The General Must Go

Pervez Musharraf has become an obstacle to U.S. interests in Pakistan - and to Pakistan's interests as well.

Washington Post Editorial November 11, 2007

UNDER PRESSURE from President Bush, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf announced Thursday that he would hold elections for Parliament by Feb. 15. His government has said it will end a state of emergency within a month. But the general's security forces continue to detain thousands of activists from the country's secular political parties, judiciary and human rights groups, while violently breaking up protests and keeping independent television stations off the air. Despite his promises to Washington and back-channel negotiations with opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, Mr. Musharraf has not altered the course he embarked on last weekend when he suspended the constitution. He still intends to dictate his own continuance in power and to curtail the influence of the country's moderate political elite -- the judges, journalists, human rights activists and secular politicians who ought to be his army's allies in a war against Islamic extremists.

Mr. Bush has hesitated to withdraw U.S. support for Mr. Musharraf; his administration is understandably concerned about the destabilization of a nuclear-armed Muslim country. The Pentagon places a high priority on helping the Pakistani army combat a growing insurgency by the Taliban, al-Qaeda and their allies. Yet Mr. Musharraf's insistence on fighting rather than working with the country's civilian political center dooms the battle against extremism. After his first coup, in 1999, the general also promised elections: The result was a blatantly rigged ballot that excluded Ms. Bhutto and other centrist leaders and boosted militant Islamic parties. It is likely that the election he now promises would be similarly manipulated. Though his government pledges to lift emergency rule, it clearly does not intend to restore the rule of law, which would mean reinstating the Supreme Court judges whom Mr. Musharraf has illegally placed under arrest. Full Story