Pakistan’s 60th anniversary on Tuesday came against a backdrop of civil unrest. Under intense pressure from Islamic militants and opposition politicians, and facing demands he surrender his military uniform before an election, President General Pervez Musharraf was last week considering imposing a state of emergency. He relented after a 2am call from Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, last Thursday. Welcome though it was, the fact that a decision of this magnitude should become an “exhibition of indecision” is hardly encouraging, says the FT.
Musharraf has got his country into a terrible mess, says The Independent. He has suppressed democratic institutions to keep hold of power, and has reportedly reiterated his refusal to allow exiled opposition leaders, Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, to return to the country before elections later this year. The other major problem is the burgeoning of jihadi and Islamist groups, says William Dalrymple in The Guardian. For 25 years, “myriad mujahideen groups” have been encouraged and funded by the Pakistani security services, in the belief that they would be useful against Soviets in Afghanistan and Indians in Kashmir. The result? Thousands of well-armed, largely unemployed jihadis.
The jihadis’ “open challenge” to the state through their occupation of the Red Mosque in Islamabad, and the violence that followed their eviction last month, should convince Musharraf that “temporising with these people is suicidal“, says the FT. He seems to recognise he needs US support; he should recognise the need for allies at home too. “His choices are simple.” If he is determined to keep his uniform and presidential sash he will use emergency rule to bypass the judiciary. “But if he is wise he will see the need for a democratic bloc against extremism, and postpone next month’s presidential selection by parliament until a new assembly is elected in a fair contest open to all. Not just his future, but Pakistan‘s future is at stake.”