BBC reports:

Observers say Mr Chaudhry offers an alternative to military rule

Several thousand of Mr Chaudhry’s supporters were with him, some chanting “Go, Musharraf, go”. The former chief justice had been surrounded by supporters on the 5km journey from his home to the court, and took more than two hours to get there.

The president is accused of trying to stifle the independence of the judiciary in an election year, and protests over the judge have snowballed into a campaign against the government.

Observers have said Mr Chaudhry is offering an alternative to Pakistan’s military rule, with an independent judiciary and a return to civilian government.

Reuters India isn’t silent on the worsening condition of Musharraf’s grip over power:
As Musharraf has come under fire for this perceived attack on the independence of the judiciary, his political allies have shown themselves unable to protect him.

Cracks are showing in the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, a party cobbled together after Musharraf’s 1999 coup, while its coalition partner, the Muttahida Quami Movement, is tainted by involvement in the Karachi violence.

The remaining pillars of support for Musharraf come from the army and the United States. Any sign of either of those creaking could be decisive.

Musharraf has looked flustered during television appearances in recent days and the tension among ordinary Pakistanis is palpable, particularly after the bloodbath in Karachi.

Herald Tribune reports in Pakistan’s suspended chief justice makes veiled criticism of military president on live TV:

About 8,000 jubilant lawyers and supporters from opposition parties gathered outside the court building, chanting slogans against Musharraf.

A clash between Chaudhry supporters and a government party killed 41 people in the southern city of Karachi two weeks ago. The violence generated sharp criticism of Musharraf at home and abroad amid claims that his supporters instigated the clashes with the apparent tacit support of security forces, which stood by without intervening.

Even CNN speaks out:

Pakistan’s suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry warned against centralized power in a thinly disguised criticism of President Pervez Musharraf, without ever mentioning him by name.

Musharraf appointed Chaudhry to the court in 2005, but the judge fell from favor after exercising independence from the government in a number of cases involving the disappearance of terrorist suspects and human rights activists.

Guardian also notes on the same lines:

Musharraf plans to seek another five-year term as president this fall. Political parties who have been sidelined since he seized power in a 1999 coup say the president wanted to get rid of the independent-minded judge in anticipation of legal challenges to his intention of seeking the new term while remaining head of the army. The government denies the move was politically motivated and says the judge had abused his office.

Boston Globe has a piece of advice (finally) for President Bush:

Musharraf has provoked anger in several quarters: from lawyers appalled at his suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry; from tribal members in Baluchistan furious at the army’s killing of a revered leader; from some tribal leaders who resent a regional warlord who killed hundreds of pro-Taliban Uzbek militants with backing from the Pakistani military; and from moderate Muslims who worry that nothing has been done to punish Islamist radicals who recently kidnapped an alleged brothel owner and destroyed music and video stores in Islamabad.

But these are matters for Pakistanis to decide, without lectures from an (US) administration that has been no more competent at promoting democratic change abroad than at coping with the aftermath of a hurricane.

Now, NDTV (along with many other news sources) report that:
According to a new biography of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz failed to charm her despite desperate attempts.

The book says that during her visit to Pakistan in March 2005, Aziz tried ”this savile row suited gigolo kind of charm, staring into Rice’s eyes”.

However, Rice stared him down and by the end of the meeting he was ”babbling” and shifting ”uncomfortably”.

According to the biography, Aziz bragged to Western diplomats that he could conquer any woman in two minutes, but failed miserably with Rice.

Brisbane Times from Australian continent also agrees:
“When Rice sat down with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who fancied himself as a ladies’ man, Aziz puffed himself up and held forth in what he obviously thought was his seductive baritone. He bragged - to Western diplomats, no less - that he could conquer any woman in two minutes.”

Mr Aziz, who is married with three children, was out of luck

“There was this test of wills where he was trying to use all his charms on her as a woman, and she just basically stared him down,” the newspaper quotes Mabry, a senior correspondent with Newsweek, as writing.

“By the end of the meeting he was babbling. The Pakistanis were shifting uncomfortably. And his voice visibly changed.”