General Musharraf has little base of his own. Having replaced the civilian politicians he was first forced to fall on the Islamists for support. These same Islamists were never able to attract more than 10-15% of the vote in a free election, but they became Musharraf's base.
Then he was pressured by the US after 9/11 to support the "War on Terror" against the Taliban and al-Qa'ida. He did. But this left him on shaky ground. He had to mollify the Islamists, especially those in the military and military intelligence, and he faced assassination attempts, and possibly attempted coups d'etat. Now even the Islamists have turned against him.
More lately the majority of the Pakistanis have rallied around the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Iftikhar Chaudhry. The Supreme Court has ordered him reinstated. General Musharraf is getting more and more alienated from the society as a whole. He more and more needs the backing of the Islamists. But he more and more needs the support of the Americans, who are putting more and more pressure on him.
If I were him I would try to negotiate a transition with the democratic forces. If I were running US foreign policy I would try to make overtures to the civilian political leaders to get their support against the Islamists. But I just have a blog, that's all.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
What you are saying makes perfect sense to everyone but Pakistani's themselves. There are two main political parties in Pakistan, with two strong leaders. These would be the PPP (Benazir Bhutto) and the PML-N (Nawaz Sharif, the guy Musharraf overthrew).
Both have been in power twice each, neither has completed a full term in office and both have driven Pakistan to the edge with their corruption and self-serving agendas.
Musharraf is an honest man comparitively. He has to go, obviously, as he is a dictator and the army belongs in the barracks, but he wold be undoing everything he has done and then some if he hands over power back to the old guard - especially more so if he does it to save his own hide in form of a power sharing agreement.
Post a Comment