Today's Article
The huge losses his
party suffered in
Pakistan's
parliamentary
elections may soon
push this tyrant out
of office.
party suffered in
Pakistan's
parliamentary
elections may soon
push this tyrant out
of office.
The American Spark
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Are Musharraf's Days Now Numbered?
By Cliff Montgomery - Feb. 20th, 2008
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has spent a career as a soldier, and has enjoyed being the political tyrant
of his country for almost 10 years. But a shattering parliamentary loss in recent elections may soon push him
out of office.
The electoral rout has further lessened this Bush-supported leader's political appeal, and several experts
believe the tyrant's days in power may be numbered.
Musharraf already has surrendered his control of the army; he apparently is despised by a majority of his
countrymen; and he has proven to be an ineffectual--or uncaring--ally to the West in its battle against Islamic
extremism, or Islamism.
"I don't see him surviving. It is just a question of time," Pakistani newspaper and television commentator
Shafqat Mahmood told The Associated Press (AP) on Tuesday.
Monday's elections were an embarrassment for Musharraf's party, which mustered only 15 percent of voters to
its side. This humiliation revealed the lack of confidence Pakistan's 160 million people now have in their
president.
To be fair, Musharraf is in a nearly impossible position.
When he does crack down on Islamists (many of whom are al-Qaeda members--Osama bin Laden and other
top commanders are almost surely moving around the porous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan),
Pakistan's powerful Islamist factions accuse him of being a puppet of the West. When Musharraf eases his
hunt for militants, the West accuses him of being soft on terrorism.
And when his tyrannical tendencies have gotten the better of him--perhaps as much out of frustration as from
an unnatural desire to dominate others--he has lost what little prestige he still had in Pakistan and in the rest of
the world.
Add high food prices and a simple weariness of protracted military rule to the mix, and you get the kind of
electoral whipping this president has just received from his own people.
The winners in Monday's vote were the parties of former Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto,
who was assassinated in late December.
The popular parties almost won the needed two-thirds majority to impeach President Musharraf. Bhutto's party
won 33.6 percent of seats in the National Assembly and Sharif's party won an impressive 25.9 percent of
seats, according to official returns which were nearly complete late Tuesday.
"The fact that parties opposed to Musharraf won the election was a clear denunciation of his actions and
politics," Mahmood told AP.
Such top presidential aides as the ruling party chairman, the foreign minister and a former leading government
spokesman failed in their drive to win a parliamentary seat.
After Monday's win, Sharif repeated his call for the president to resign--a reminder of Musharraf's boast in
2007 that he would step down if it became clear he no longer had the people's support.
"He has closed his eyes. He has said before that he would go when the people want him to do so and now the
people have given their verdict," Sharif said to reporters in Lahore, Pakistan.
Part of this public outrage stems from Musharraf's alliance with the West in its fight against al-Qaeda and the
Taliban. It's an alliance few Pakistanis now believe to be in their interest.
Yet Pakistanis also are angry about their military's grip on political power through most of the last decade--a
dominance which began when then-General Musharraf ousted Sharif in a 1999 bloodless coup.
And they still are enraged over Musharraf's declared "state of emergency" in November--a tyrannous move
solely intended to keep Pakistan's Supreme Court from declaring illegal his presidential re-election through the
previous parliament (In parliamentary governments, the incoming parliament is to elect the president).
"Instead of being the unifying figure he is pretending to be, Musharraf has led Pakistan into a dark alley,"
Lahore University of Management Sciences political science professor Rasul Baksh Rais told AP.
"The only way he can survive now is through manipulation--and the more he does that, the more public
sentiment will go against him," Rais added.
Like what you're reading so far? Then why not order a full year (52 issues) of the The American Spark
e-newsletter for only $15? A major article covering an story not being told in the Corporate Press will be
delivered to your email every Monday morning for a full year, for less than 30 cents an issue. Order Now!
By Cliff Montgomery - Feb. 20th, 2008
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has spent a career as a soldier, and has enjoyed being the political tyrant
of his country for almost 10 years. But a shattering parliamentary loss in recent elections may soon push him
out of office.
The electoral rout has further lessened this Bush-supported leader's political appeal, and several experts
believe the tyrant's days in power may be numbered.
Musharraf already has surrendered his control of the army; he apparently is despised by a majority of his
countrymen; and he has proven to be an ineffectual--or uncaring--ally to the West in its battle against Islamic
extremism, or Islamism.
"I don't see him surviving. It is just a question of time," Pakistani newspaper and television commentator
Shafqat Mahmood told The Associated Press (AP) on Tuesday.
Monday's elections were an embarrassment for Musharraf's party, which mustered only 15 percent of voters to
its side. This humiliation revealed the lack of confidence Pakistan's 160 million people now have in their
president.
To be fair, Musharraf is in a nearly impossible position.
When he does crack down on Islamists (many of whom are al-Qaeda members--Osama bin Laden and other
top commanders are almost surely moving around the porous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan),
Pakistan's powerful Islamist factions accuse him of being a puppet of the West. When Musharraf eases his
hunt for militants, the West accuses him of being soft on terrorism.
And when his tyrannical tendencies have gotten the better of him--perhaps as much out of frustration as from
an unnatural desire to dominate others--he has lost what little prestige he still had in Pakistan and in the rest of
the world.
Add high food prices and a simple weariness of protracted military rule to the mix, and you get the kind of
electoral whipping this president has just received from his own people.
The winners in Monday's vote were the parties of former Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto,
who was assassinated in late December.
The popular parties almost won the needed two-thirds majority to impeach President Musharraf. Bhutto's party
won 33.6 percent of seats in the National Assembly and Sharif's party won an impressive 25.9 percent of
seats, according to official returns which were nearly complete late Tuesday.
"The fact that parties opposed to Musharraf won the election was a clear denunciation of his actions and
politics," Mahmood told AP.
Such top presidential aides as the ruling party chairman, the foreign minister and a former leading government
spokesman failed in their drive to win a parliamentary seat.
After Monday's win, Sharif repeated his call for the president to resign--a reminder of Musharraf's boast in
2007 that he would step down if it became clear he no longer had the people's support.
"He has closed his eyes. He has said before that he would go when the people want him to do so and now the
people have given their verdict," Sharif said to reporters in Lahore, Pakistan.
Part of this public outrage stems from Musharraf's alliance with the West in its fight against al-Qaeda and the
Taliban. It's an alliance few Pakistanis now believe to be in their interest.
Yet Pakistanis also are angry about their military's grip on political power through most of the last decade--a
dominance which began when then-General Musharraf ousted Sharif in a 1999 bloodless coup.
And they still are enraged over Musharraf's declared "state of emergency" in November--a tyrannous move
solely intended to keep Pakistan's Supreme Court from declaring illegal his presidential re-election through the
previous parliament (In parliamentary governments, the incoming parliament is to elect the president).
"Instead of being the unifying figure he is pretending to be, Musharraf has led Pakistan into a dark alley,"
Lahore University of Management Sciences political science professor Rasul Baksh Rais told AP.
"The only way he can survive now is through manipulation--and the more he does that, the more public
sentiment will go against him," Rais added.
Like what you're reading so far? Then why not order a full year (52 issues) of the The American Spark
e-newsletter for only $15? A major article covering an story not being told in the Corporate Press will be
delivered to your email every Monday morning for a full year, for less than 30 cents an issue. Order Now!