Word: islamabad
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With a massive show of force, Islamabad police prevented former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto from leaving her house to lead an anti-emergency rule rally today. Police in riot gear and body armor sealed off nearby streets. District Magistrate Kamran Cheema was on site at 7 a.m. to direct police positions. "This is all for the protection of her personal self," he said. "We have had reports that suicide bombers may target her. She is not under house arrest and she is free to leave." His concern for Bhutto's well-being was somewhat belied by the four rows...
...groups, leaving the country's nuclear arsenal in the hands of America-hating wackos. Anthony Zinni, a retired Marine general who headed the U.S. Central Command when Musharraf became army chief in 1998, points out that the U.S. ban on military exchanges with Pakistan during the 1990s--because of Islamabad's push for nuclear weapons--helped radicalize many in the officer corps. Musharraf flagged this as a potential problem in his first meeting with Zinni. "You were beginning to see beards in the officer corps, which may signify more religious conservatism," Zinni recalls. Now that those officers are moving into...
After increasing pressure from both the international community and his own people, Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf announced today in Islamabad that elections would be held before February 15, and that he would soon be doffing his controversial military uniform. If the country didn't exactly erupt into shouts of jubilation, there was certainly a collective sigh of relief, as the announcement presages an end to a draconian regime of martial law that has plagued the country since Saturday. The White House responded with praise - "We think it is a good thing that President Musharraf has clarified the election date...
Like the situation in Islamabad's Red Mosque earlier this year, Musharraf's escalating unpopularity made it nearly impossible for the government to establish any control: Local leaders were loath to appear as if they were collaborating with Musharraf's military. The general's latest move will only escalate these tensions. "Pakistan is very religious, but it is not extremist," says Ahsan Iqbal, information secretary for exiled opposition leader Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz). "By making this a battle between secular values and extremism, Musharraf is pushing a large chunk of moderate but religious Pakistanis to side with...
That is because of the estrangement between the U.S. and a rising generation of Pakistani officers. For about 10 years, the U.S. Congress barred contacts between American and Pakistani military officials as part of sanctions on Islamabad for pursuing nuclear weapons in the first place. In an ironic boomerang, it is now those officers, ascending to ever more senior ranks, who soon could be overseeing various elements of the Pakistani military, including the security of the several dozen atomic weapons Pakistan is believed to have in its arsenal. Their provincialism, U.S. officials fear, could make them sympathetic...