Musharraf only wants to keep his job: US Congressman

Congressman Gary Ackerman, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, which has jurisdiction over Pakistan, has slammed President Pervez Musharraf for imposing martial law in his country. Ackerman has alleged that the General's decision has nothing to do with fighting terrorism, but everything to do with the military dictator hanging on to both his jobs—president and chief of army staff.

Ackerman made the observations during a Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on 'Democracy, Authoritarianism and Terrorism in Contemporary Pakistan'.

He said, "Let me be clear at the outset. What the world has witnessed since General Musharraf declared emergency rule last Saturday is most emphatically not about fighting terrorism."

"It most certainly is about General Musharraf keeping his job or should I say both his jobs -- one as president and the other as chief of army staff," said the Congressman.

Ackerman said that "the pictures from Islamabad don't show any al-Qaeda or Taliban terrorists being arrested but they do show, all too vividly, a brutal crackdown on opposition politicians, lawyers and human rights activists."

He added, "Press reports don't tell us that the Pakistani army is tracking down al-Qaeda or Taliban terrorists along the border with Afghanistan, but they do tell us of the removal of seven Supreme Court Justices, the closure of independent media outlets, the suspension of the Constitution and the postponement of January's parliamentary elections."

Ackerman also castigated the Bush Administration and said that ever since 9/11, the administration "has ignored democratic developments in Pakistan and turned a blind eye as General Musharraf manipulated the political process to ensure his continued tenure in office. He has made and then broken repeated promises to step down as Army chief and to restore legitimate civilian democratic government to Pakistan."

"And at every turn, the Bush Administration has given him a pass," the Democratic lawmaker from New York said, and added, "Even on the subject of nuclear proliferation and the potential that nuclear weapons would fall into the hands of terrorists—a danger described by this administration as the most serious threat facing the United States—President Bush is willing to take Musharraf at his word when he says A Q Khan's network has been rolled up and isn't a threat any more."

Ackerman said, "The administration has accepted all of this in the name of Musharraf's commitment to fighting terrorism, a commitment which in my view has always been half-hearted at best. Always focused on al-Qaeda, but not on the Taliban. Always willing to arrest a high profile al-Qaeda operative at just the right moment, but let the Taliban move freely back and forth across the border with Afghanistan and never quite willing to give up the idea that someday the Taliban would be useful to him again in countering Indian or Iranian influence in the region."

Continuing to pillory the Bush administration, Ackerman said that while the administration "welcomed Musharraf's verbal expressions of support for the fight against terror, it never pushed him to develop support for this fight amongst his own people. So when it came time to confront al-Qaeda in the tribal areas, Musharraf had no political support to do so and instead, made deals with al-Qaeda's supporters in North and South Waziristan."

"Those deals were a disaster and served only to strengthen our enemies," he said.

Ackerman said that "now we have the worst of all possible worlds. Our ally is an isolated and deeply-resented leader who is less popular with his own people than Osama bin Laden; who instead of arresting the terrorists who pose an existential threat to his regime if not to the country, is arresting the very people with whom he could have worked to generate the political support necessary to rid Pakistan of extremists."

The lawmaker said that in spite of the US providing $10 billion assistance since 9/11 "our great and good ally in the war on terror told us to take a hike again last weekend while he imposed martial law."

But Ackerman cautioned, "This time, we should not turn the other proverbial cheek. This time there should be consequences. We should stop delivery of any further F-16s to Pakistan and cut off all other US assistance until the state of emergency is lifted, the Constitution is restored, the fired Supreme Court Justices are reinstated, opposition politicians and civil society activists are released, independent media is allowed to reopen, a caretaker government is appointed to hold free and fair parliamentary elections, and General Musharraf steps downs as the Chief of Army Staff."

"It is time for the people of the United States to have a relationship with the people of Pakistan, not just its military and certainly not just General Musharraf," he said.