Author: Benazir Bhutto
Publication: The Washington Post
Date: March 12, 2007
URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/11/AR2007031101046.html
Last month President Bush told Gen. Pervez
Musharraf of Pakistan that he must be more aggressive in hunting down al-Qaeda
and the Taliban along his country's border with Afghanistan. During his recent
visit to Islamabad, Vice President Cheney echoed the claim that al-Qaeda members
were training in Pakistan's tribal areas and called on Musharraf to shut down
their operations. British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett also expressed
concern recently about suspected terrorist safe havens.
Clearly, the pressure is on. Western leaders
are finally beginning to recognize that Musharraf's regime has been unsuccessful
in taming the Taliban, which has regrouped in the tribal areas of Pakistan
while the military regime has given up trying to establish order on the Afghan
border. At the same time, the regime has strategically chosen to help the
United States when international criticism of the terrorists' presence becomes
strident. The arrest of Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, a top Taliban strategist,
by Pakistani authorities late last month is a case in point. The timing, right
on the heels of American and British pleas for renewed toughness, is too convenient.
Akhund was arrested solely to keep Western governments at bay.
There are other political calculations in
all of this. For too long, the international perception has been that Musharraf's
regime is the only thing standing between the West and nuclear-armed fundamentalists.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Islamic
parties have never garnered more than 13 percent in any free parliamentary
elections in Pakistan. The notion of Musharraf's regime as the only non-Islamist
option is disingenuous and the worst type of fear-mongering.
Much has been said about Pakistan being a
key Western ally in the war against terrorism. It is the fifth-largest recipient
of U.S. aid -- the Bush administration proposed $785 million in its latest
budget. Yet terrorism around the world has increased. Why is it that all terrorist
plots -- from the Sept. 11 attacks, to Madrid, to London, to Mumbai -- seem
to have roots in Islamabad?
Pakistan's military and intelligence services
have, for decades, used religious parties for recruits. Political madrassas
-- religious schools that preach terrorism by perverting the faith of Islam
-- have spread by the tens of thousands.
The West has been shortsighted in dealing
with Pakistan. When the United States aligns with dictatorships and totalitarian
regimes, it compromises the basic democratic principles of its foundation
-- namely, life, liberty and justice for all. Dictatorships such as Musharraf's
suppress individual rights and freedoms and empower the most extreme elements
of society. Oppressed citizens, unable to represent themselves through other
means, often turn to extremism and religious fundamentalism.
Restoring democracy through free, fair, transparent
and internationally supervised elections is the only way to return Pakistan
to civilization and marginalize the extremists. A democratic Pakistan, free
from the yoke of military dictatorship, would cease to be a breeding ground
for international terrorism.
Indeed, Pakistan's return to democracy is
essential to America's success in South and Central Asia, as well as in the
Middle East, as democratization is an integral part of fighting terrorism.
Wouldn't it therefore be prudent to tie aid money to genuine political reform?
Pakistan must take steps toward hunting down
al-Qaeda operatives in the "ungovernable" tribal and border areas
-- which were once successfully governed by democratically elected civilian
governments. The regime must also stop its intimidation tactics of recent
weeks, which include brutal murders, assassination attempts and other attacks
on opposition party members.
Of course Musharraf's regime, to legitimize
its coup and divert attention from the institutionalized corruption of the
military, accuses Pakistan's secular, democratic parties of corruption. But
according to Transparency International, 67 percent of the people believe
the regime is corrupt, surpassing the rate for past civilian governments.
Musharraf's regime has lasted twice as long as any civilian government in
Pakistan. Yet not one of its ministers or key political supporters has been
investigated.
The National Accountability Bureau has persecuted
opposition leaders for a decade on unproven corruption and mismanagement charges,
hoping to grind them into submission. However, when politicians accused of
corruption cross over to the regime, the charges miraculously disappear. Musharraf's
regime exploits the judicial system as yet another instrument of coercion
and intimidation to consolidate its illegitimate power. But the politics of
personal destruction will not prevent me and other party leaders from bringing
our case before the people of our nation this year, even if that could lead
to imprisonment.
In his State of the Union address in January,
President Bush said, "The great question of our day is whether America
will help men and women in the Middle East to build free societies and share
in the rights of all humanity. And I say, for the sake of our own security:
We must."
This holds true for countries in South and
Central Asia as well. Now is the time to force Pakistan's government to make
good on its promise to return to democracy.
The writer is chairwoman of the Pakistan People's
Party and served as prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and from
1993 to 1996. She lives in exile in Dubai.