Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf announced his resignation Monday, Aug. 18, 2008. He faced impeachment on charges that include violation of the constitution and gross misconduct. Musharraf's extraordinary run began when he seized power in 1999 in a military coup, and has endured by convincing the Bush administration of his indispensability in the U.S.-led "war-on-terror" in neighbouring Afghanistan and in preventing Pakistan's nuclear arsenal from falling into the hands of extremists. At home, he manipulated the constitution in a bid to legitimise his grip on power. But he has earned many enemies. The most formidable turned out to be Pakistan's powerful legal fraternity, which rallied around the chief justice and 63 members of the judiciary after Musharraf sacked them for refusing to endorse his Nov. 3, 2007 state of emergency. IPS examines Musharraf's mixed legacy and Pakistan's future.