With Zias assassination, the second period of military rule in Pakistan came to an end. What followed was a longish civilian prologue to Musharrafs reign. For ten years members of two political dynasties the Bhutto and Sharif families ran the country in turn. It was Benazir Bhuttos minister of the interior, General Naseerullah Babar, who, with the ISI, devised the plan to set up the Taliban as a politico-military force that could penetrate Afghanistan, a move half-heartedly approved by the US Embassy. Washington had lost interest in Afghanistan and Pakistan once the Soviet Union had withdrawn its troops. The Taliban (students) were children of Afghan refugees and poor Pathan families educated in the madrassahs in the 1980s: they provided the shock troops, but were led by a handful of experienced mujahedin including Mullah Omar. Without Pakistans support they could never have taken Kabul, although Mullah Omar preferred to forget this. Omars faction was dominant, but the ISI never completely lost control of the organisation. Islamabad kept its cool even when Omars zealots asserted their independence by attacking the Pakistan Embassy in Kabul and his religious police interrupted a football match between the two countries because the Pakistan players sported long hair and shorts, caned the players before the stunned crowd and sent them back home.
