MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

Pakistan Watch

• Posted by Sparta on November 5th, 2007 filed in General, International, Islamofascism, Pakistan, Politics, Sparta, Terrorism    

Troubles continue in Pakistan, and Pajamas Media has a roundup of articles on it as protestors battle police in the streets:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Police fired tear gas and battered thousands of lawyers protesting President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s decision to impose emergency rule, as Western allies threatened to review aid to the troubled Muslim nation. More than 1,500 people have been arrested in 48 hours, and authorities put a stranglehold on independent media.

Meanwhile, the US urges a move toward democracy.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Washington was reviewing its assistance to Pakistan, which has received billions in aid since Musharraf threw his support behind the U.S.-led war on terror after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

At a news conference in the West Bank on Monday, Rice urged Musharraf to follow through on past promises to “take off his uniform.”

“I want to be very clear,” she said, as a team of U.S. defense officials postponed plans to travel to Islamabad for talks Tuesday because of the crisis. “We believe that the best path for Pakistan is to quickly return to a constitutional path and then to hold elections.”

But there’s more at play here than just Musharraf versus Bhutto and the people for democracy, of course. This is Pakistan, after all. I can’t help but wonder how this might be benefiting the radical Islamists and providing an “in” for them as the secular elements divide. Stanley Kurtz notes that the media has “tended to underplay, or even openly challenge, the jihadist angle” in “Al-Qaedastan,” and considers the very real possibility of civil war, and says maybe Musharraf was right in declaring a state of emergency:

Pakistan’s government has never faced armed, independent, organized, and territorially based Islamist opposition on today’s scale. That is likely to give Pakistan’s recurring political history a radical new twist. In calmer circumstances, a stable democracy guided by a secular middle-class might have headed off the specter of Islamist radicalism. Today, however, given the size and strength of the Islamist threat, and given the unique social role of Pakistan’s army, a military government may be the only real bulwark against the potential disaster of a nuclear-armed al-Qaedastan.

It would have been better if the power-sharing deal between Musharraf and Bhutto had held. If such a deal can still be rescued and genuinely made to work, that would certainly be welcome. Yet contrary to the claim that terrorism was just an excuse, I fear that Musharraf’s invocation of the state’s critical vulnerability was all too valid.

You know what they say–”he may be a dictator, but he’s our dictator.”

Obviously, a western-style democracy would be nice, but realistically, elections alone do not mean things will end up to our liking. Just look at Gaza. Or Turkey. Or yes, Iraq. And you know that tired old refrain, “Hitler was elected, too.”

Nevertheless, Musharraf’s government has just announced that parliamentary elections will still be held in January as planned:

Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz announced Monday that parliamentary elections will be held in January, as scheduled.

Aziz’s comments followed a call Monday by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown for Pakistan to restore normal democratic and constitutional processes, and to confirm the January elections.

Reuters, meanwhile, reported that President Bush called on Musharraf to quickly return to civilian rule and release people detained under an emergency decree.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the U.S. was “deeply disturbed” by Musharraf’s emergency rule decree.

Reuters also reported that Pakistan’s National Assembly would be dissolved by Nov. 15 to make way for January elections.

Aziz, meanwhile, told reporters that Musharraf is “committed to making sure that elections are held and that the democratic process flourishes in Pakistan.

“As a result of what has happened there could be some timing differences but no decision has been made,” he said.

Ahem. Emphasis mine. “Some timing differences,” I’d guess, would leave the door open to “whenever we think it’s safe.” And honestly, I’m not sure I find that as disturbing as some others may say they do. (Frankly, I’m seeing a lot of demagoguery from self-centered pundits looking to score points against Bush, as though he’s somehow to blame for this–just as they blame him for everything else. Get over yourselves.)

Meanwhile Benazir Bhutto reacts to Musharraf’s crackdown:

The Pakistan People’s Party chief, who returned to her country last month from an eight-year self-exile under a power sharing deal with the General, warned that “subversion of democracy” could fuel further extremism.

Bhutto said the political parties will meet to share views and come up with a “consensus plan of action”.

“….certainly demonstrations will be under unless General Musharraf moves quickly to defuse the situation and restore the constitution,” she said.

“…it would be dangerous but the dangers of not doing anything are far greater. We either acquiesce to the spread of extremism and terrorism in our country. And if we don’t acquiesce then we are termed controversial and polarizing.

“But we feel that we cannot accept and acquiesce to the rise of militancy and extremism in our country, which threaten our people’s lives and so although there are risks, we have to take those risks,” Bhutto maintained.

Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan’s former prime minister, faces some hard decisions now that President Pervez Musharraf has assumed sweeping emergency powers.

She must decide whether to continue to seek a power-sharing deal with General Musharraf or to make a clean break from him. For the time being, she is hedging her bets.

While she has condemned the declaration of emergency rule, she has not called her supporters from the Pakistan People’s party (PPP) on to the streets - a move that would dramatically raise the stakes.

It’s not going to be easy for Pervez Musharraf to keep things from exploding without the support of Bhutto; the PPP and Musharraf need to be united to fight the Islamic extremists. If Benazir Bhutto is serious about ridding Pakistan of extremism, she would be wise (and it would only be to her long-term benefit) to not disrupt things further, even if the emergency rule holds for a while. There has already been an attempt on her life by the jihadists, and if they were to take power, she can forget about seeing “power-sharing agreements” or democracy of any kind in Pakistan.

UPDATE: Everything said more succinctly:

The State Department response — calling for immediate free elections — is idiotic. Break down Pakistan’s instability into just some of its component parts — Islamist militancy, tribal unrest, deep-seated ethnic separatism, feudal oppression, sectarian hatred, an incompetent and corrupt ruling elite, an ill-educated population, a paranoid and conspiratorial culture — and it’s far from clear that dictatorship is the disease or elections the cure.

It’s interesting that the official Indian reaction has been so careful. Said a Foreign Ministry spokesman: “We regret the difficult times that Pakistan is passing through…We trust that conditions of normalcy will soon return, permitting Pakistan’s transition to stability and democracy to continue.” New Delhi clearly realizes that Musharraf for all his faults may be preferable to any alternative. …