Bush visit to Pakistan will intensify Musharraf’s crisis

Having been forced by Washington to back its “war on terror” in 2001 and to help topple the Taliban regime in neighbouring Afghanistan, Musharraf increasingly has been viewed by broad layers of the Pakistani population as a US stooge. Throughout the past month, tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets to demonstrate their opposition to the anti-Muslim cartoons published in European and US newspapers. The protesters have also turned their anger on the Musharraf regime for its subservience to the US as well as its failure to address the economic and social crisis facing millions of Pakistanis.

Anti-Bush demonstrations erupted in a number of Pakistani cities yesterday and more are planned for today, which opposition groups have declared “a black day”. In Rawalpindi, near the airbase where Bush landed, police used batons to disperse about 1,000 protesters who had been chanting “killer go back” and “death to America”. In the southern city of Karachi, around 1,000 demonstrators attempted to march to the American consulate, where a suicide bomber killed a US official and three others on Thursday. At the largest rally in Multan, a Muslim cleric told a crowd of 10,000 that Bush’s visit was aimed at “enslaving the Pakistani nation” and “rewarding General Musharraf for his patriotism to America”.

Far from alleviating the political crisis facing Musharraf, Bush’s visit will intensify it by demanding that he take more action to prevent anti-US insurgents infiltrating into neighbouring Afghanistan. At Washington’s insistence, the Pakistani military has already deployed some 70,000 troops in tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan to hunt down Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters. These repressive operations, as well as covert attacks by US forces inside Pakistan, have generated widespread resentment and hostility toward Musharraf.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/mar2006/paki-m04.shtml