Another Pass for Pakistan

Author:
Publication: Washington Post
Date: December 31, 2004
URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37889-2004Dec30.html

Today Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf will break yet another of the promises he has made to his country and the world since seizing power in a 1999 military coup against an elected government. A year ago, in exchange for parliamentary support for a package of laws increasing his powers as president, extending his rule through 2007 and curtailing elected government through the creation of a military-dominated national security council, Mr. Musharraf pledged to resign from his post as Army chief of staff by Dec. 31. It was to be a modest step toward returning Pakistan to civilian rule, if not democracy. Yet now Mr. Musharraf is reneging, claiming that his continuance in uniform is essential to the country's "unity." He is wrong, of course -- but sadly, his chief ally, President Bush, is unwilling to hold him accountable.

Mr. Bush continues to lionize Mr. Musharraf as a crucial ally in the war on terrorism and as someone who is leading Pakistan toward democracy. In fact the general has become a classic example of the sort of U.S. ally Mr. Bush has repeatedly vowed to repudiate: an authoritarian ruler who offers tactical security cooperation with the United States while storing up trouble for the future. Like Hosni Mubarak of Egypt or the former shah of Iran, Mr. Mubarak is perceived by his people to draw much of his power from Washington, which this year is supplying Pakistan with $700 million in aid and is discussing a billion-dollar package of arms sales. Many Pakistanis consequently blame the United States for their president's latest authoritarian step, which Mr. Bush failed even to mention during Mr. Musharraf's visit to the White House earlier this month. Pakistan's militantly anti-American Islamic parties grow steadily stronger, while the secular, pro-Western political parties that governed the country during the 1990s weaken.
 

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