WASHINGTON: The Washington Post editorial board slammed Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Friday for breaking his vow to step down as army chief, and criticized US President George W. Bush for failing to hold him accountable.
The newspaper said Gen. Musharraf’s pledge to resign as Pakistan’s army chief of staff “was to be a modest step toward returning Pakistan to civilian rule, if not democracy.
“Yet now Mr. Musharraf is reneging, claiming that his continuance in uniform is essential to the country’s ‘unity.’ “He is wrong, of course – but sadly, his chief ally, President Bush, is unwilling to hold him accountable,” the daily wrote.
The Post criticised Bush for hailing Musharraf as a key ally in the war on terror and a man who is “leading Pakistan towards democracy.
“In fact, the general has become a classic example of the sort of US ally Mr. Bush has repeatedly vowed to repudiate: an authoritarian ruler who offers tactical security cooperation with the United States while storing up trouble for the future,” the editorial board charged.
“Mr. Musharraf has promised to return Pakistan to civilian democratic rule; Mr. Bush need only urge that he fulfill those commitments,” the Post declared. “That the president does not do so only shows that he continues to prefer expediency to the more difficult pursuit of his own doctrine.” The daily complained that Bush failed to broach the subject during Musharraf’s December visit to the White House. And it questioned what the United States has gained from this policy, underlining the failure to capture Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, believed to be hiding out in Pakistan, and Islamabad’s refusal to allow US investigators to question Abdul Qadeer Khan, the architect of Pakistan’s nuclear programme.
Islamic parties and other groups took to the streets yesterday after the general told the nation in a television and radio address late on Thursday that he would not hang up his uniform.
Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, set himself on a collision course with the vocal religious right by going back on a pledge he made a year ago to quit his military role by on Friday.
He accused the opposition, led by the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal Islamic alliance, of destabilising Pakistan by refusing to accept the “ruling of the majority.” Musharraf said he was staying on as army chief to fight terrorism and poverty and continue peace moves with India. – AFP



photo: Supporters of the opposition alliance chant slogans against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, holding banner reading “Black Day against pro-US policies and western agenda,” yesterday in Rawalpindi. Left: Activists of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) shout slogans during a protest rally in Peshawar yesterday. – AP/AFP

Last update on: 2-1-2005