News from the epicenter of terrorism: Pakistan. US foreign policy has lost all its ethics and also lacks direction. US denounces monarchies and dictators in Arab countries. They also want Arafat to go since his govt. is corrupt and ineffective. But on the other hand the US goes to bed with dictators who are equally corrupt such as General Musharraf of Pakistan. He keeps thumbing his nose at the US, continues to shelter Bin Laden who is somewhere in Pakistan and even provides him with cover by declaring that he is dead. Bush should stop monkeying around in that region, finish the job by moving troops into Pakistan to flush out the terrorists, and then retirn home to handle the economy. As it is he has lost credibility after his speech at Wall Street, which rewarded him with a drop of 600 points on the Dow.
Musharraf Argues for Revision of Constitution
Leader Says Democracy In Pakistan Was Sham
By John Lancaster
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, July 13, 2002; Page A14
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 12
-- Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, tonight defended proposed constitutional amendments that would greatly enhance his powers and enshrine the army's role in government, saying that civilian democratic rule here has been a sham.
In a nationally televised address, Musharraf insisted that he is committed to restoring democratic rule, as he pledged to do after deposing Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless coup in October 1999.
But Musharraf, the country's third military leader since its founding in 1947, also suggested that democracy as conventionally practiced in Pakistan is in need of a
thorough overhaul.
"There has never been true democracy in Pakistan," said the general, who appeared in
his army uniform. "If there had been true democracy, I would not have been before you
today."
Musharraf's comments were aimed at justifying proposed constitutional amendments that,
coming on the heels of a fraud-ridden national referendum that extended his presidency by five years, have triggered a tidal wave of criticism in Pakistan, where many people had welcomed stocky former commando as a savior after 11 years of corrupt and incompetent civilian rule.
Musharraf is coming under fire not just from Islamic militant groups and their political allies but from middle-class Pakistanis, including Westernized intellectuals and professionals, many of whom initially welcomed the military takeover.
"There is no democracy in Pakistan," complained Raja Humayun, 51, a financial
consultant sipping tea between appointments at an outdoor market here. "If this is a
democracy, why is the constitution being stopped from functioning? Musharraf wants to secure his position to save his own neck. He is not serving the people."
Musharraf's growing political troubles pose a potentially serious problem for the Bush administration, which has embraced him as a secular-minded liberal and an ally in the war on terrorism.
The proposed amendments would, among other things, grant him new authority to name the country's prime minister and dismiss its parliament while formalizing the army's governing role as part of a new national security council. Other proposals would bar the leaders of Pakistan's two main political parties -- former prime ministers Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, both of whom are in exile -- from running for office and require college degrees of parliamentary candidates.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court -- whose members have signed an oath of loyalty to Musharraf as a condition of keeping their jobs -- upheld the graduation requirement. The order disqualified, in a single stroke, more than 98 percent of Pakistan's 144 million
citizens. More than half the politicians who served in the last parliament, which Musharraf dismissed when he seized power, would be prevented from holding office again.
The order came a day after Musharraf announced that elections for the lower house of parliament, or National Assembly, and four provincial assemblies would be held on Oct. 10, consistent with his pledge to restore democracy within three years of seizing power.
"What did the farcical democracy of the past 11 years give the nation?" Musharraf asked tonight. "Poor governance, malfunctioning, institutional collapse and erosion of democratic values." As a consequence, he added, "the need of the hour is not mere revival of democracy but the establishment of a sustainable democracy."
Before the referendum and amendment proposals, many Pakistanis had held out hope that Musharraf would prove a transitional figure, gracefully stepping aside -- or perhaps remaining in office with reduced powers -- after restoring democracy and equilibrium to the nation's tortured politics. Few would argue that now.
"Until six months ago, his stock was reasonably high," said Najam Sethi, editor of the Friday Times in Lahore. "There was no way Musharraf was going to go home -- that we knew -- but we thought the new political system that came into being would probably be
more or less like the old one and there would be a judicious balance of power. Now everyone's wiser."
The anger is not just directed at Musharraf. Many Pakistanis also blame Washington for what they regard as the erosion of democracy, noting that the Bush administration has yet to offer any public criticisms of the referendum or proposed amendments.
Samina Ahmed, a political scientist who heads the Pakistan office of the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based nonprofit organization that specializes in conflict resolution, calls the administration's approach shortsighted. "If there aren't democratic
elections," she said, "you'll have a lot more Islamic extremists coming out of a distorted political system to threaten American interests."
Ever since Sept. 11, Musharraf has walked a tightrope in Pakistan. Islamic militants, who have traditionally enjoyed close ties to the army and intelligence agencies, have not forgiven him for withdrawing support from Afghanistan's Taliban movement and, more recently, pledging to end cross-border incursions by militant groups fighting Indian rule in Kashmir.
But political parties representing religious extremists have never enjoyed broad popularity in Pakistan, and there is no indication that Musharraf is losing his grip on the country's security services. Public opinion polls, though notoriously unreliable here, suggest that at least until a few months ago, most Pakistanis still were favorably
inclined toward the military leader.
Among those raising an outcry are newspaper editorial pages, human rights organizations, professional unions and the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy, which represents the main political parties. The group was forcibly barred today from holding a protest rally in the east-central Pakistani city of Multan.
Musharraf's political troubles flow from his need to establish a measure of legitimacy for his rule.
After the 1999 coup, Musharraf prevailed on the Supreme Court to approve the military takeover in return for his pledge to restore democracy by October of this year. Since then, he has tried to peel away support from Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party and Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League, with the goal of winning enough seats to guarantee a majority. Musharraf needs a pliant parliament both to pass his proposed constitutional changes -- and thus ensure his continued grip on power -- and to indemnify himself against treason
charges for overthrowing an elected civilian government, a capital offense in Pakistan.
"Regime survival here hinges on legitimacy," said Ahmed of the International Crisis Group. "You have to prove you're here for the good of the country."
In the name of domestic tranquillity, Musharraf has imposed numerous curbs on political activity, banning rallies, political advertisements and posters -- though critics note that he made an exception for his referendum campaign. "Basically the parties are being asked to campaign without campaigning," Ahmed said.
The April referendum, which Musharraf won overwhelmingly, only added to his political woes.
"I personally know of people who went and voted 15 times," said a foreign diplomat who monitored the balloting. "That hurt him a lot."
Dribbled out in a series of announcements over the last several weeks, Musharraf's proposed constitutional amendments have dominated the news in Pakistan, where they have been widely denounced as a naked power grab. For example, the graduation requirement, which government officials have defended as a check against extremism, has stirred particular outrage.
"It looks as though it's being done not for the purpose of getting a good government, but to sideline the politicians from the past and to bring in a new set of politicians who will owe their loyalty to General Musharraf," said Sethi of the Friday Times. Musharraf disagreed. "Let me tell you that I have personally never been power hungry," he said tonight. "I want to give power instead of taking it."
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