Just a few weeks after former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's triumphant return from exile, Pakistan is under Martial law and Bhutto is under what amounts to house arrest.
From the LA Times:
Bhutto kept from rally
Pakistan opposition leader is held under virtual house arrest by police.
President Pervez Musharraf successfully thwarted a demonstration Friday by former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, encircling her home for hours with riot police, barbed wire and metal barricades, but U.S. officials still held out hope the two could strike a power-sharing agreement.
The latest turn of events appear to have put Bhutto and her Pakistan People's Party on a collision course with Musharraf, who suspended the constitution and imposed emergency rule a week ago, about two weeks after Bhutto returned to Pakistan from self-imposed exile.
But many here and in Washington believe that she hasn't completely abandoned the notion of some form of political partnership with the military leader.
Bhutto's confinement order was lifted shortly before midnight and today she left her house at midday to meet with party leaders. She had spent Friday behind barricades and before cameras, pleading with police to let her out so she could lead the demonstration against emergency rule. Surrounded by female lawmakers and party members, she appealed to black- bereted police blocking her white Land Cruiser: "Get out of the way. We are your sisters."
Some commentators said the temporary confinement worked in Bhutto's favor, boosting her credibility as an opposition figure, yet burning no real bridges with the general.
"I don't think she lost anything by what happened; in a sense she gained because it enhanced her defiant image," said Arif Rafiq, a U.S.-based policy consultant and editor of the Pakistan Policy Blog.
The White House, which counts Pakistan as a crucial ally in the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, gingerly sought to keep up pressure on Musharraf. The Bush administration called for the release of political figures and "peaceful protesters who have been detained."
And Musharraf's actions:
The government's harsh actions came a day after Musharraf, apparently bowing to pressure from the United States and other Western governments, said he would hold parliamentary elections by mid-February, a month later than scheduled. Bhutto called his promise "vague" and demanded that Musharraf relinquish his post as head of the military in the coming week, as he had previously promised to do.
And once again, I am reminded of those words of Sir John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton
Musharraf needs a new hobby -- his political one isn't turning out so well...
