Word: musharraf
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...time of the blast, President Musharraf, who has been one of Washington's closest allies in the war on terrorism, was reportedly in Abu Dhabi in a secret meeting with Benazir Bhutto, a long-time political foe, former Pakistani prime minister and opposition leader now living in exile in London. Musharraf is under pressure not only from Islamic extremists based in the lawless frontier lands along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan - a U.S. report issued two weeks ago warned that al-Qaeda and the Taliban had reconstituted in the area - but also from Pakistan's middle-class moderates...
...authorities have pledged to investigate Friday's bombing in the capital, Islamabad - the second apparent suicide bombing in a week - but no official inquiry is needed to tell Pakistanis that their country is in the middle of a fast-escalating crisis. Hanging in the balance: the presidency of Pervez Musharraf and the future of Pakistan itself. "We always have one or two crises on our hands [in Pakistan], but this is critical," says I.A. Rehman, chairman of Pakistan's Human Rights Commission, a non-governmental group...
...Friday's bombing occurred after yet another violent struggle for control of the controversial Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, in central Islamabad, which has become a symbol of the extremist anti-Musharraf movement in the country. Government forces stormed the mosque in early July to dislodge hundreds of armed militants who had assembled there to call for the implementation of Islamic law in Pakistan. The raid, though eventually successful, left dozens of people dead and sparked a wave of attacks across the country against government security forces...
Pakistan's newspapers speculate that Musharraf, unpopular and increasingly isolated, may be considering running some sort of political accommodation with Bhutto, leader of the still popular Pakistan People's Party (PPP). Bhutto fled to Europe amidst corruption charges in Pakistan after the collapse of her second government in the early 1990s. Presidential advisers and Bhutto aides seemed surprised when news of the secret get-together was first reported, suggesting that very few officials in either camp knew about the meeting, though a minister later confirmed it had taken place...
...Pakistan, even Turkish-style democracy is a long way off. But the U.S. needs to help it get there. If Pakistan doesn't move in Turkey's direction, it will probably move in the Taliban's. And then America's choices will be truly ugly. Musharraf may always be a dictator, but he needs to become a better one. Because if he doesn't, what follows could be a lot worse...