.”
Musharraf's regime found itself in a delicate position internationally, oscillating between supporting terrorism and cooperating with the US in the war on terror. The events of 9/11 compelled Musharraf to align with the US, despite stiff internal opposition.
An excerpt from Dr. Jalal's book reads, “On the eve of the twenty-first century, authoritarian Pakistan was an international pariah for supporting the Taliban regime and initiating the Kargil incursion. Just as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan had come to General Zia’s rescue in 1979, the events of September 11, 2001, came to Musharraf’s rescue. Before the fires encircling the Twin Towers in New York had gone out, Pakistan had been catapulted to centre stage of America’s global policing enterprise for a second time in just over two decades…”
Musharraf presented himself as a bulwark against Talibanization and sought to extend his rule through a controversial referendum and rigged elections. His regime's actions, including the handling of local government and electoral manipulation, triggered widespread criticism and unrest.
Musharraf faced feverish opposition following the removal of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, which sparked the Lawyers' Movement.
“On March 9 2007, Justice Chaudhry was summoned to Army house in Rawalpindi and asked to resign. Chaudhry had irked the regime with his independent stand on several cases, including human rights violations in Baluchistan, and a petition against the privatization of the Karachi Steel Mills that implicated Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz,” Dr. Jalal writes.
The assault on Lal Masjid and Benazir Bhutto's return and subsequent assassination further destabilized the regime, paving the way for its eventual downfall. “A deal between the state’s intelligence operatives and militants associated with the Taliban seemed more than likely,” she writes about Benazir Bhuttos’ assassination.