THE BUSH administration offered another ringing public endorsement of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf this week. "We have a fundamental interest in the success of Pakistan as a moderate, stable, democratic Muslim nation," Assistant Secretary of State Richard A. Boucher said at a news conference Thursday in Islamabad during which he announced a $750 million aid package. According to the Associated Press, he added: "That's the direction that Musharraf is leading the nation, and we are proud to work with him."
The next day, Gen. Musharraf made a mockery of those words. His riot police attacked demonstrators and arrested a number of senior opposition leaders who were protesting the president's attempt to depose the chief justice of the country's supreme court. Jurist Iftikhar Chaudhry, whom Gen. Musharraf has held under de facto house arrest since March 9, had troubled the general by pressing investigations into matters such as the forced disappearances of terrorism suspects at the hands of Pakistani security forces. More significant, he was a potential obstacle to Gen. Musharraf's plan to extend his term in office by another five years through a vote by legislators who were chosen in rigged elections. The opposition says the maneuver violates the constitution.
Far from leading Pakistan toward democracy, Gen. Musharraf is systematically dismantling liberal and secular institutions in a country already threatened by Islamic extremism. One of those is the Supreme Court, which has a strong record of independence and is looked to by many Pakistanis as a guarantor of the rule of law. Gen. Musharraf's attempt to neuter the court is matched by his implacable refusal to come to terms with Pakistan's secular democratic political parties and former civilian prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif. These are his natural allies in a battle against the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Yet to protect his own grip on power, Gen. Musharraf prefers to make deals with the extremists while repressing the secularists.
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Mr. Boucher's rhetoric notwithstanding, some in the Bush administration argue that it's worth tolerating and subsidizing Gen. Musharraf's autocracy because it is an ally against terrorism. But there, too, the general does not deliver. He has handed control of Waziristan, on the border with Afghanistan, to the Taliban, which is allowing al-Qaeda to operate training camps while waging war against U.S. and NATO forces across the border. Both houses of Congress have passed legislation linking further aid to Pakistan to steps against the Taliban. Yet the administration stiffly opposes the measures; Mr. Boucher publicly assured Pakistanis that there would be no aid restrictions. It's hard to understand why. Does the Bush administration really believe that its unqualified declarations of support will change this military strongman's behavior?
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