It's always a joyous occasion when a dictator falls, but even more joyous when it is a democratic process that ends his reign. In many years of covering political events, one that remains etched in my memory is the night Indira Gandhi was defeated in March 1977. I remember how ordinary, apolitical people stayed up all night dancing in the streets of Delhi in celebration of her fall. I was not in Pakistan when the results of the election came last week, but I am certain that there would have been celebration in the streets and a general sense that a bad time was coming to an end.

Like all dictators, Pervez Musharraf has a distorted sense of his importance, so he may hang on like a limpet as long as he can, but he is finished. There is no question that he was the main issue in last week’s election and Pakistani voters have shown clearly that they want him to go. It’s time to write his requiem and there are few good things to say. Let me begin with them. When I returned to Pakistan last month, after having been denied a visa for six years, I did see some things that had changed for the better. I saw restaurants in which people could drink a glass of wine without a mullah breathing down their neck and I saw evidence of a large middle class that had not been there before. Islam was less visible in the public square and as someone who thinks religion has no place in the public square I saw this as a good sign.

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