ISLAMABAD: Pervez Musharraf, who took power in a high-altitude coup and later dragged a reluctant nation into the US-led war on terror, left office yesterday after turbulent nine years.

The former military commando’s decision to side with Washington after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks earned Western plaudits and an injection of much-needed aid that helped rescue Pakistan from bankruptcy and the status of an international pariah.

But that alliance also triggered an explosion in militancy in his homeland. Combined with his fumbled efforts to stay in power as democracy returned to Pakistan, he left the presidency reviled by many of his countrymen.

Musharraf yielded to months of immense political pressure from bitter rivals who swept February elections.

Facing the humiliation of impeachment, in what would have been a first for Pakistan, Musharraf chose to go — but not without a last burst of the defiant self-confidence that marked his long domination of the country.

“They want to impeach me now. Why do they want to do it?” Musharraf said in a televised address in which he denied any wrongdoing. “Do they want to cover their failure?” Musharraf, an urbane special forces veteran, seized power in a 1999 coup from then-prime minister, Nawaz Sharif.

Sharif had ordered Musharraf's dismissal as the army chief was flying home from a visit to Sri Lanka and denied his plane landing rights in Pakistan, even as it ran low on fuel. On the ground, the army seized control, and Musharraf took over, promising to install “true” democracy.

While few doubted he wanted a stable, religiously moderate Pakistan, his commitment to democracy was shaky. His popularity plummeted in 2007, when he declared a state of emergency and sacked independent-minded Supreme Court judges who could have barred his re-election.

He was widely credited with seeking peace with rival India. While a lasting solution to the core dispute over Kashmir remains elusive, the dialogue dramatically reduced the chance of a cataclysmic future conflict.

Musharraf, who described his military uniform as his “second skin,” led Pakistan Army for nine years and only ceded control in late 2007. He often harked back to his time as a commando and was famously unruffled by two huge Al-Qaeda bombings against him within 11 days in December 2003 in which he escaped injury.

Born on Aug. 11, 1943, in New Delhi, India, the middle son of a diplomat, Musharraf's family joined millions of other Muslims in migrating westward when India and Pakistan split during independence from Britain in 1947. Riots and fighting left hundreds of thousands dead. In the army, Musharraf said he was almost court-martialed for indiscipline but was saved by his bravery during Pakistan's second war with India.

He spent seven years in the elite Special Services Group and rose through the ranks, but was relatively unknown when Sharif promoted him over two other generals to army chief in 1998.

The next year, he masterminded a military operation at Kargil, the first Pakistani push into the Indian-held part of Kashmir since the 1971 war. The offensive nearly brought the nuclear neighbors to a new conflict.

Musharraf's relationship with Sharif grew tense after the prime minister agreed to withdraw the Pakistani troops.

The coup that brought Musharraf to power was bloodless and widely welcomed in Pakistan. Sharif, meanwhile, was convicted of hijacking and sentenced to life imprisonment, but agreed in 2000 to go into exile. He only returned last year, vowing political revenge. His party is now the second largest in the ruling coalition.

Meanwhile, analysts said it is not clear the coalition government can focus on the economy as it promised, or stay in power for long.

That is because the two main parties in the coalition, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), are old rivals.

They have bonded together over their opposition to Musharraf but will compete in the next election, and have differences over key issues, including the restoration of judges deposed by Musharraf last year.