The Defiant Dictator: Pervez Musharraf

Musharraf, the man Pakistanis love to hate, and hate to love, has been splashed across front pages and has taken up more air-time in 2013 than any other political rival, despite abysmal performance in the elections. The media frenzy started in March, when he returned from his self-imposed exile, committed to contending general elections, heavily armed commandos met him as his flight landed from Dubai, and serving as a precursor for things to come, a mass rally in Karachi was cancelled.

In April his political dreams were quashed by a court ruling and he was placed under house arrest. In May, his party won two seats, one provincial and one national, both from Chitral. In June, he was named the prime suspect in the Bugti murder case and the Benazir murder case. In August, he was indicted in the latter case. In September an FIR was registrered against him for his role in the events of the Lal Masjid encounter in 2007. And in November, the government announced that they would be tried for treason, for which he has been summoned in December.

The many trials and tribulation of Pervez Musharraf continue to hound him as the year comes to a close, but his fate will most likely be decided in 2014.