Pakistan, Jan. 27 -- In Zafar Ali Shah v/s General Pervez Musharraf (2000) case, the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP), led by Chief Justice Irshad Hasan Khan, legitimized Musharraf's coup conditionally, requiring him to restore democracy in the country in three years. Quite unexpectedly, however, 9/11 offered him a long lease of Pakistan's Presidency, which he grabbed as a windfall.

Having established himself with the international support of the mighty and domestic following of the naive, he started dreaming of dying in the chair. This, he reckoned, would require both, the Jinnah cap as also the Peaked cap, and ventured to retain; which is what triggered his downfall.

Musharraf decided to contest the 2007 Presidential election in unifor...