NEW DELHI -- Pakistan's ousted prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, is now perhaps both happy and unhappy. Happy that his country's military dictator, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has spared his life. Yet unhappy, because the 25-year imprisonment handed him -- for trying to prevent Musharraf's plane from landing in Pakistan on Oct. 12, among other charges -- can in many ways be worse than the noose.
Admittedly, nobody, not even the bookies who indulged in crazy betting, thought that Musharraf would copy the last military ruler, Gen. Zia-ul Haq, who hanged another ousted premier, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a little over two decades ago.
There was tremendous international pressure against such adventurism, and if one were to go by indications, U.S. President Bill Clinton himself had, during his recent stopover in Islamabad, asked Musharraf to be restrained.