Certainly, corruption was at the heart of last week's coup, which removed from office Nawaz Sharif, who looked on as Benazir Bhutto was hauled into court for graft. For her part, Miss Bhutto, convicted along with her husband, earlier had accused Mr. Sharif of corruption. Then there is the taint attached to supporters on both sides. Just who is clean and who isn't is almost impossible to figure out. Not surprisingly then, Gen. Pervaiz Musharraf's coup met with little dismay from his countrymen.
Ordinary folks are familiar with the military trying to fix water-meter fraud.
They have seen it build roads. Then there's the memory of Gen. Zia ul Haq, the last military dictator, as a tough but pious man who led a simple life. But the generals aren't without their own black marks. There's Kargil, the adventure in Kashmir that led to a humbling by India. More, there are the sectarian terrorists the military tried to pursue in special courts, eventually ruled unconstitutional.