The Afternoon Report: More Stress on Musharraf
Caught between increasingly assertive Islamic militants and louder calls for democratic reforms, the balancing act performed by Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president and a key U.S. ally, is becoming even trickier.</br></br>On Friday, Pakistan's Supreme Court reinstated the nation's top judge, ruling that his suspension by Gen. Musharraf was "illegal" and quashed a separate case of alleged misconduct by the chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry. Chief Justice Chaudhry's suspension last March -- the government said he used his position to help secure a police job for his son and took advantage of privileges such as using government aircraft -- sparked protests by lawyers and political opponents that has since blossomed into a powerful democratic movement. The government insisted the case had no political motive and that Gen. Musharraf had little choice under the constitution but to suspend Chief Justice Chaudhry. But opponents accused Gen. Musharraf of plotting to remove an independent-minded judge to forestall legal challenges to his plan to ask lawmakers for another term. The army general -- who took control of the country in a 1999 coup -- faces widespread demands within Pakistan to resign from the military if he wants to be re-elected as president again. So far, he has resisted taking off the uniform, as he would be constitutionally required to do by the end of this year and also allowing the return to Pakistan of his chief political opponents.</br></br>But today's victory for the nascent democratic movement is just one of many challenges to Gen. Musharraf, a leader President Bush has called Washington's strongest ally in the fight against al Qaeda. Just last week Pakistani commandos stormed the Red Mosque -- a center of radical-and-fundamentalist teaching in Islamabad -- after a monthlong siege. About 100 people died. Pakistani officials said the action was taken after Gen. Musharraf recognized the threat of the growing "Talibanization" of Pakistan and senior U.S. and Pakistani officials have said it was part of a broader effort to push back the Taliban and al Qaeda. But it also led tribal leaders to call off the tentative truce in Pakistan's lawless border area and in recent days, militants there -- and in Islamabad -- have killed hundreds of Pakistani troops and citizens.</br></br>The border area is a subject of intense interest for the U.S. as its intelligence community says that region has become a haven for al Qaeda's senior leadership -- including perhaps Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Al Qaeda leaders, according to U.S. officials, are using the border region to train recruits from Europe and Africa while reaching out globally to affiliate groups, particularly in Iraq and North Africa. But many counterterrorism officials wonder if Gen. Musharraf, who is also Pakistan's military chief, has the ability, will or political base to mount a major operation inside the tribal areas against al Qaeda and the Taliban, the Islamist fundamentalists who ruled Afghanistan until late 2001. Gen. Musharraf's troubles present some difficult choices for the Bush administration in its fight against Islamic extremism in the region. After the military's raid of the mosque, the U.S. government continued to offer statements of support. It recently pledged $750 million in aid over five years to help spur development in the tribal regions, the latest dollop in billions of dollars in military and economic assistance the U.S. has offered Pakistan since the Sept. 11 attacks.</br></br>---