February 20, 2008
Can These Guys Run Pakistan?
Pervez Musharraf, who seized power illegally and whose unpopularity now prompts rioting in Pakistan's streets, isn't going anywhere.
Not if he can help it, anyway. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal (subscription), Musharraf stubbornly insisted on his relevance to Pakistani politics and said he would help shepherd in the newly elected government.
But the leaders of the two parties that won big in Monday's parliamentary election -- former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League-N Party and Asif Ali Zardari of the Pakistan Peoples Party -- called on Musharraf to step down. The two are meeting today to discuss, in all likelihood, forming a broad-based coalition government that does not include Musharraf.
"He used to say that when people expressed no confidence in him that he would leave. Now the people have announced their decision," said Sharif, who was tossed out of office in the military coup led by the former general in 1999.
The Bush administration was toeing a fine line between supporting Monday's exercise in democracy and standing by Musharraf, its ally in the war on the terror. Analysts believe the cord between the White House and Musharraf ought to have been severed months ago.
"You have a number of different political parties that have, in one form or another, expressed deep interest and an abiding commitment to fighting violent extremists and fighting terrorists," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a briefing yesterday. He stressed that cooperation in fighting al-Qaida and Taliban extremists, especially along Pakistan's shared border with Afghanistan, was America's prime interest in the region's politics.
"Fundamentally, regardless of who is sitting in the prime minister's chair, the foreign minister's chair, the defense minister's chair -- primarily, that's our interest in remaining committed to the Pakistani people. So we're going to work with President Musharraf. We're going to work with this new government on those issues and towards those goals that are in our national interest," McCormack said.
During his tour of Africa yesterday, President Bush was a bit more bullish on the election outcome. "There were elections held that have been judged as being fair, and the people have spoken," Bush said, calling the elections (which were delayed following the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in December) a "victory in the war on terror." Islamists were soundly defeated in Monday's vote.
Perhaps in Musharraf's favor are the differences between the PPP and the PML-N. If it weren't for their shared mutual loathing of Musharraf, this story would be all about the loathing between Sharif and Zardari, Bhutto's widower. Sharif has said all the judges sacked by Musharraf when he was desperately grasping power ought to have their jobs back, and a restored Supreme Court may act decisively to toss Musharraf from power. But the PPP stands to lose out, because an independent judiciary could also reverse the amnesty granted to Zardari for alleged crimes committed before 1999, according to the Journal.
Although Zardari may be seen as a reliable ally in the war on terror, there are clouds hanging over Sharif, who was seen as cozy with Islamist elements during his time in power. The London Times is calling for Musharraf to make like Fidel Castro and leave.
Posted at 9:17 AM
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Afghanistan, Al-Qaida, Asia, Bush Administration, Pakistan, President Bush, Terrorism
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