DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - U.S.A./PAKISTAN: TIME FOR THE UNITED STATES TO MAKE PLANS FOR THE TIME MUSHARAFF IS ASSASSINATED BY PEACEFUL & MODERATE MOSLEMS

Pakistan Is Turning on Musharraf
By HUSAIN HAQQANI
January 25, 2008; Page A15

Pakistan's embattled President Pervez Musharraf is touring European capitals to try and convince Western governments of the country's stability, and his own good intentions. He should instead face the evaporation of support for his authoritarian regime at home.

Opinion polls show that 68% of Pakistanis want Mr. Musharraf to step down immediately. While he was in Davos, Switzerland, this week for the World Economic Forum, 100 retired senior military officers signed a statement in Pakistan describing him as an embarrassment to the powerful military that has so far been his power base. Western governments should no longer accept Mr. Musharraf's sales pitch that he is a valuable ally in the war against terrorism. A ruler widely hated by his own people is unlikely to be effective in defeating the expanding insurgency waged by al Qaeda's Taliban allies.

Pakistanis are increasingly uniting in their disapproval of Mr. Musharraf, and of the civil-military oligarchy he represents. The first opinion poll after Benazir Bhutto's murder showed that nearly half of the sample suspected government agencies and government-allied politicians of killing the opposition leader. Mr. Musharraf's unpopular domestic policies helped al Qaeda get a free pass in an assassination widely mourned throughout the country.

...



Pertinent Links:

1) Pakistan Is Turning on Musharraf