Word: musharraf
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Rice didn't mention Musharraf's sharing power with Bhutto in her phone conversations with him. But Bhutto has been working hard behind the scenes to shore up her support in Washington; officials say it was the former Prime Minister who first reached out to the U.S. with a power-sharing proposal. She visited New York City in mid-August, meeting with Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., and talking up a possible team. The task of calibrating U.S. policy on the potential union--to satisfy diverse interests in the Administration and avoid getting crosswise with Musharraf...
...from certain that Musharraf and Bhutto can come to a working agreement. Even if they can set aside their mutual antagonism and some early sticking points--like her insistence that he give up his military uniform--they face massive legal obstacles. For instance, it's up to the Supreme Court to decide whether the charges against Bhutto can be dropped, and whatever influence Musharraf may have had with the court has faded badly since his botched attempt this year to fire a top judge. It's entirely plausible that the court could disqualify him from seeking re-election by citing...
...interview with TIME, Bhutto dismissed questions about her history with the general, paraphrasing 19th century British statesman Lord Palmerston: "In politics, there are no permanent friends or enemies, only permanent interests." She characterized her negotiations with Musharraf as "an attempt to find a solution to Pakistan's deep-rooted crisis and to ... create a political system that can deal with the needs of the people and tackle terrorism...
...there's little reason to believe that a Musharraf-Bhutto union would bring about the systemic change that Pakistan so desperately needs. Both leaders represent Pakistan's failed past, a history defined by close ties between the ruling élite and the military, recurrent corruption and the creeping Islamization of a country whose original vision was a more secular Muslim state...
Partly for this reason, there's no guarantee that Musharraf and Bhutto would win enough votes to control the next Parliament. Eight years of military rule have left Pakistanis frustrated and angry. Many now see Musharraf as little more than a U.S. stooge. Meanwhile, support for Bhutto's party, the Pakistan People's Party, has been weakened by the revelation that she is contemplating a deal. "We are all exasperated. She was a symbol of democratic values, of decent values, of political and religious moderation," says Iftikhar Gilani, a Law Minister under Bhutto. "Benazir has lost credibility because of this...