The Toronto Star, November 14, 2007
Sonya Fatah
LAHORE, Pakistan–Despite Benazir Bhutto’s declaration yesterday that she won’t work with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, skeptics doubt the opposition leader has finished talking with him.
After months of failed backdoor negotiations, Bhutto said she’s finally cut the cord with Musharraf, after the country’s military ruler declared her Lahore base a “sub-jail” and put her under house arrest for the second time in five days.
“Negotiations between us have broken down over the massive use of police force … There’s no question now of getting this back on track because anyone who is associated with Gen. Musharraf gets contaminated,” Bhutto said after confirming that any deal between Musharraf and her party was now a non-starter.
Instead, Bhutto is working to forge a partnership with Nawaz Sharif, whom Musharraf overthrew as prime minister in a 1999 coup. She hopes to create a coalition of opposition to lead a civil disobedience movement and to boycott the country’s upcoming elections, which Musharraf has said will be held by Jan. 9.
But a Musharraf ally says Bhutto “talks one thing but walks in a different way.
“She knows the election result will be different from what she thought,” said Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed. “That is why she is trying to create a disturbance.”
Britain stepped up international pressure on Musharraf, who imposed emergency rule on Nov. 3 in a move seen aimed at clinging on to power, backing a 10-day Commonwealth ultimatum for him to end the emergency and quit as army chief, something he said he would do once the new hand-picked Supreme Court affirms his recent re-election as president.
Bhutto also yesterday demanded Musharraf’s resignation as president. Musharraf countered that Bhutto “has no right” to ask him to resign, and said she has an exaggerated view of her popular support.
Whatever her motive, Bhutto’s declaration seems to dash hopes that the two moderate leaders would form an alliance to confront strengthening Islamic extremists.
Musharraf has defended emergency rule as necessary to curb political unrest he says is hampering the government’s fight against Taliban- and Al Qaeda-linked militants, who have been gaining the upper hand in the country’s northwest along the border with Afghanistan.
The deepening political crisis set off alarm bells in Washington, where support for a Musharraf-Bhutto deal is said to be strong. The White House has criticized Musharraf’s crackdown on dissent but sees him as a dependable partner in the fight against Al Qaeda.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte is expected to be in Pakistan soon to pressure Musharraf into lifting the emergency.
“The United States is urging your government not to throw away in weeks what it has taken years to achieve,” said Anne Patterson, U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, while addressing the National Defence University in Islamabad.
The White House said it still hoped Pakistan’s “moderate elements” could unite, despite Bhutto saying she would not try to work with Musharraf.
“The international community needs to decide whether it will go with one man or the people of Pakistan,” said Bhutto, a two-time prime minister.
As she conducted telephone interviews, thousands of riot police stood guard outside, barricading the residence where she is staying and a one-kilometre stretch alongside it, with a long row of metal barricades and barbed wire.
The house arrest took place Monday night, hours before Bhutto was to lead a people’s march from Lahore to Islamabad. Scores of Pakistan People’s Party activists were rounded up as a 20,000 strong police force tried to prevent the PPP’s public show of strength.
Insiders suggested that Musharraf’s latest spate of autocratic actions, seen by many as a last ditch effort to preserve his rule, might have sealed his fate.
“He is in a state of denial and defiance,” said Sardar Assef Ahmed Ali, who served as foreign minister under Bhutto. “Benazir tried her best and I think she’s landed well. She co-operated with the army at great political cost but his response has been so unreasonable that she now has to take Musharraf head on.”
Indeed, Bhutto worked on building alliances with the country’s opposition leaders to form a democracy movement. She is reaching out to Sharif, who is in exile in Saudi Arabia; Asfundyar Wali Khan of the Awami National League; former cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan; and Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the leader of the largest Islamist party in Pakistan.
Sharif welcomed Bhutto’s comments and urged opposition parties to unite against Musharraf.
“That is the need of the hour because single-handedly to fight dictatorship is going to be a difficult task,” he said.
The proposed coalition plans to lead a civil disobedience movement and to boycott the country’s upcoming elections.
“An elections boycott will illustrate Musharraf’s sham government and make a mockery of the political process,” said Tariq Rahim, a former governor of Lahore state.
More than 200 cars set off on the 280-kilometre journey between Lahore and Islamabad, despite Bhutto’s arrest, in a symbolic show of party strength.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s state television kept Pakistani viewers as much out of the loop as possible. State news highlighted the country’s economic success and investment opportunities.
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