CIAO DATE: 02/2008
December 2007
How should the United States respond to Pakistan’s ongoing political crisis? In particular, what position should the Bush administration take with regard to Pakistan’s national elections?
Last week President Pervez Musharraf passed his military baton to former vice chief of the army staff, General Ashfaq Kiyani. The next day Musharraf was sworn in as a civilian president, ending Pakistan’s eight years of direct military rule. Musharraf’s latest moves followed months of political turmoil, punctuated by his November 3 declaration of a state of emergency in Pakistan.
At present Musharraf has announced his intention to end emergency rule on December 16 and hold national elections on January 8. The recently returned leaders of Pakistan’s largest opposition parties, former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, have not yet announced whether their parties will participate in these elections.
Over the past year the Musharraf regime has faced increasing pressure from two very different fronts, exposing the fragility of Pakistan’s civilian and military institutions. The first front was opened in March, when civil society leaders, led by Pakistan’s lawyers, responded violently to Musharraf’s attempted removal of Pakistan’s Supreme Court chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Since then, Musharraf’s heavyhanded attempts to quell dissent—up to and including the imposition of emergency rule—have backfired, undermining his popular legitimacy, providing a focal point for a wide variety of opposition groups, and exposing the authoritarian underpinnings of his regime.
Resource link: Policy Options Paper: Pakistan [PDF] - 48K