Powell visit should focus on democracy

Democracies don't fight wars or promote international terrorism. When American Secretary of State Powell visits South Asia today empowering the Pakistani people should be at the top of his agenda.

Since the tragedies of September 11, the international community focused on eradicating the Taliban regime, destroying Al Qaida, building a stable government in Afghanistan and reducing tensions between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.

While the world community dealt with the threat from Al Qaida and its worldwide cells, Pakistan's coup leader General Musharraf's military government was steadily eroding Pakistan's democratic institutions.

With elections for a new Parliament scheduled for October 10, the military regime is ensuring that the election outcomes are pre-determined.

Exploiting Afghanistan's strategic importance to the United States, it aims to consolidate dictatorship through massive rigging of Pakistan's electoral process.

Security in South Asia - and as September 11 showed, security for the world - is in grave jeopardy. Only a democratic Pakistan can eradicate the forces of extremism, militancy and terrorism.

The Pakistani people, when given the opportunity in brief interludes of democratic rule, consistently opposed policies that promoted extremism in Afghanistan and tension with neighbouring India.

The militants are regrouping in Pakistan. A series of devastating suicide attacks took place since their defeat in Kabul last year. The decline of the politics of extremism, militancy and terrorism is necessary for South Asian domestic peace and stability.

Political parties can play an important role in mobilising public opinion in this direction. The parties represent the broader public (beyond the army). They represent the man on the street.

Moreover, the brief interludes of true representative rule saw poverty diminish and the standard of living improve. Tackling poverty and giving hope tackles the causes of anger and frustration that can be exploited in a deadly manner.

Washington may see the military best placed to orchestrate the crackdown against extremists in Pakistan.

Washington could also see that without public involvement, the administrative clamp down could turn into an empty victory. Democracy and elections are actually important for more than democracy's sake.

As the Presidential referendum held last April demonstrated, public discontent in Pakistan is high.

A representative parliament provides the right forum for involving the people in the national debate. It makes them participants in the direction of their own destiny.

Calibrate events

The danger is that a rigged electoral process plays into the hands of the militants. They depend on the bullet, rather than the ballot.

Moreover, under Musharaf's writ, the militants manage to calibrate events on the troubled Afghan and Kashmir borders. When the bombing on Tora Bora gets heavy, or when the noose on Al Qaida tightens in Pakistan's tribal areas, a militant strike complicates relations with India.

The Indian diversion plays to the advantage of the militants who manage to escape as international energies are consumed in averting a conflict between two nuclear armed nations.

Significantly, the death sentence passed by a terrorist court against Daniel Pearl's kidnapper Omar Sheikh in July was preceded by a militant attack in disputed Kashmir killing 22 civilians.

Islamabad faces a grave crisis that needs overcoming with international support as well as domestic involvement of the people.

The Musharraf regime has held unrestrained power for nearly three years. They coddled the Taliban until President Bush asked countries to count as "friend or foe".

Their leadership coincided with three near military conflicts with India over disputed Kashmir. The inability to raise revenues domestically despite heavy new taxes reduced living standards.

Pakistanis today are further impoverished with a lower per capita income than when Musharaf seized power in 1999.

As friendly as General Musharraf may have been to America's War on Terrorism, he has failed to offer hope to the masses of disenfranchised in Pakistan.

The perception that Musharaf is a foreign backed dictator who cares little for the Pakistani peoples' rights is disturbing. The war against terror is aimed at securing freedom.

It is undermined when the consequences are dictatorship for the very people on whose doorstep the forces of extremism gathered strength during the Soviet occupation of Afghan-istan.

Secretary Powell's visit allows the United States the opportunity to support the democratic and fundamental rights of the Pakistani people. These are the rights which are the tools that can marginalise the forces of extremism. Specifically, Secretary Powell should:

1. Ask Musharraf to withdraw controversial constitutional amendments stealing power from the legislature and concentrating it in an individual. The checks and balances of a pluralistic society are a prerequisite for consensus and tolerance.

Giving Pakistan's Presidency absolute powers including the unilateral dismissal of the Prime Minister, cabinet and parliament without elections is a prescription for extremism.

Monitoring force

2. Establish an international election monitoring force ensuring that the October 10 Pakistani elections are transparent and open to all parties and candidates.

The General's officials are personally intimidating opposition candidates and using a new absentee law decreed with retrospective effect to disenfranchise the popular choices.

During the recent Referendum to elect the President, the military regime allowed eight year olds to vote while commandeering busloads of coerced 'citizens' to different polling stations for voting numerous times in numerous places. (Musharraf was forced to publicly apologise to an outraged nation.)

3. Pressure Musharraf to free political prisoners and allow the return of political exiles who are victims of a discredited and politically motivated process. The so-called accountability law is a farce.

Those joining Musharaf are freed - even when convicted - and allowed back home. Those not convicted are kept under arrest even when freed by courts by inflicting new charges against them.

4. Secretary Powell can make it clear that the world's greatest democracy predicates future financial support to the holding of transparent and internationally verified elections that respect the political and human rights of the Pakistani people.

Pakistan has the conditions that can become a breeding ground for terrorism. It will continue to be so for years - unless the international community supports the building of a society based on pluralism, tolerance and democracy.

When allowed to freely express their will, the Pakistani people have in the past, and will again, elect a government that provides hope and opportunity.

The world walked away from Afghanistan when the Soviets withdrew in 1989 without promoting the politics of consensus. That neglect contributed to the rise of the Taliban and Al Qaida.
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