WASHINGTON, May 6: The recent events in Pakistan are having an impact on how the US views the government in Islamabad but policy-makers in Washington believe that it is still the army that calls the shots, says a commentary in an academic publication.
“The main questions about President Musharraf’s future, however, are internal to Pakistan,” write Ambassador Teresita C. Schaffer and Harris Qureshi in South Asia Monitor, published by Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The two experts on South Asia argue that “after more than seven years of governing, Gen Musharraf’s grip on keeping order has loosened, and the question of his legitimacy is reasserting itself.”
They claim that President Musharraf’s recent efforts to manage domestic politics and the Afghan tangle have backfired.
They, however, concede that his effort to walk the fine line –keeping militant Islamic forces under control without confronting them – may be ‘an impossible task.’
“It is probably too soon to write his political obituary, but many in Pakistan and elsewhere, are wondering at what point his control over events will slip below the critical level.”
