Thu, Feb 21, 2008 page9

• Musharraf's tough-guy approach proves to be his worst enemy

  Foreign and Pakistani analysts and Western diplomats predicted the president will soon be gone, either ousted by parliament or by his former subordinates

  • By Joe Cochrane / DPA
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  Like former British prime minister Tony Blair and former Australian prime minister John Howard before him, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is the latest buddy of US President George W. Bush to be blindsided by a backlash from voters.

  But his participation in the current US conflicts and Bush-like uber-confidence and swagger were not really why Musharraf, a recently retired Army general, suffered a humiliating rebuke when his ruling party was trounced in Pakistan's parliamentary elections on Monday.

  Instead of saving the tough tactics for Taliban and al-Qaeda militants in the country's lawless tribal areas, who have killed more than 1,000 people in the past 13 months, Musharraf chose to oppress his own law-abiding citizens, emasculate state institutions and trample upon Pakistan's nascent democracy during more than eight years as a military ruler.

  It finally came back to haunt him as the opposition parties of former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated on Dec. 27, and Nawaz Sharif finished one-two in national and provincial elections, according to unofficial results released on Tuesday.

  While Musharraf himself was not standing for office, the polls were seen as a referendum on his rule, and his Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid, choked on the opposition's dust while finishing a distant third.

  "His loss was a combination of his heavy-handedness in firing Iftikhar Chaudhry, the Supreme Court justice, in March of last year, and the state of emergency he imposed in November," said one Western political analyst in Islamabad.

  attacks

  "Then he attacked the media, attacked the lawyers, attacked the political parties," he said. "It's been a huge battle that democrats in this country have fought and seemed to have won. Yesterday was the culmination of a very long battle."

  It was also the beginning of a political shift back to a civilian-dominated parliament and government, and the coming months will be uncertain. Pakistan faces myriad problems ranging from the growing Islamic militancy, to rising food and fuel prices, to the military's future in the emerging political paradigm.

  But first, Musharraf's future must be determined. Some foreign and Pakistani analysts and Western diplomats predict he'll be gone in a matter of weeks, either impeached by a hostile incoming parliament or shown the exit by his former subordinate Army officers.

  Not so, says presidential spokesman Rashid Qureshi, who said Musharraf was in good spirits and "happy the Pakistani people have participated in the cleanest, neatest, safest elections in the history of Pakistan."

  "We hope to see a stable, progressive and forward-moving Pakistan after this," Qureshi said.

  GREATER POWERS

  Some wonder whether that's possible if Musharraf, who still controls Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, attempts to exercise greater powers than the incoming prime minister. But one policy likely to change is Pakistan's relationship with the Bush administration.

  While the majority of Pakistanis feel Islamic militancy is a major problem at home, they also do not support the US war in the region. There has been widespread criticism that the Bush administration nurtured its relationship with Musharraf with billions of dollars for the Pakistani military to fight al-Qaeda and the Taliban while ignoring his assault on democratic forces.

  The Muttahida Majlis-e-Ammal, an alliance of six Muslim parties that made huge gains in the 2002 elections on a sympathy wave for religious elements after the US invasion of Afghanistan, was trounced this time around. The coalition was viewed as a front for extremist groups.

  The results showed that Pakistani voters are no longer tolerant of their homegrown Muslim extremists but also do no support military solutions dictated from Washington.

  "What has to change, first of all, is these actions we've carried out in the last four, five, six years in our own areas, against our own people, which will have to stop," said Asad Durrani, a retired Army general and military analyst. "The management must now be non-military, non-political, through negotiations."

  BUSH ADMINISTRATION

  The Bush administration will likely cringe at this thought, but in reality it has little leverage considering Musharraf's weakened position.

  The coming days will see a flurry of activity as Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party moves to form a government, possibly with Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, or a small regional party that could give it a simple majority in parliament.

  "It's completely up to the political parties to decide that," Qureshi said. "The president doesn't come into that."

  Musharraf had better get used to being on the sidelines.
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