Pakistan: The Key Players in Pervez Musharraf's Downfall

General Ashfaq Kayani

Kayani was perceived as a close Musharraf ally when he was appointed last November. However, as Musharraf's popularity fell, Kayani pulled the army back from politics, ordering soldiers to steer clear of politicians and withdrawing senior officers from sinecures - patronage jobs - in civilian institutions. In the February general elections, Kayani warned Musharraf against any attempt at manipulation in a further sign that the army had abandoned the former head of the army to his fate.

Given the importance of the army in Pakistan, Kayani can be expected to be one the country's most influential figures, courted by the US for its "war on terror" in the largely lawless border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and by Pakistan's politicians to ensure that the army stays in the barracks and does not stage another coup.

Nawaz Sharif

Sharif tried to return to Pakistan from exile in September but was kicked out after a few hours, an episode that burnished his democratic credentials. Sharif, who leads Pakistan's second-biggest party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N, served as finance minister and chief minister under General Zia-ul-Haq during martial law. He was deposed as prime minister by Musharraf in 1999 because of the military's unhappiness with his decision to withdraw Pakistani-backed forces from the Indian side of the line of control in disputed Kashmir.

Like Benazir Bhutto, Sharif twice served as prime minister, and like her he has been tainted by charges of corruption. Although an outspoken advocate of democracy today, Sharif did not shy away from strong arm measures when he was in power. In his second term, he undermined MPs by forcing through a constitutional amendment that required all national assembly members to vote along party lines. He tried to intimidate the press by ordering tax investigations into certain editors, and his supporters ransacked the supreme court building when it tried to hear a case in which he was a defendant.

Asif Zardari

Zardari took over the leadership of the Pakistan People's party (PPP) after the assassination of his wife, Benazir Bhutto, last December. For months, he and Sharif plotted to impeach Musharraf. Zardari was widely known as "Mr 10%" during Bhutto's first time as prime minister, amid allegations of receiving backhanders. By the second term, he was known as "Mr 20%" as inflation took hold.

In his second term as prime minister, Sharif ordered an investigation into allegations the Bhuttos took millions of dollars in kickbacks involving a contract to improve the collection of customs duties. A Geneva magistrate said he found Swiss bank accounts in the name of offshore Virgin Island companies that were in fact controlled by Zardari. In their first five months in office, the PPP and the PML-N coalition passed the national reconciliation ordinance, a law that wipes out 15 years' worth of corruption cases against politicians, including 11 years during PPP and PML rule.

Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry

Musharraf's downward slide began when he tried to sack Pakistan's chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, in March last year. Described by Musharraf as "the scum of the earth", Chaudhry had emerged as a major thorn in the former president's side, opposing him on several occasions. In one standoff the supreme court rejected the deportation of the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who was expelled when he tried to return last September.

The chief justice took up cases of "forced disappearances" - people believed to have been picked up by the country's powerful intelligence agencies without due legal process. Commentators said Chaudhry, who has been under house arrest since last November, had become an outright threat to the government because he had begun to take the constitutional guarantee of judicial independence too seriously and was poking his nose into delicate government business. Chaudhry remained defiant during his period of house arrest, urging Pakistan's lawyers to stand up to Musharraf.