Bush says General Pervez Musharraf not a Dictator

* Suspend the constitution
* declare martial law
* cancel elections
* ignore supreme court ruling that you were not legally elected
* arrest the supreme court and replace it with hand-picked stooges
* round up opposition leaders
* surround critics' homes with tanks and soldiers
* beat and arrest all the lawyers

Seriously... what dictatorial step are we waiting for, exactly? I can't think of anything that's missing.

:sarcasm:

* Suspend the constitution
Yes.

* declare martial law
Not quite. There's a local distinction between what he's done and martial law. And the distinction is important.

* cancel elections
He called them, he might postpone them. As of this morning, Shujaat said they were going to take place on schedule.

* ignore supreme court ruling that you were not legally elected
The ruling was a rumor. It was never actually issued, the case was to be formally decided the Monday/Tuesday after the PCO was promulgated. (Which, oddly, has been described as a verbatim copy of the 1999 PCO.)

* arrest the supreme court and replace it with hand-picked stooges
4 of the "hand-picked stooges" were already on the Court, including Dogar. The others were told to retake their loyalty oaths; they didn't, otherwise they--except maybe Chaudhry--would still be there. The stooges were pre-picked and self-selected. If I were Musharraf and the SC did some of the things they did, I'd be seriously tempted to do something about it, too. (Really, dismissing the government-appointed Lal Masjid imam suo motu and replacing him with a militant, a close relative of the guy who was behind the last takeover--with his first 'sermon' being a call to jihaad? This wasn't law; this was vendetta. Then again, Musharraf's handling of Fazlullah leaves a lot to be desired.)

* round up opposition leaders
Yes. The party that supports Musharraf went on record saying they understand. Note that Bhutto, though, is free to issue a call for a massive protest, probably after jum'a prayers, and the newspapers are not only free to publicize this, but also to provide info on how to get satellite feeds that they'll be channelling from outside the country. Unlike under ul-Haq, nobody's been hanged.

* surround critics' homes with tanks and soldiers
Mostly the critics are in the previous two groups, to be honest.

* beat and arrest all the lawyers
Not all. Just those protesting. Mostly in the Sindh, for some reason, with some in Panjab.

"Military dictatorship lite", at best. I'm waiting to see what Musharraf does when (if?) he takes the oath of office as president.

Meanwhile, there are reports of a coming crackdown in and around Swat and the NWFP. There's a rumor that there's a rather large troop redeployment from the Indian border in the works. This could get interesting.