U.S. Counts on Pakistani Election Going Forward

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is counting on President Musharraf going ahead with upcoming parliamentary elections despite Benazir Bhutto’s assassination in the hope they will cement steps toward restoring democracy.Proceeding on or about on schedule with the January 8 election through which Bhutto hoped to return to power is the biggest immediate concern in sustaining an American policy of promoting stability, moderation, and democracy in the volatile nuclear-armed nation, American officials said today.Although Bhutto’s death complicates American efforts to broker reconciliation between the opposition and an increasingly unpopular Mr. Musharraf, an essential ally in the war on terrorism, her passing is unlikely to prompt any major strategy shift or cuts in billions of dollars in American aid, the officials said.In Crawford, Texas, where he is on vacation, President Bush made the points on Pakistan in an hour-long meeting with his national security team on Pakistan held via secure video link, the White House said.“The president told his senior national security team that the United States needs to support democracy in Pakistan and help Pakistan in its struggle against extremism and terrorism,” a spokesman, Scott Stanzel, said.Signing a condolence book for Bhutto at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, Secretary of State Rice underlined the importance of keeping the democratic reform alive. “The way to honor her memory is to continue the democratic process in Pakistan, so that the democracy that she so hoped for will be completed,” Ms. Rice said.Other officials conceded the administration has little choice but to stay the course.“There are not a lot of alternatives out there,” said one. “We have an interest in seeing Pakistan be stable and seeing that the government there has a reasonable level of legitimacy and popular support. That has not and will not change.”Barring any fundamental breakdown in Pakistan’s constitutional order, the officials did not see new restrictions on $300 million in assistance for Mr. Musharraf’s government in 2008 beyond those Congress just imposed in an aid budget. It ties $50 million to improved counterterrorism work and democratic and judicial reforms.The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the administration’s current internal thinking.They said their main concerns now are the January 8 elections taking place, how Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party will fare in the vote, and if it can sustain itself in parliament without its highly visible and charismatic former prime minister.The State Department said its team in Washington, Islamabad, and other Pakistani cities had been in close touch with representatives of the “broad political spectrum.”“We believe it’s important that the political process, the process of developing Pakistan’s democracy, continue,” a spokesman, Tom Casey, said. He added, however, that America would not necessarily oppose a short postponement in the election if all parties agreed it was necessary.“If an election can be held smoothly and safely on January 8th, as currently scheduled, then, by all means, it should move forward,” he told reporters. “If political parties and actors in the country come to some different conclusion, then certainly we’ll take a look at it then.”Having invested major capital in engineering a possible power-sharing deal between Mr. Musharraf and Bhutto, Mr. Bush, Ms. Rice, and others have called for the election to go ahead. American diplomats are reaching out to moderate politicians in a bid to keep the effort on track, the officials said.“Her departure from the scene is unfortunate and leaves a huge number of question marks because these parties are very personalized vehicles, but it doesn’t change our basic goal of getting all the (moderates) to agree that extremism is not the future of the country, and working toward that end,” said an official.“Of course, it’s a wild card and it obviously unsettles her party, but it’s a party with a coherent ideology and a more secular and moderate approach than others, so we don’t see its supporters with anywhere else to go,” the official said. “The goal is to keep them working together in at least some nominal way. That is still the objective.”The officials said they had no reason to believe that Bhutto’s assassination would hurt her party’s showing in the elections and said that, in fact, her death might galvanize support.“They will probably win about as many seats or more as they would have with Bhutto or not, so we don’t see much of a short-term electoral impact,” an official said.America has pumped nearly $10 billion in aid into Pakistan since Mr. Musharraf became an indispensable counterterrorism ally after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Reversing course, he sided with America in the drive to topple the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan and hunt down Al Qaeda.But Mr. Musharraf’s recent actions — including a truce with tribal leaders in the northwest blamed for a surge in extremist activity, a clampdown on the opposition and judiciary, and his declaration of a state of emergency this fall — have sparked internal unrest and prompted concern from American lawmakers.Some in Congress have accused the Bush administration of lax oversight in its massive assistance to Pakistan. Lawmakers for the first time put restrictions on such aid even after Mr. Musharraf lifted emergency rule and pledged that the January elections would be free and fair.In the aftermath of Bhutto’s assassination at a campaign rally yesterday, several senior Democratic members of Congress, among them Senators Leahy of Vermont and Russ of Wisconsin, said they would press for a full accounting. Both senators were a driving force behind the aid restrictions.“The people of Pakistan deserve to know that the people of the United States stand with them as they struggle to restore constitutional government and to prevail over thuggery,” Mr. Leahy said. “They will want to know that our military aid is no longer blind to their aspirations.”“The questions surrounding (Bhutto’s) assassination should have direct bearing on both the future of democracy in Pakistan and the relationship we will have with a country that is so critical in the fight against global terrorism,” Mr. Feingold said.

U.S. Counts on Pakistani Election Going Forward

U.S. Counts on Pakistani Election Going Forward

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