The scene was bizarre even for veteran riot watchers in
Islamabad. Scores of dark suited lawyers and students battled with
sticks and stones against baton wielding and tear gas throwing
police. For some foreign observers and anti-government activists,
however, the answer to the current Pakistani contretemps
is quite simple.
All that Pervez Musharraf has to do, they say, is reinstate the
suspended chief justice of the Pakistan Supreme Court. By doing
this the riots will cease, free elections can be held later this
year and former presidents Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sherif can be
allowed to return.
Of course it is necessary to overlook that both Bhutto and
Sherif were exiled because they led administrations marked by
massive incompetence and corruption. Neither appears fit to govern
in these times of crisis or instill confidence in the development
of democracy.
President Musharraf is sitting on a tinderbox of internal
conflict in a country quite willing to tear itself apart through
religious or secular strife or a combination of both. Meanwhile all
the traditional tribal rivalries of mountainous Waziristan continue
on as if it were still the days of the British Raj. The Taliban
benefits from this anachronistic battling, which no Pakistan regime
has ever been able to control.
As one of the most liberal -- if not the most liberal -- Islamic
nation in the world, Pakistan provides an example of the full range
of conflict and accomplishment possible in a Moslem nation. A small
but politically powerful segment of the populace urges the
application of strict adherence to ancient Islamic law to solve not
only Pakistan's problems but also those of neighboring
Afghanistan.
At the same time as Pakistan is categorized as underdeveloped,
it is both praised and attacked for its nuclear advances. A nation
that is supposed to be protecting the medieval practices of the
Taliban appears developed well beyond that of a supposedly modern
Iran. It took Islamabad's own Dr. Strangelove, in the form of Dr.
A.Q. Khan, to provide the Persians a starter kit of Pakistani
blueprints for nuclear weapon construction.
Meanwhile President Musharraf is under political attack because
he suspended the chief justice of the Pakistan Supreme Court for,
among other things, objecting to the transfer of terrorist suspects
by the nation's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to U.S. security
agencies. The fact that al Qaeda has used Pakistan as a sanctuary
and training ground for years seems to have been lost on the judge
and his rioting lawyers association.
American commentators and politicians have attacked the ISI for
everything from leaking information to the Taliban and al Qaeda to
actually hiding some of their leaders. Musharraf is characterized
as unable to control his intelligence services: a charge that
appears to have more than an element of truth. Washington always
seems to be a bit unsure of its South Asian ally, but there is no
question that it is needed.
All in all, General Pervez Musharraf has evolved from his early
days in power as "just the right sort of chap" to run the always
tempestuous Pakistan to " a bit of a dictator, what?" in the eyes
of his still anglophile compatriots. The Bush Administration is
slightly embarrassed from time to time at Musharraf's authoritarian
regime, but has remained loyal to him personally. The fact that the
President of Pakistan is reported to have a brother with a medical
practice in Chicago and a son working in investment finance in
Boston doesn't hurt. That's real globalization.
The extremely sophisticated and well-born President Hamid Karzai
of Afghanistan believes his Pakastani counterpart to be quite
untrustworthy and has so told the White House. Karzai believes that
Musharraf could have sealed the border between their countries, and
thus is responsible for allowing the reinfiltration of the Taliban.
Musharraf sees Karzai as an effete, rich guy with no military
knowledge, who toadies to the Americans. Obviously they don't get
along and they don't hide that fact. Both, however, are very
important to the United States.
No matter the tenor of opposition to Pervez Musharraf both
inside and outside Pakistan, the serious betting stands with
Pakistan's president remaining around for a while. In the
eventuality, however, of his stumbling there is another pro-U.S.
general, Ahsan Saleem Hayat, in the wings to command the armed
forces and the civilian Senate chairman, Mohammad Mian Soomro, to
assume the presidency. Two men to replace Musharraf would also
nicely divide the political inheritance. It might be an interesting
alternative to the usual graceless manner Pakistan's rulers leave
power.
topics:
Islam, Law, Supreme Court, Military, Iran, Pakistan
