Pakistan: Bush and Musharraf Redefining Democracy

In other words, elections can be held in a country while leaders of the opposition parties are being shoved into jails. After putting opposition leader Benazir Bhutto under house arrest, General Musharraf informs his mentor in White House that the elections would be held on February 15…and the US administration applauds its favourite dictator’s grand gesture.

The International Herald Tribune reports: “General Pervez Musharraf said Thursday, a day after President George W. Bush called, that Pakistan’s parliamentary elections would be held before Feb. 15. But his security forces continued to widen their crackdown and jailed thousands of opposition party members before the rally, which is scheduled to start in the early afternoon Friday.

“In making the lone concession, Musharraf, Pakistan’s president, appears to have calculated that it would be enough to defuse his opposition here and to satisfy the White House, which called the general’s announcement of an election timetable a ‘good thing’.

“Despite the general’s statement on Thursday, the continuing crackdown added to the uncertainties about his real intentions for guiding Pakistan along a path toward a democratic transition, as he has been urged by Washington, which has provided Pakistan with $10 billion of assistance, almost of all it to the military, since 2001.”

Meanwhile The Independent reports: “Human rights campaigners condemned the detention of Ali Ahmed Kurd, a leading lawyer noted for his fiery speeches against military rule, who has not been heard from since being arrested on Saturday night. ‘We have received credible reports that Kurd may be in the custody of Pakistan’s feared ISI intelligence agency,’ said Ali Dayan Hasan of Human Rights Watch. ‘He has been one of General Musharraf’s most strident critics. The ISI have a well-documented history of perpetrating torture on its opponents’.”

Please click here to read an important post that explained to me a great deal about the ’shady’ relationship between the Bush administration and General Musharraf, and the serious implications this has for the two countries, as well as the world at large.

Photo above: Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto during a press conference in Islamabad Wednesday. (courtesy Anjum Naveed/The Associated Press)