Re: How united is the ‘joint-opposition’?
Who is portraying them as ‘invincible’?
When faced with a ‘govt’ backed by Bush and 500,000 armed men to force their rule, it will take more than this for the opposition to topple the govt.
However the walls are slowly but surely closing in on Mush, this is the just the beginning.
Interesting article by the respected International Herald Tribune
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/08/17/news/musharraf.php
Problems for Pakistan’s president
Nearly five years after Sept. 11 turned Pervez Musharraf into one of Washington’s most indispensable allies, the president of Pakistan finds himself squeezed from many directions, leading to one of the most serious political binds of his seven-year tenure
His two main political foes, who undermined each other for years, are linking arms in an effort to restore civilian rule. Some religious conservatives who were once allies, meanwhile, emboldened by spreading rage against Musharraf’s pro-American stance, have stepped up their criticism. Corruption scandals have dogged some of his partners, including the prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, who faces an upcoming no-confidence motion in Parliament next week. Inflation has increased. An ethnic insurgency in Baluchistan, which Pakistan blames on unfriendly neighbors, refuses to subside.
No one doubts that the president, who is also the army chief of staff, remains the most powerful man in Pakistan - "he still makes the political weather, " as one Western diplomat put it - and enjoys the backing of the United States. But cracks in the armor are beginning to show.
Last month, a politely searing letter signed by a group of retired generals and government officials, including those who once worked with him, called for “the military’s disengagement from political power,” urging Musharraf to shed his military uniform if he was to remain president.
In Washington, there are also simmering concerns. A series of planned terrorist attacks with links to Pakistan as well as a sharp rise in cross-border Taliban attacks in Afghanistan have prompted renewed debate within the Defense Department about Pakistan, according to two people involved who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. They said the sharply rising American casualty rate in Afghanistan, in particular, had increased skepticism among American military officers regarding Pakistan’s efforts to rein in the Taliban.
“There is an increasing view in the United States that Pakistan isn’t very helpful,” said one person involved in the debate, referring to growing frustration among American military officers. “There are people who are really thinking twice about this relationship with Pakistan.”
At home, Musharraf has also been criticized for having little to show for his overtures toward India. Likewise, his post-Sept. 11 assault on suspected militants sheltering in the tribal areas along the Afghan border, done at the behest of the Bush administration, has resulted in the capture of a number of Qaeda leaders but also the death of hundreds of Pakistani troops and a mounting rage in the tribal areas.
At the same time, Afghanistan and India have been nipping at the general’s heels for not doing enough to crack down on militants that they say export violence to their respective countries. Religious radical groups continue to operate here, including those that have links with banned terrorist outfits. They continue to be implicated in investigations of terror suspects half a world away - most recently the group Jamaat- ud-Dawa in the London terror plot.
Even Musharraf’s promise to reform radical madrassas, or Islamic religious seminaries, is yet to be fulfilled.
“There are new domestic eruptions, and he hasn’t yet drenched the fires on the foreign policy front, which is creating difficulties,” said Najam Sethi, editor of The Daily Times in Lahore.
“Musharraf is in a weaker position than he has been in the past, no doubt about it,” said a Western diplomat in Pakistan, who was not authorized to comment publicly on the politics of this country. “There are constraints on him.”
But in Washington, the official view there remains strongly supportive. Richard Boucher, the assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, credited Musharraf with having kept his promise to “break” with the Taliban and its Qaeda backers. And although the Taliban has reorganized inside Pakistan, Boucher said, Musharraf’s government is trying to gain control of the Pakistan-Afghan border.
“They’ve closed some camps, they’ve outlawed some groups,” he said in an interview. “You have to understand how deeply rooted extremism is in Pakistan.”
Of his cooperation with Washington, he added: “I think we’ve seen plenty. We certainly work with Musharraf.”
The coming months also pose a big question mark. With elections expected before the end of next year, there is a creeping concern among friends and critics alike: Will domestic politics further compromise his ability to drive through promised reforms?
For the sake of staying in power, political observers say, Musharraf must broaden his support. If he broadens it in favor of the right, his ability to crack down on religious extremists would be further compromised; one of the religious parties he has been cultivating in Baluchistan, for instance, the Jamiat-e- Ulema Islam, is openly pro-Taliban.
If he broadens in favor of the political left, he could more easily carry out his promise to crack down on extremism, but would then have to embrace a political nemesis: Benazir Bhutto, leader of the Pakistan People’s Party, who lives in exile, having been convicted of corruption. She has signed a pact with Nawaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League, the other main opposition party leader, also in exile.
For his part, Musharraf presented a lengthy defense of his record in a speech to the country in late July one that also revealed the breadth of his troubles. Addressing inflation, he announced that government shops would sell basic staples at controlled prices to the poor. He said the domestic budget had more than doubled during his tenure, he outlined a sweeping development plan for insurgent Balochistan.
The economy has grown at a clip of 7 percent over the last three years. He criticized India and Afghanistan for suggesting that his efforts to tackle terrorist groups were less than robust. And on the subject of religious radicals, he urged mosques to refrain from using loudspeakers, demanded that “hate material” not be circulated, and urged state officials to “look at the problem and take it seriously.”
Must be a crushing blow to people who have long been banking on the opposition to do that! 