Daily Times : ‘Considerable political change likely in Pakistan’

‘Considerable political change likely in Pakistan’

* Haass says hybrid government, with president sharing powers with parliament and PM with judiciary, likely
* Attack on BB might get her more popularity in form of sympathy vote

Daily Times Monitor | October 21, 2007

LAHORE: Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) President Richard N Haass said in an interview that there was a good chance for considerable, though not complete, political change in Pakistan, although the army would remain a major force.

He said, “Pakistan faces dual challenges of building political legitimacy and fighting extremism. Taking them both on at once is quite demanding ...” Haass, who recently visited Pakistan and is an expert on Middle East and South Asian affairs, said the government was trying to deal with a deep and broad challenge to its authority from various radical and extremist groups.

Hybrid govt: He said, “Pakistan is moving from a situation where the president is a military figure to a situation where the president will be a former military figure. It is possible that you will have a hybrid government—by that I mean the president sharing powers with the parliament and the prime minister with the judiciary.”

About attack on former premier Benazir Bhutto, he said there were various individuals and groups in Pakistan who, while not popular by any count—radical groups had never gotten more than 10 percent in any election—they are still in a position to disrupt society.

He said the Pakistan army had not acquitted itself well in recent encounters with extremist groups, adding that the army was not built for that. He said many Pakistanis blame the United States for the frustrating moments of Pakistani history. “The US needs to be a voice to urge political reform. It needs to be a source of help for the Pakistanis so they can take on these extremist and terrorist organisations. Pakistanis can not prevail without US help.”

He said Bhutto’s views on Al Qaeda were very tough-minded and would delegitimise those who would use violence. “They are also going to galvanise some of those people into taking her on, as we’ve just seen in Karachi.”

Regarding the Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) strength, he said it was hard to get a true measure of the strength of the PPP. “A lot of people are critical of Bhutto—either for forging this tactical alliance with President General Pervez Musharraf, or the amnesty she got under the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).

He said Bhutto’s place in future Pakistan was still not assured, adding that it was also unclear whether she would be able to campaign actively or publicly after the bombing.

More popularity for BB: He said it was possible that the Karachi incident would constrain her ability to be a national figure, but it might get her more popularity, a sort of sympathy vote.

He said, “There will be a reaction in the sense that if the extremists are going after her, she becomes the repository of hopes—which still represents the view of most Pakistanis—that their country not be taken over or disrupted by people who are largely seen as non-Pakistani, or people acting in a nontraditional, non-Pakistani way.”