None of the following is meant to take away from the gravity of the events taking place today in Pakistan. But, as I've said before, I'm constantly fascinated by the way the Pakistani constitution (in the British sense rather than in the sense of the formal document) manages to create this hybrid form of dictatorship and constitutionalism.

I know that Gen. Musharraf has over the last decade regularized his position to a great degree. But in most military dictatorships, the general in charge wouldn't need to be bothering with the country's Supreme Court in the first place. And when we hear he suspended the constitution today, didn't he kind of do that when he deposed the elected Prime Minister in 1999 and made himself head of government?

I know there are answers to these rhetorical questions. I even know most of them, at least at a layman's level of generality. But I find the whole topic one of great fascination.

More concretely, and more relevant to the questions we'll now be facing, what changes now? Since Musharraf was already running an extra-constitutional military government (perhaps 'dictatorship' is too strong a word, given the above), what will be different tomorrow?