Police, Anti-Musharraf Protesters Scuffle in Pakistan
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Supporters of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto rallying near parliament Wednesday were met by police wielding batons and tear gas.
Protesting the imposition of martial law, the crowd from Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party shoved metal barricades into riot police who blocked its path. Police beat several activists and dragged at least three away from the scene, according to journalists covering the protests.
The demonstrators pulled back after several rounds of tear gas were fired toward them.
Opposition Members Jailed
Bhutto had called on supporters to defy a ban on protesting the imposition of emergency rule. She also said more than 400 members of her party have been arrested.
Writing in an op-ed piece that appeared in Wednesday's New York Times, Bhutto also called on the U.S. to get tough on Musharraf.
"It is dangerous to stand up to a military dictatorship, but more dangerous not to," she wrote.
She urged Western nations to show "in their actions, and not just in their rhetoric" which side they are on.
Musharraf declared emergency rule on Saturday, suspending the constitution. That has allowed for the detention of thousands of opposition activists, lawyers and human rights workers and put a stranglehold on the media. Officials say about 2,500 people have been detained since the decree, though opposition parties put the figure at 3,500.
Musharraf has also suggested that elections — which were scheduled for January — could be delayed by up to a year.
Musharraf justified emergency rule because he said the courts were hampering Pakistan's effort to fight extremism, for instance by ordering the release of suspects held without charge.
But opponents accuse him of a mounting a last-ditch maneuver to stay in power.
In the Times editorial, Bhutto claimed that Musharraf's government had already decided to delay elections by up to two years. A Pakistani Cabinet minister, however, said the government has made no decision on a date, but has discussed delaying elections by no more than three months.
In the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where the Bhutto's PPP said it would march, the mayor said police would be out in force to prevent anyone from reaching the park where the former prime minister hoped to address supporters on Friday.
"We will ensure that they don't violate the ban on rallies, and if they do it, the government will take action according to the law," Mayor Javed Akhlas told The Associated Press.
Suicide Attacks Possible
Akhlas said there was a "strong threat" of another suicide attack against Bhutto, who escaped an Oct. 18 blast in Karachi during a procession welcoming her home from exile. More than 140 people were killed in the attack.
A suicide bomber blew himself up a few hundred yards from President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's office in Rawalpindi on Oct. 30, killing seven people.
With the encouragement of the United States, Musharraf had been holding talks with Bhutto that were widely expected to lead to a power-sharing arrangement after January's parliamentary elections.
The United States and other foreign donors to Pakistan are pressing for the elections to be held on time. They are also urging Musharraf to keep a promise to quit his post as army chief — the real source of his power.
"For elections to be credible, opposition political party leaders and their party workers must be released from jail or house arrest. The media must be free to report on events and share their opinions with the public," U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson said after meeting the head of the election commission on Tuesday.
Musharraf took power in a 1999 coup.
From NPR reports and The Associated Press
U.S. Strikes Delicate Balance on Pakistan
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California Rep. Tom Lantos and Delaware Sen. Joe Biden each got an unlikely phone call on Tuesday — from the president of Pakistan, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who declared a state of emergency in his country over the weekend.
Lantos and Biden, chairmen the committees in the House and Senate that deal with foreign relations, are facing increasing calls from members of Congress to suspend aid to Pakistan.
Musharraf's suspension of Pakistan's constitution, clamp down on the media and arrest of thousands of opposition activists has drawn international condemnation. But so far, the White House has done little more than declare its disappointment and urge Musharraf to put his country back on the road to democracy.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, Musharraf has been hailed by the Bush administration as a critical ally in the war on terror. Roughly $11 billion in U.S. aid has flowed into the country — mostly for counter-terrorism operations.
Given that close cooperation, the reaction from administration officials this week has alternated between statements of disapproval for Musharraf's crackdown, and recognition of his fight against terrorists along Pakistan's volatile and porous border with Afghanistan.
On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said the administration believed Musharraf had "made a mistake," but indicated there were bigger issues at stake.
"We have to be mindful to make sure that we do not undermine any of our counterterrorism efforts ... Pakistan is a country where extremists ... are trying to take hold and have a safe haven and we had to deny them that," Perino said.
The administration's relatively passive response to Musharraf's actions in recent days exposes the delicate balancing act Washington has had to undertake — promoting democracy and stability in Pakistan while working with a military strongman to combat terrorism.
U.S. efforts to drive al-Qaida and the Taliban from Pakistan's border areas could trump the effort to promote democracy and stability.
Bob Grenier, the CIA's station chief in Pakistan from 1999 to 2002, said that stance undermines U.S. policy in a number of ways.
"Obviously it tends to undermine our credibility as a promoter of democracy all around the world," Grenier said. "I think even more importantly ... by failing to strongly support democracy, we are undermining support for an effective long-term counterterrorism policy within Pakistan.
"If the U.S. ranks counter-terrorism above democracy in Pakistan, it will not want to weaken Musharraf by imposing stiff sanctions."
Daniel Markey was a South Asia expert at the State Department from 2003 until just recently. He said there is a large and influential faction in the Bush administration that has made a strong commitment to Musharraf and is reluctant to break away from him.
"They see this as imposing costs on their ability to continue with existing operations, military operations and intelligence operations," Markey said. "The U.S. government have gotten relatively comfortable with over a period of seven years."
Gary Sick, a professor of Middle East politics at Columbia University said Washington has long run a risk by betting everything on Musharraf — making him the center of U.S. security strategy in the region. That strategy could backfire if the situation in Pakistan spins out of control.
Sick draws parallels to the overthrow of the Shah of Iran 30 years ago. The U.S. backed the Shah and had no back-up plan.
He said the crisis in Pakistan and Iran are different because the Shah was toppled by a popular revolt, whereas in Pakistan, it is the military that would most likely overthrow Musharraf. But there is a similarity in the situation faced by Washington, he said.
"We have placed a tremendous amount of trust and confidence in Pervez Musharraf," Sick said. "As he appears to be weakening, we have the same dilemma — do we back him further and thereby get even deeper in or do we look for alternatives? Unfortunately, in [Iran and Pakistan] … there really were no good alternatives."
Sick said Pakistan is still in the early days of this crisis and things still could turn around.
Meanwhile, the U.S. should start forming a Plan B for Pakistan, he said.
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