Word: musharraf
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...PAKISTAN: Right next door to Afghanistan is one of the most dangerous and unsettling spots the terrorists could choose. President Pervez Musharraf, having thrown his lot in with Washington, is under keen pressure to bottle up fleeing al-Qaeda men. His government has made valiant efforts lately to seal the long, porous border. But once fugitives from Afghanistan make it across, they will find broad pockets of sympathy throughout the provinces of Baluchistan and the North-West Frontier. In those semiautonomous tribal areas, Islamabad's authority has been limited, though army presence has been beefed up recently...
...Meanwhile, elements of al-Qaeda could move in under cover of these groups - or worse yet, try to find a friendly home there by joining forces with Pakistan's hard-line religious parties to overthrow Musharraf and install an Islamic regime. Pakistan's nuclear arsenal alone makes that an alluring goal. For his survival, Musharraf will have to get Pakistan out of the terrorism business...
During last year's election campaign, George W. Bush couldn't conjure the name of the general who had just seized control of Pakistan. Now he refers to President Pervez Musharraf with the ease he usually reserves for star baseball athletes...
...former president, whose tenure is remembered as a time of vicious internecine fighting among the riv al mujahedeen commanders who had appointed him, remains an astute operator. He may have stayed away from Germany, but Rabbani is reported to be planning to visit Pakistan for talks with President Musharraf. Pakistan has traditionally been fiercely opposed to an Alliance backed by old foes such as Russia and India, and had backed the Taliban's five year war against Rabbani's group. But Pakistan is home to the majority of Pashtun, and Islamabad has set itself up as the guarantor of Pashtun...
...fall of the Taliban leaves the U.S. having to carefully mediate between the competing interests of its key allies in the Afghan theater. On the one hand, Washington is concerned to accommodate the interests of Pakistan's General Musharraf, who took a massive political risk in supporting the U.S. war effort. On the other, it can't afford to alienate the Northern Alliance forces that have served as its infantry in the war to unseat the Taliban. And there are clearly volatile conflicts both within the Alliance and among the anti-Taliban Pashtun warlords in the south...