Bhutto Criticizes U.S. Support Of Musharraf
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WASHINGTON — A former Pakistani prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, criticized American support for President Musharraf as a strategic miscalculation.
Backing General Musharraf, who is a close ally of America and who seized power in a 1999 coup, makes the fight against extremists operating along the Pakistani-Afghan border more difficult, she said yesterday.
Ms. Bhutto said her country faces a critical choice between dictatorship and democracy. She plans to return next month from self-exile to challenge General Musharraf, who is seeking another term in presidential elections.
Ms. Bhutto has discussed power-sharing with General Musharraf but said those talks have stalled because “extremist sympathizers” in the general’s party refuse to accept a return to democracy.
Ms. Bhutto told an audience gathered in a congressional hearing room that General Musharraf has tried to convince the world that only he stands in the way of extremists hoping to overrun nuclear-armed Pakistan.
“In fact, military rule is the cause of the anarchic situation in Pakistan,” she said. Dictators need crisis to perpetuate their rule and therefore have an interest in keeping extremism alive, she added.
Ms. Bhutto said General Musharraf has undermined the judiciary by removing judges and has forced people to radical mosques by dismantling other paths of dissent.
