IN RETURN FOR cooperation in the war on terror
since 9/11, the United States has provided
Pakistan’s military ruler, Gen. Pervez Musharraf,
with billions of dollars in aid and almost total
support in his quest to remain president - until
recently.
Eight years after seizing power in a coup,
Musharraf is trying to grab five more years
through political manipulation and blatant
coercion. However, even as he rewrote it, the
Pakistani Constitution prohibits him from being
president unless he stops being army chief.
That would normally be a minor irritant, easily
ignored. But the ground is shifting under
Musharraf’s feet. Pakistanis are turning out in
mass demonstrations led by lawyers whose
tolerance for Musharraf has been replaced with a
newfound regard for the rule of law. The slogan
on the street: "The U.S. has a pet dog in
Pakistan - he wears a uniform."
One cause of this turnabout is Musharraf’s clumsy
attempt to fire the country’s chief justice,
Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, in March. The judge
has had the temerity to rule against the
government in key cases, so in an election year,
he could not be trusted to legitimize Musharraf’s
bid to remain president.
Musharraf’s difficulties have caught the Bush
administration flat-footed. But his fall from
grace should not have come as a surprise. The
general’s rule has seen the Pakistani military
engage in abuse, brutality and greed. Hundreds,
perhaps thousands, of Musharraf’s political
adversaries have disappeared. Some, as Human
Rights Watch has documented, have been sent to
secret CIA-controlled detention facilities. But
many more, unconnected to the war on terror,
remain in the hands of the Pakistani military’s
feared Inter-Services Intelligence agency.
Pakistani journalists are regularly threatened,
beaten and tortured - and several have been
killed. Moderate political parties, which command
an overwhelming share of the popular vote, have
seen their leaders, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz
Sharif, hounded into exile. Political activists
have been harassed and jailed for not accepting
Musharraf’s supremacy. Such brutal repression has
triggered an insurgency in mineral-rich
Baluchistan province and helped push the tribal
areas bordering Afghanistan into the embrace of
the Taliban.
Yet the Bush administration, fearful of radical
Islamists, has rebuffed experts who have urged a
return to civilian rule in Pakistan.
There were signs of change. On June 12, the U.S.
finally challenged the Musharrafian construction
of democracy. State Department spokesman Sean
McCormack pointed out that the general had
pledged to “put aside” his uniform and that the
U.S. expected him to "follow through on his
commitments." Washington also dispatched
Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher to
Pakistan, where he met with opposition leaders
and called for free elections.
But within days, McCormack seemed to be eating
his words, declaring Musharraf an agent for
“positive change” in Pakistan. "He is the one who
had pledged to resolve this issue of the uniform
and holding civilian office,“McCormack said.”It’s not a condition of the United States. It’s
a self-imposed condition by President Musharraf."
The United States should stop fearing the future
without a general in charge in Pakistan and come
out unequivocally in support of democracy.
Radical Islam would not win the day if Musharraf
were coaxed into retirement. Islamists have never
polled more than 12% of the vote in national
elections.
The Pakistani military has a long and
well-documented history of prioritizing its
economic empire, estimated to be worth at least
$20 billion, over any ideological considerations.
Paid by the U.S., it nurtured radical Islam in
the 1980s to fight the Soviet occupation of
Afghanistan - and then embraced just as quickly
the opportunity to be paid to dismantle the same.
Of course, putting that genie back in the bottle
has proved difficult, but the effort guarantees
continued U.S. political engagement and financial
aid. Musharraf’s successors - military and
civilian - are unlikely to want to commit
economic and political suicide by adopting
radical Islamism.
It is time for the U.S. to insist on a return to
civilian rule through free and fair elections,
for which the return and participation of
Pakistan’s exiled political leaders are a
prerequisite. Musharraf must take off his uniform
and restore the presidency to its largely
ceremonial constitutional role in a parliamentary
democracy. Only then can he legitimately run for
president by seeking election from a truly
representative parliament.
As things stand, Pakistan’s army, judiciary,
political parties and even civil society are
sullied by their association with Musharraf. The
country must return to genuine civilian rule for
these institutions to renew themselves and assume
their rightful role in a healthy democracy.
If the Bush administration actually believes its
high-minded rhetoric about the spread of
democracy, there is no better place to start than
Pakistan.