Category Archives: South Asia

The US and Britain are pressing Pervez Musharraf’s victorious opponents to drop their demands that he resign as president and that the country’s independent judiciary be restored before forming a government.

In a strategy some Western diplomats admit could badly backfire, the Bush administration has made clear it wishes to continue to support Mr Musharraf even after Monday’s election in which the Pakistani public delivered a resounding rejection of his policies. “[The US] does not want some people pushed out because it would lead to instability. In this case that means Musharraf,” said one Western diplomat. Continue reading →

The Pakistan People’s party (PPP) has said it will try to form a coalition goverment without the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q.

“We will form a government of national consensus which will take along every democratic force,” Asif Ali Zardari, the party’s co-chairman told a news conference in Islamabad on Tuesday.

The PPP won the most seats in the national assembly in Monday’s elections, while the PML-Q, which supports Pervez Musharraf, the president, trailed a distant third.

“For now, the decision of the party is that we are not interested in any of those people who are part and parcel of the last government,” Zardari, the widower of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, said. Continue reading →

Having orchestrated many an electoral charade during the past eight years to keep himself in power, Musharraf now faces what may be the final test of his political career. The general-turned politician is probably the only man in Pakistani history (and maybe world history) who had himself “re-elected” president by a parliament whose term was expiring and that had elected him once before. He may be similarly unique in having been allowed to hold the dual offices of army chief and president by a special act of parliament. Continue reading →

THERE are definite signs that the Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf, is losing the important backing of the military after an influential group of retired officers called on him to step down.

With crucial national elections just weeks away, the Pakistan Ex-Servicemen’s Society, which includes former air marshals, admirals, generals and security agency chiefs, issued a statement demanding that Mr Musharraf step aside to pave the way for the restoration of democracy.

“General Pervez Musharraf … does not represent the unity and the symbol of the federation as president,” a statement issued by the society on Wednesday said. Continue reading →

It’s not just Islamist extremists who see U.S. meddling as the source of Pakistan’s problems.

Liberal, secular opinion inside Pakistan increasingly sees U.S. interference in Pakistan’s politics on behalf of military rule and in pursuit of its own misguided and dangerous security priorities as the root cause of that country’s miserable political instability.

Recent events make it easy to see why.
Continue reading →