Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf resigned today.

The Pakistani parliament had initiated impeachment proceedings against him on charges of conspiring against the nation’s democratic transition. Many of his key political allies abandoned him. The powerful army he led for nine years was no help to him. Even the once-guaranteed supporting voice from Washington fell silent.

The only sympathetic voice that spoke out on Musharraf’s behalf ironically came from Pakistan’s historic rival India. In an interview with the The Times of India, Indian National Security Advisor MK Narayanan said: “It [the impeachment] leaves a big vacuum and we are deeply concerned about this vacuum because it leaves the radical extremist outfits with freedom to do what they like, not merely on the Pak-Afghan border but clearly our side of the border too. Like nature abhors a vacuum, we abhor the political vacuum that exists in Pakistan. It greatly worries us.”

Musharraf’s ouster from politics creates a power vacuum in Pakistan that will need to be filled. The current Pakistani government is based on a coalition of the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League. These two rival parties are currently united only in their disdain for Musharraf. That means that with Musharraf’s departure, governmental instability will increase and Pakistan will literally be up for grabs.

Such a state could be deadly for Pakistan because of the number of radical Islamists that make the nation their safe haven. Jihadi insurgents have already taken over substantial sections of Pakistan’s mountainous western regions. If the central government weakens, these jihadists will only grow stronger.

In the past, the Pakistani Army has staged a coup in such situations in order to prevent the country from descending into chaos. Now, however, even the Army and the Inter-Service Intelligence Agency reportedly have significant radical Islamic pockets within them. Musharraf’s ouster will ensure Pakistan grows even more chaotic—and the likely winner will be the Islamists.

This threat is all the more serious when you consider what Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote in our January 2008 print edition: “Pakistanalso has the nuclear bomb and could be taken over by radical Islam, with plenty of help from Iran. That means it could become a proxy of the Iranian mullahs. This would be the worst possible disaster!”

For more information about the threat that Pakistani instability poses to the world, read “Pakistan and the Shah of Iran” by Gerald Flurry.