Word: musharraf
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...Five months after elections brought a civilian government back to power, Pakistan is reeling. It's not just the attacks by militants. The economy, which had been growing steadily, has been hit hard by spiking fuel and food costs. The parliamentary coalition that eclipsed the former military leader, Pervez Musharraf, promised to bring peace and progress. Instead, the new leaders are preoccupied with wrangling over who is in charge. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, a stalwart of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), bows to Asif Zardari, Bhutto's widower, who is co-chair of the party but does...
...fair, Pakistan's new government came into power after the military, at the behest of Musharraf, decided to negotiate with militants. The administration embraced the peace effort in the hope that diplomacy would succeed where force had failed. Perhaps over time the accords would have worked. Says Ayaz Wazir, a former Pakistani ambassador who hails from Waziristan: "We have a saying in Pashto [the local language], that if you fight for 100 years, on the last day you will again sit around the table and find a solution. So why not just start...
...Economy, Stupid The economy needs attention, too. During Musharraf's eight-year tenure, first as General, then as President, foreign direct investment rose, the Karachi stock exchange outperformed regional neighbors and GDP grew on average 7% a year. The lifting of international economic sanctions, imposed in 1998 when Pakistan tested its first nuclear bomb, was partially responsible for the boost, but Musharraf also privatized key industries and opened up the banking sector. The rapid growth, however, exposed cracks in infrastructure that was failing to keep up. "The economy has been good for big business, good for the per capita averages...
...While Musharraf's government brought electricity to remote villages - a popular vote earner - it failed to increase energy production. "Sure, we saw incredible growth over the past five years," says industrialist Mirza Ikhtiar Baig, "but the previous government failed to generate a single additional megawatt. If you have that kind of growth but do not generate the power to go with it then the system will collapse." Load-shedding - as much as 18 hours a day in some areas - has brought production lines in key employment sectors such as textile-manufacturing to a standstill. Rising oil prices had been mitigated...
...Washington really wants to help Pakistan, its policies must move beyond Musharraf and the military and give the people a higher priority. Seth Jones, a terrorism expert at the Rand Corp., says that Pakistan has become the neglected stepchild, only third or fourth in a list of U.S. strategic interests that start with Iraq and Afghanistan. "Pakistan should be No. 1," says Jones. "The most serious homeland threat to the United States from abroad comes from militant groups operating in Pakistan...