The George Bush administration clearly wants to continue dealing with Pakistan President Gen (Retd) Pervez Musharraf and has even advised Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and Pakistan Muslim League(N) leader Nawaz Sharif to coexist with him even as he stands charged by a substantial part of the population as a man who single-handedly undermined every democratic institution in the country.

Having positioned every policy, action and intervention from that of the “global” upholders of the democratic system, Bush stands poised to expose their intentions in the South Asian region and the watchdogs of democracy in the global community.

History

The engagement with Pakistan dates back to the Cold War era. But what really cemented the relationship was the covert war against the Soviets that they engaged in together with the Afghan mujahideen as their foot soldiers.

The world now knows that America’s proxy war in Afghanistan ably supported by the ISI and the Pakistani administration at the time was not really in response to the Soviet invasion in to Afghanistan.

India’s pending nuclear deal with the US administration notwithstanding, Pakistan continues to be one of the longest standing allies of this western power. A relationship that today has made even Musharraf the target of an al-Qaeda sponsored jihad. President Bush on his part has worked hard to stage-manage the political dimensions in Pakistan much like he managed in Afghanistan and Iraq. Local illusionment in all these countries has been the result of the perception that the men at the helm of affairs are nothing more than stooges of the West and the levels of discontent have reflected in the increasing number of suicide attacks.

Suicide attacks that target military personnel, popular political leaders and civilians alike – a situation not very different from Afghanistan with the difference being in degree. Bush might have hoped for a tailor-made democratic system (to American interests in the region) in the country pushing the general to give up his uniform and strike a deal with the more popular Benazir Bhutto. And on his part he would deliver to the global community on the promise of the restoration of democratic ideals in a region hopelessly awash with drugs and arms and thriving on a parallel, illegal economy.

Benazir Bhutto’s untimely death, which continues to be shrouded in political intrigue and diabolism changed all the permutations and combinations so deliberately worked out in Washington. What the elections in Pakistan translated in to were an already beleaguered president washed out by the sympathy vote for the PPP amidst aggressive opposition from extreme Islamic groups who have consolidated their support in the homegrown Taliban and on the other side the civil rights groups opposing his arbitrary sacking of the Chief Justice and the subsequent gagging of the media.

It would appear that as much as Musharraf would like to hold on to power , so would the Bush administration – that Musharraf remains on the political scene having put all their eggs in one basket for so long.

US policies

The arms, drugs and terror nexus in the region that both Bush and Musharraf have aligned to fight together may lead to the making of the long practiced American policies in the region with the complicity of regional actors.

However, and quite evidently democracy brings with it its own set of complications as has been the case more with Bush – the upholder of the democratic system in the world and a little less for Musharraf – a self-proclaimed military man.

It is called the people's mandate even if it is from only 40 per cent of the population. And even as Washington tries to make sense of the political chaos in the region of Afghanistan and Pakistan their exit strategies will have to take in to account that it is a mess that they have to clean up.  

(The writer is a PhD scholar at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)