Security officials examine a bomb-damaged bus in Rawalpindi.
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There may be one more reason that today's attacks will garner the military more resentment: speculation is swirling that Musharraf could use today's attack against the military as justification for emergency rule, which would allow him to maintain presidential power beyond his current term — due to end in November — and suspend a pending parliamentary election slated for early next year. The President, who is facing an unprecedented wave of unpopularity since he attempted, and failed, to unseat the Supreme Court's chief justice last spring, is up against a wall, say analysts.
A not-so-secret power-sharing deal between Musharraf and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto seems to have stalled over the issue of the General's military uniform — shorthand for Musharraf's desire to maintain the dual post of head of the military and President of the country. And Musharraf's enemy, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whom Musharraf overthrew in 1999 in a bloodless coup, has announced that he will return from exile next week to lead his party, the PML-N. Recent opinion polls show Sharif to be leading far ahead of both Bhutto and Musharraf. At this point he looks to be the strongest threat yet to Musharraf's reelection bid.
But even emergency rule may backfire on the embattled President. With little support from the religious groups since July's raid on the Islamabad mosque, declining favor amongst the middle and upper classes for his cavalier attempts to interfere with the judiciary and even members of his own party defecting to support Nawaz Sharif, Musharraf may prove to be even too poisonous for the military, who have always appreciated widespread support from the populace. At this point, if Musharraf declares emergency rule, he is unlikely to get support from the military. His best bet, say some, would be to dissolve the assembly immediately. It's a risky proposition: doing so would gain Musharraf three months to polish up his image before a new electoral college reconvenes, but it is increasingly unlikely that any new assembly would vote him back into power. This time, it looks as if Musharraf may have finally run out of options.