The whole exercise seemed to have been aimed at getting rid of the recalcitrant and non-compliant chief justice, who inadvertently stepped into a tract where others never dared tread. He raised questions in an attempt to unravel sordid deals to sell the national assets, directed the government to produce the "missing men" believed to be picked up by intelligence agencies, and ensured that the gang-raped Mukhtaran Mai got justice. Even if all of these caused enough embarrassment to the government, it stomached it as a matter of expediency and the issues involved remained hushed-up.

But the action taken with regard to the CJ was a clear assault on the judiciary -- the last resort to address issues of national import. It was a grave national political crisis. Therefore, first the legal fraternity took the lead, and thereafter, other forces of the country coalesced with them for the restoration of the rule of law, forestalling the military's second coup by assaulting the judiciary and breaking its backbone.

If the chief justice overstepped his jurisdiction, the military establishment also overstretched it self by severely man-handling the CJ. While it wanted to demonstrate it power to all and sundry, its hollowness was further exposed and it looks weakened as never before.

The president has never been so vulnerable; neither the people of Pakistan have felt so despondent. Because even the court's order to reinstate the chief justice will not change the situation much as the desperation on the part of power centres will increase manifold. Yet a defining moment has arrived for the Pakistanis who could determine the fate and future of the country and give a shape to their democratic aspirations.

However, the long years of political vacuum in the country have left it leaderless. The people who waited all night to greet Chief Justice Iftikhar Chowdhury uncomfortably found no leader in their midst. But the people have already stepped into the vanguard of the struggle for change, leaving political leaders lagging somewhere several circuits behind. The search for new leader is on and eventually one will emerge, responding to the demand raised by the people. As such, the significance of the current struggle in Pakistan goes well beyond the immediate issues such as the survival and stability of the Musharraf regime.

When the country is apparently in turmoil there is tendency for the paranoia to run wild. This is especially true when the ruling class is under threat. Then every voice that questions the status quo seems to be the voice of dissent. Currently, as the judicial crisis rumbles on like a smouldering volcano a number of political players have at long last jumped on the bandwagon. This was predictable as the opposition all over the would takes advantage of the government's problems.

But today's Pakistan has much more potential to break open the military stranglehold it is subjected to. It has a vibrant intellectual community, active think-tanks, and a brave media. One Ayesha Siddiqa, a leading light of Pakistan's intelligentsia who has no political axe to grind, has caused great unease among Pakistan's ruling elite simply by producing her exceptionally well-researched analysis of the military's role in the political economy of Pakistan.

She was being pilloried by the government spokesmen and decided to leave the country for London where she had done her doctoral studies earlier. She has been exposing the military's business empire that afforded them control over the national economy as well as the political clout. Her treatise has been published there by Pluto Press under the title "Military Inc."

In Pakistan, the government disrupted the launching of the book by refusing the Oxford University Press to hold any such function there. This ham-handed government step gave the book a cachet and appeal it might not have gained otherwise. It was learnt that no more copies of the book was available over the counter of Karachi and Lahore. The assumption is that the "agencies" bought up most of the first print.

It is true that General Musharraf is under tremendous pressure from multiple quarters and may succumb to his present predicament. But a potent role has been played by Siddiqa's book in exposing the military's power game and its continuing grip over the levers of power through what she calls "milbus."

Coined by Siddiqa herself as a short-hand term: "milbus" refers to the military's business interests. According to Siddiqa it refers to military capital that is used for the personal benefit of the military fraternity, especially the officer corps. It is neither recorded nor a part of the defence budget.

In this respect it is completely an independent genre of capital. Its most significant component is entrepreneurial activities that do not fall under scope of the normal accountability procedures of the state, and are mainly for the gratification of military personnel and their cronies. In the most cases the rewards are limited to the officer cadre and top echelons of the armed forces who are main beneficiary of "milbus" and justify the economic dividends as welfare provided to the military for their services to the state.

The financial autonomy of the armed forces establishes the officer cadre's interest in retaining the political power of the state, since political power nurtures greater financial benefits the military fraternity see it as beneficial to perpetuate it. The officer corps has thus every reason to grasp, wield, and retain political power.

Dr. Siddiqa's book is a stinging indictment of military rule. But the reason it as so effective is that it is carefully researched and rigorously argued. It's not simply a critique of Musharraf and his government. Dr. Siddiqa has put the entire institution under a scholarly microscope -- not just in Pakistan but in any other country where the army calls the shots and might nourish Bonapartist aspirations.

Brig ( retd) Hafiz is former DG of BIISS.