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Musharraf Plays Bush for a Fool
By Marjorie Cohn
11/20/07 "ICH" -- -- Pakistan’s President General Pervez
Musharraf declared a state of emergency on November 3rd after
the Pakistani Supreme Court indicated it would overturn the
results of an illegitimate election that would have extended
Musharraf’s term as president. Musharraf quickly fired the
Supreme Court justices who planned to rule against him. And his
declaration of emergency attacked the entire population of
Pakistan by suspending fundamental constitutional rights to life
and liberty, freedom of speech, assembly and association, and
equal protection of the law.
As a result of Musharraf’s action, Pakistani Chief Justice
Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry is being held under house arrest, and
over 2500 lawyers in different parts of Pakistan have been
detained. The detainees include the President of the Supreme
Court Bar Association and officials of the Democratic Lawyers
Association of Pakistan. The government also ordered that
journalists who brought “ridicule or disrepute” to Musharraf
could face three years in prison.
The real motivation for Musharraf’s declared emergency is not to
defend the country against “Islamic extremists,” as he claims,
but to maintain Musharraf in power. He acted to prevent public
protests that lawyers and political parties were organizing. And
his scheme is working. Musharraf’s new brand-new, hand-picked
Supreme Court ruled on Monday that Musharraf can remain in power
for five more years.
Meanwhile, the Bush Administration is scurrying around in damage
control mode. Musharraf’s actions would be very embarrassing for
Bush — if Bush were the type of guy to get embarrassed. After
all, Bush has been claiming for the past several years that he
wants to spread democracy throughout the Islamic world. Somehow,
Musharraf’s declared state of emergency, followed by mass
arrests of his political opponents, doesn’t seem very
democratic.
Bush dispatched Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte to
Pakistan to talk sense to Musharraf. Negroponte urged Musharraf
to end the state of emergency. But Bush’s man didn’t complain
about Musharraf shutting down the Supreme Court and replacing it
with his loyalists. Negroponte also failed to tell Musharraf to
release the judges and lawyers from prison. So much for
democracy and an independent judiciary.
The recipient of nearly $11 billion of U.S. aid since 9/11,
Musharraf will cover for his benefactor Bush to keep him from
losing face in light of the Pakistani strongman’s blatant and
tyrannical power grab. Musharraf has agreed that parliamentary
elections scheduled for January will proceed and that he will
take off his military uniform after the sham elections are held.
Of course, Musharraf’s jailed political opponents will likely
find it difficult to campaign effectively for seats in
parliament while incarcerated under a state of martial law.
American citizens whose tax dollars are being used to prop up
this ruthless and corrupt regime should demand an accounting of
how their money is being spent.
Bush claims that Musharraf is an indispensable ally in his “war
against terror,” and that money sent to Pakistan supports that
goal. It appears from my vantage point, though, that Musharraf
is playing Bush for a fool. Musharraf tells Bush he will help
destroy the Taliban. However, Pakistani Professor Pervez
Hoodbhoy wrote in the November 18 Los Angeles Times that some
people in Pakistan believe Musharraf is “secretly supporting the
Taliban as a means for countering Indian influence.” Moreover,
if Musharraf wants to regain and maintain support of the
Pakistani people, he will continue to support the Taliban.
Hoodbhoy also wrote, “Most Pakistanis see the [Taliban] as
America’s enemy, not their own. The Taliban is perceived as the
only group standing up against the unwelcome American presence
in the region.” According to Hoodbhoy, “For more than 25 years,
the army has nurtured Islamist radicals as proxy warriors for
covert operations on Pakistan’s borders in Kashmir and
Afghanistan.”
Hoodbhoy’s remarks are corroborated by Adrien Levy, co-author of
“Deception: Pakistan, the United States and the Global Nuclear
Weapons Conspiracy.” Levy told Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!,
“The [Musharraf] agenda is to destabilize Afghanistan, to create
a government there which is favorable to Islamabad. These are
goals which are actually contrary to the goals - very largely
contrary to the goals of the West. Yet,” Levy, said, “this
slowly moving car crash of the U.S. pumping billions of
untraceable cash into the Pakistan military has continued since
2001 and we’re left with the position where Pakistan is devoid
of democracy, democracy is weakened and feeble, and we have just
increased instability, quite honestly.”
If Congress stands by and does nothing to cut off the funds to
Musharraf while he maintains martial law in Pakistan, it will
confirm our worst fears that Democrats and Republicans alike are
making a sham of our democracy.
Marjorie Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of
Law and the President of the National Lawyers Guild. She is the
author of Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the
Law. Her columns are archived at
www.marjoriecohn.com
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