Keeping his word, General Pervez Musharraf has stepped down as army chief on Wednesday and will retake oath as Pakistan’s civilian president on Thursday. Reports from Islamabad suggest one of President Musharraf’s first acts might be to lift the emergency imposed in November. Taken together, there is no missing the big moment in Pakistan’s political evolution. For one, we have seen a rare peaceful transfer of power by a ruling general of the Pakistan Army. None of the previous military rulers have had the luck to walk out of their office with both their life and dignity intact. In recent months, Musharraf seemed dangerously close to following that awful tradition.

Helping Musharraf see the virtue of quitting army headquarters has been an unprecedented pressure for political change in Pakistan. Conservatives in India, much like extremists in Pakistan, will attribute Musharraf’s surprising flexibility to Washington’s dictates. India must not allow this misguided cynicism to obscure the real maturation of Pakistani civil society in the current struggle against army rule. Since Musharraf initiated the political crisis in March by sacking the chief justice, the lawyers, journalists and students have demonstrated extraordinary courage to confront the dictatorship. Without that pressure from the street, the international community could have done little to persuade Musharraf to change course. No one, least of all India, should deny the newly assertive middle classes their well-deserved political triumph in forcing Musharraf to retrace his recent steps.

President Musharraf will now share power with two others. One is the new army chief, Ashfaq Kayani. Although handpicked by Musharraf, Kayani’s loyalty will be to the army, which remains Pakistan’s most powerful institution. The other will be a new political leadership that will emerge out of the planned general elections next January. To be sure, many campaigners for democracy are disappointed at the mere “redistribution” of power in Islamabad rather than a “transformation” of the country’s political structures. They were hoping to send the army back to the barracks and proclaim the primacy of constitutional rule. That there was no storming of the Bastille should not be a reason for defeatism in Pakistan over its democratic prospects. Pakistan’s urban middle classes must savour their triumph, and grab half the loaf that is on offer. They must refocus their movement’s attention on ensuring free and fair elections, and compelling their wayward civilian leaders to abide by their proclaimed commitment to real democratic change.