Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 09/2008

PolicyWatch #1341: Pakistani Elections and the Middle East

Simon Henderson

February 2008

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Abstract

After a six-week delay following the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, Pakistanis will go to the polls on February 18 to elect a new National Assembly. Pakistan and Afghanistan are "where many of our most important interests intersect," as Director of National Intelligence J. Michael McConnell told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on February 5. Accordingly, the election results could affect the position of a key U.S. ally in the war on terror -- the increasingly unpopular President Pervez Musharraf.