Americans are in town. A lot of them. First came the US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian affairs, Richard Boucher. Then came the US Deputy Secretary of State and former intelligence chief, John Negroponte, and joined Boucher who had already spent three days meeting government officials, election authorities and opposition politicians. Admiral William J. Fallon, Commander of U.S. Central Command, is also in town. As U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte had predicted that due to elections both Musharraf and the United States would have a challenging time this year.
They did their home work before they came to face this challenge. Two top Pakistani generals, Ehsan Saleem Hayat, the army's vice chief of staff, and Ehsan ul-Haq, the chairman of the joint chiefs, were summoned to Washington in recent days as Bush administration wanted to assess the post-Musharraf scenario before it sends its viceroys to Islamabad to dictate its new terms.
Americans have now dictated the terms. Assigned the seats. Choreographed the moves. Everyone is listening and obeying.
Americans want free, fair and transparent elections. Musharraf 'may' get his chance to ssek re-election as President if he is willing to get elected not by the outgoing legislature before it is dissolved but by the next parliament. Musharraf had planned to get re-elcted by the sitting parliament twice in order to perpetuate his rule in case his minions lost in the next election as they were sure to do.
On Wednesday, Boucher told opposition leaders that the US was "pressuring" Musharraf to "fulfil the promises" he made regarding his re-election. The elaboration of promises came from Sean McCormack's briefing on Tuesday when he gave the timeline from Washington : elections will be held in the fall and "the parliament will then choose who will be Pakistan's next president".
Musharraf also has to shed his 'seconf skin' - his uniform. Sean McCormack said that Musharraf had already pledged that if he "continues in political life", he will "put aside the uniform". He insisted that US takes "him at his word at that", and "would expect him to follow through on his commitments". It is obvious Americans have already made adjustments to their policy towards Musharraf after the ground realities changed.
Musharraf is silent. He does not feel slighted, by the dictation, but relieved. He knows his jig is up. "For years," as the San Francisco Chronicle ialized, "he has sold Washington on the threat that without him Pakistan would descend into an Iran-style Islamic theocracy, exporting trouble and waving nuclear weaponry... But it may be time to call his bluff". Americans are to call his bluff. Now he is "looking for an exit strategy" as former CIA deputy chief Rob Richer, has said. Americans are offering him a choice between a lamp post for hanging or a luxrious retirement home in suburban Chicago or Boston or share power with "our interlocutors in Pakistan". It is his choice. He knows his predecessor army dictators were either kicking out in humiliation or were blown out in a puff of smoke and some fallen debris.
Opposition is not saying anything either. It has been ensured by U.S. National Security Council spokeswoman Kate Starr from Washington that democracy is getting a second chance because "the people of Pakistan have a long-standing respect for democracy and, as a friend of Pakistan, we want to see the further development of strong democratic institutions in that country".
The United States does not much care who runs Pakistan as long as army retains its primacy as the senior and domineering partner in the future political setup as it did in the sixty years of Pakistan's history; and there is stability in Islamabad; and the Americans have direct line with army; and have the power to dictate terms. Washington does not want any unpredictable consequences and unmanagable people in power so it is trying to create a political scenario od choice before it gets too little, too late. US needs army's help in its war against Al-Qaida and Taliban in Afghanistant as a senior partner to get all the help it can in its war on terror in Afghanistan.
The American visitors are in town not as friends but masters.
These masters don't want true and undiluted democracy in Pakistan. They don't want Pakistanis to have full-fldged human rights, civil liberties and the rule of law. They just want a smooth transition from an uncomfortable and potentially dangerous situation to one of ad-hoc stability and utility.
I am afraid American visitors are in Pakistan to thwart Pakistani movement for democracy. If Pakistanis, especially the lawyer community, will not go all the way to get rid of army rule and replace it with rule of law, they may not get a second chance for a long, very long time.
Pakistanis have to decide whether it is America and army and some of their cronies who should be our masters or Pakistanis themselves. Pakistanis have a long and hard fight cut out for them. They have to rise to the ocassion. There is no other way. Rule of law in Pakistan does not suit army or America. It only suits Pakistanis.
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