Rival Calls for Musharraf's Head

A political rival blasted President Pervez Musharraf today, leading a massive crowd to chant “Hang him, hang him,” the New York Times reports. In a televised address that capped off days of protest in Islamabad, Nawaz Sharif grew heated: “We asked you to quit with honor after the election but you didn’t,” he said. “Now people have given a new judgment for you.”

Sharif's counterpart at the Pakistan Peoples Party, Asif Ali Zardari, was absent today, and has attacked Musharraf more moderately. Sharif's insistence on the death penalty for Musharraf rekindled memories of 1999; then, it was US intervention that prevented Musharraf from hanging Sharif after his political ouster. (More Nawaz Sharif stories.)