India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire in 2003 in Kashmir, the dispute over which sparked two of their three wars since independence in 1947, and launched a peace process the following year.

Sethi said Musharraf’s rule was also responsible for the “break-up of the military-mullah alliance” — the tie-up between Pakistan’s military-run intelligence services and the jihadis.

Musharraf banned several extremist groups between 1999 and 2002 and outlawed the once widespread collection boxes that militant organizations kept in shops across the country.

But as Musharraf became increasingly focused on winning another five-year term in power during 2007, many of the gains he wrought were wiped out, analysts said.

Musharraf sacked the country’s chief justice and other senior judges during a state of emergency in November last year to force through his apparently unconstitutional re-election by the outgoing parliament while still chief of the army.

He also used the normally impartial president’s position, which is supposed to be a figurehead above the elected prime minister, to form his own political party and gave himself extra powers such as the ability to dissolve parliament.

Meanwhile, al-Qaida and Taliban extremists extended their sanctuaries in the ethnic Pashtun tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, where attacks on international troops, Afghan forces and civilians have soared.

And relations with India are at a low ebb after New Delhi accused Pakistan of involvement of the deadly bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul in July.

“Musharraf left a legacy of prolonged dictatorship which sowed seeds of further instability,” said Ishtiaq Ahmed, from the department of international relations at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad.

“He left behind many scars and many fissures.”

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