NEW YORK, July 3: Saying that “the United States has an incalculable interest in maintaining friendship with Pakistan at this delicate moment,” the New York Times underscored that “Washington must encourage a return to civilian rule as the best guarantor of stability and popular support for the alliance with the United States in the fight against terrorism.”

In an editorial ‘Political Quicksand in Pakistan,’ the Times observed: “General Musharraf has unfortunately succumbed to a dismal pattern that has recurred throughout Pakistan’s history.”

Noting that “what General Musharraf has forgotten is that the public can become quickly disillusioned with a military government when it thinks the generals are trying to grasp for power and stifle democratic institutions,” the editorial says, “It was a blunder, for example, for General Musharraf to have sponsored a referendum on his leadership earlier this year, banned opposition groups from working against it and then declared that its passage gave him a mandate to rule for five more years. Facing these sentiments, the general should not postpone the parliamentary elections scheduled for October.”

Writing about the constitutional amendments, the paper says that “last month he proposed constitutional changes that would enable him to dismiss a new parliament and prime minister and set up a shadow government in the form of a national security council that he could control, reducing the new civilian government to a puppet. These proposals should be reconsidered and promptly withdrawn.”

Saying that “it is critically important that Gen Pervez Musharraf deal smartly with the rising challenge to his pro-Western, secular rule” the Times noted “mounting criticism from Islamic militants and the mainstream press has started to focus on his decision to ally Pakistan with the United States, and on the recent American pressure on Pakistan to stop aiding the Islamic guerrillas in neighbouring Kashmir. The general has also infuriated many political leaders by moving to consolidate and enhance his powers.