Word: musharraf
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...power will increase polarization. She is seen as pro-West, and she is very clear about it." Sharif himself has made it clear that combating militancy would be top of his agenda were he, or his party, to lead Pakistan. "You can't fight terror the way Mr. Musharraf is fighting," he told CNN. "He needs the threat of terror for his own survival. We will fight out of conviction...
...Washington seems to be still fully behind Musharraf. "Yes, on paper [his] power is diminished," says a State Department official. "But the hope is that Musharraf will continue to influence policy in the war on terror as President." Retired Lieut. General Hamid Gul, former director of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, calls the Americans "naive" for thinking that Musharraf will have any power if he steps down as military chief, or that Bhutto as Prime Minister will be able to control the army. "The Pakistani army is a one-man show. Whoever is chief gets to call the shots...
...Which raises the question: If Musharraf's position is so tenuous, why is the U.S. so lukewarm to Sharif? Perhaps because the Bush Administration does not think he will ever be a serious contender for power. "His popularity is linked not to what he is but what he represents," says a State Department official. A senior Bush Administration official says Bhutto's party "has historically been more popular and closer to the moderate center than [Sharif's] party...
...Pakistan does not have a tradition of leaders who put the nation above self. During Sharif's time in office, he tested six nuclear devices, dismissed a Supreme Court chief justice (as Musharraf tried to do), and promoted Islamic law. The press was often, and brutally, stopped from reporting on sensitive matters. Under Sharif's rule, Pakistan and India nearly erupted into nuclear war over Kashmir, when Musharraf, as head of the army, sent troops into Indian-held territory at Kargil. (Sharif maintains that Musharraf acted on his own, and that he subsequently tried to dismiss Musharraf - the act that...
...Musharraf, for his part, has not been all bad for Pakistan. The economy is growing at a rapid clip, new infrastructure projects have brought roads, water and electricity to remote areas, and the arts and media are freer than they have been in a long while. But it's a quirk of Pakistani politics that leaders are easily built up, torn down, cannibalized and regurgitated. Like Musharraf, Sharif has a new persona. Once deemed an industrialist out of touch with the masses, he is now seen as an economic savior who will curb the crippling inflation that plagues Pakistan today...