Pakistan’s Pinstripe Revolution

I disagree that military is a stabilizing factor in Pakistan. It is actually Musharraf and Pakistan amry that are the very reason that extremism exists in Pakistan. Taliban was originally created by Pakistan Army and during army eight years rule they only flourished in Pakistan. Musharraf is brutally cracking down liberal and secular element in Pakistan and at the same time releasing score of convicted Taliban from jails. Taliban was created by Pakistan Army and this ugly creation won't go away as long as their patorns are in power. USA has given billion of dollars to Pakistan Army to fight terrorism and these dollars has gone into pockets of Army Generals without any serious effort to eradicate the menace of Islamic extremism. Military is shutting down crucial civil society institutions and as a result Al-Qaeda/Taliban are finding room and flourishing in Pakistan.
It is high team that west recognize true face of Musharraf. The only solution to Pakistan problem and extermism is democracy and not Musharraf.

I Liked our article ,it is balanced and reasonable. Benazir has no popularity in Pakistan as the western media makes people believe, she is spending money to buy loyalties from people how far she can go is yet to be seen the problem is the money she is spending to buy loyalties , if she comes into power she will try to recover the cost and worshippers of Democracy in the west will look the other way when she breaks the law, after all she has flawless English ! but unfortunately her urdu is full of flaws , and the best govts in pakistan so far have been the military govts. Even the shouting lawyers would agree.

In Pakistan, the army should be in power because they are the least corrupt of all parties. Civiian governments in Pakistan are all hopeless.

Fareed Zakaria immediately shows his bias in the beginning, making this article pretty much moot and worthless - like a Bush speech. How can anyone take this as factual and truthful? Shame on Newsweek for letteing this go forward as 'news'. Are they now part of the FAUX News family?

Fareed Zakaria has nailed it. The contrast between Musharraf's first five years and what is happening right now could not be starker. Musharraf has overstayed his welcome but let's not forget that the steps he took (repealing anti-women laws, standing up to the mullahs, liberalization of the media, improving relations with India, sustained economic growth) are unprecedented. In fact it was Benazir's governement and her interior minister Nasirullah Babar (along with the ISI) that was behind the creation of the Taliban.

What a wrong assessment. You must not forget that during his regeim Pakistan has turned into an extremist state, even more than in the Zia era. He promoted extremism under the cover of enlightened moderation. He managed to deceive the western media and the think tanks regarding his approach. If you see the advancement of Talibans in Pakistan. It becomes clear his real vision. The incident of Red Mosque in Islamabad shows what kind of "moderation" he was trying to plant in Pakistan. In 2002 elctions, he brought MMA, a religious alliance that was formed by the agencies under his control. The role of MMA during 5 years proved that MMA means " Military Mullah Alliance". PML (Q) and MMA were partners in Balochistan Govt and sharing the ministries. They had full liberty in spreading their agenda of extremism. Even if we put aside, MMA what this PML (Q) is all about as long as extremism is concerned.
If you have followed the Pakistani politics, it is very clear that leadership of the PML (Q) is known for its radicalism. Just recently Ch. Shujjat Hussain, President of PML(Q) has said that MMA and PML(Q) are natural allies. This is not wrong. When you say, that Musharaf has empowered women by giving them 33% quota in the assemblies. Their role was nothing. If you have ever seen the involvement of elected women members in local bodies, you would be astonished that even in the Union council sessions, husbans and brothers of female members participate on behalf of them. I have personal experience of this. Real empowerment is still in the hands of male relatives. If you follow the statements of Arbab Rahim, Chief Minister of Sindh and Ch. Pervaiz Ellahi, Chief Minister of Punjab, it becomes clear how moderate these people are about women. When they say that women leadership is a "Curse" for Pakistan. When Ms. Neelofer Bakhtiar hugged her 80 years old trainer after a successful paraglidding jump, your moderate leaders removed her from ministry and presidency of women wing. Now even after emergency, which was imposed to curb extremism and terrorism, a crack down was against judiciary, lawers, media, civil society organizations and political workers. Security forces were torturing the protesters very badly. On the other hand, the security forces are surrendering before the Talibans in Swat. No action has been initiated against talibans in Swat at all uptill now. Becuase this is the true agenda of Musharaf to promote talibanization under the cover of enlightened moderation.
All this is happening according to Musharaf's plans.
Abid Shakeel
If you are trying to say that Musharaf has taken Pakistan a