Since 2001, poverty has plunged by 10 percent in Pakistan, according to the CIA’s World Factbook. The country has privatized its banking sector, increased access to global markets and bolstered government investment in economic development. The welcome result: Pakistan’s gross domestic product grew by 6 to 8 percent a year from 2004 to 2006.
The economic news is mostly good. Yet President Pervez Musharraf faces rising anger from citizens who have grown tired of his government’s tyranny and inefficiency. Street protests have been growing, especially since March, when Musharraf suspended Iftikhar Chaudhry, the chief justice of Pakistan’s Supreme Court.
When Musharraf took power in 1999, in a military coup that ousted an elected government, he promised to clean up corruption, limit his own power and liberalize the press. He has failed on all three counts.
According to Transparency International’s 2006 Corruption Perceptions Index, Pakistan ranks near the bottom, 142nd most corrupt out of 163 countries. Musharraf has repeatedly broken promises to limit his term in office. And as protests against the government have multiplied in the three months since he suspended Chaudhry, the government has done its best to muzzle the press, essentially banning live coverage of opposition rallies and live political talk shows while raising fines for violations to prohibitive levels.
This creates a problem for the U.S. in a region where it has more than enough problems. Musharraf has been a U.S. ally against Al Qaeda (if at times an uncertain one.) If he were not in power, the world would face the risk of extreme elements running the nuclear-armed Pakistan.
But Musharraf’s strong-arm routine has been going on for 7 1/2 years, and it is building resentment in his nation — a welcome development for extremist elements there.
Musharraf needs to give his people a voice in running their nation. That means ensuring that the country’s next elections, expected later this year, are fair, free and open, devoid of violence and intimidation. That means giving them a vote, soon, on whether he should stay in power.
Granted, that’s not an easy task. Pakistan’s six-decade history as a sovereign nation has been dominated by military coups and multiple rewritings of its constitution. Democracy has been little more than a rumor based on a myth based on a fairy tale.
There is the danger that if Musharraf is removed from office, a new government would not be as friendly to the U.S. as he has been. But his rule by force is creating more potential for violence, and stands in glaring contradiction to the U.S. campaign to promote democracy in the region. Pakistan is on a dangerous path.
