WASHINGTON, March 12: Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has urged the United States to tie its aid to genuine political reforms in Pakistan. In an article published in The Washington Post on Monday, Ms Bhutto argued that restoring democracy through free, fair, transparent and internationally supervised elections was the only way to return Pakistan to civilization and eliminate the extremists.

A democratic Pakistan, free from the yoke of military dictatorship, would cease to be a breeding ground for international terrorism, she said.

Ms Bhutto said that Pakistan’s return to democracy was essential to America's success in South and Central Asia, as well as in the Middle East, as democratization is an integral part of fighting terrorism. Wouldn’t it therefore be prudent to tie aid money to genuine political reform? she asks.

Pointing out that religious parties never garnered over 13 per cent of votes in any free parliamentary elections in Pakistan, Ms Bhutto said the notion that the Musharraf regime is the only thing standing between the West and nuclear-armed fundamentalists, was disingenuous and the worst type of fear-mongering.

She said that Pakistan’s military and intelligence services have, for decades, used religious parties for recruits.

Political madrassas — religious schools that preach terrorism by perverting the faith of Islam — have spread by the tens of thousands.

Ms Bhutto said that the West had been short-sighted in dealing with Pakistan.

When the United States aligns with dictatorships and totalitarian regimes, it compromises the basic democratic principles of its foundation — namely, life, liberty and justice for all.

Dictatorships such as Gen Musharraf suppress individual rights and freedoms and empower the most extreme elements of society. Oppressed citizens, unable to represent themselves through other means, often turn to extremism and religious fundamentalism, Ms Bhutto writes.