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Endgame for Musharraf?

Harper's Magazine distils and discusses the rather extraordinary situation of Pakistani President Musharraf and events in his country. It is hard to reconcile Musharraf's actions - bear in mind that he seized power in a military coup - and the West's happy "adoption" of him. George Bush and PM John Howard have spoken of Musharraf in glowing terms. Is he any better than any dictator? No! Should he remain in power? Certainly Not!

"When was the last time you read about an effort to overthrow a government by the nation’s legal profession under the leadership of an improperly dismissed Supreme Court chief justice? The idea sounds absurd. But this is exactly what is happening in Pakistan today. Pakistan never ceases to produce curious tales, and indeed it has long furnished a case study for some of the most absurd propositions in American foreign policy. A nation which is the single most troubling breeding grounds on earth for Islamic militancy, but is described by a U.S. secretary of state as America’s “most important non-NATO ally.” Its leader is hailed as a “strong leader,” whom Bush “admires” and is invited as a state guest to Washington, even as American commanders in Afghanistan accuse him of giving the Taliban and al Qaeda a safe camp for operations in Baluchistan province and in the homeland of Gunga Din – the Northwestern Frontier Province. Moreover, while U.S. foreign policy promises to promote democracy in the Muslim world, in Pakistan, once a vibrant democracy – it has done just the opposite: promoting military dictatorship and oppressing groups which are committed to restoration of the nation’s democracy. U.S. policy towards Pakistan is an incoherent muddle, and it may be about to get a shake up.

The likelihood that Pervez Musharraf will be Pakistan’s president this time next year are slim, but exactly how he will be pried from his perch is as uncertain as the face of his successor."

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