US President George Bush has confounded pro-democracy advocates around the world by describing Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf as a leader who has advanced democracy and “hasn’t crossed the line”.
Speaking on ABC News, President Bush said: “He hasn’t crossed the line. As a matter of fact, I don't think that he will cross any lines. We didn’t necessarily agree with his decision to impose emergency rule, and hopefully he’ll get rid of the rule. Today, I thought, was a pretty good signal, that he released thousands of people from jail.”
On Tuesday, the Pakistani government announced that it had released 3,000 prisoners taken into custody during mass pro-democracy demonstrations. About 2,000 political prisoners are still being held, including political opposition leaders.
President Bush’s comments represent a marked departure from his administration’s position only days ago, when US officials expressed concern that General Musharraf had undermined democracy when he declared emergency rule, suspended Pakistan’s constitution, dismissed Supreme Court judges (sparing only Musharraf loyalists), suspended freedom of the press, removed the right of assembly and jailed his political opponents and human rights activists to ensure that he remains president.
“What exactly would it take for the president to conclude Musharraf has crossed the line? Suspend the constitution? Impose emergency law? Beat and jail his political opponents and human rights activists?” asked Senator Joe Biden (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a presidential candidate. “He’s already done all that. If the president sees Musharraf as a democrat, he must be wearing the same glasses he had on when he looked into Vladimir Putin’s soul.”
Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto and other political opposition leaders have ruled out working within a Musharraf government, in the advent of what they say is Pakistan’s return to military dictatorship.
Last weekend, US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte met with General Musharraf to persuade him to abandon emergency rule, release political prisoners, restore civil rights and quit as head of the army as prerequisites to holding free and fair elections. Mr Negroponte also made clear that the US would not recognize elections held under emergency rule, since political opponents remain in jail along with thousands of their supporters, and the ban on public gatherings and media freedoms also undermine the integrity of the campaign process.
General Musharraf shows no sign of lifting emergency rule and said parliamentary elections would go ahead on January 8.
Musharraf’s dismissal of Supreme Court judges has galvanized Pakistan’s lawyers to protest what they see as the dismantling of the country’s independent judiciary.
“We wonder how Americans can be on the side of democracy and not be on the side of a free judiciary,” said lawyer Jamila Aslan. “It’s as if the ‘J’ word, for judiciary, is somehow taboo in all this.”
It is believed that about 2,000 of the prisoners released on Tuesday are lawyers, many of whom were educated in the West and hold degrees from Harvard and CambridgeUniversities. They have banded together and taken to the streets to protest General Musharraf’s recent actions at every opportunity.
“Almost everyone in Pakistan who believes in George Bush’s vision of democracy is in prison today,” said Tom Malinowski, Washington director of Human Rights Watch. “Calling the man who put them in prison a great democrat will only discredit America among moderate Pakistanis and give Musharraf confidence that he can continue to defy the United States because Bush will forgive anything he does.”
