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Deja vu — Judith Apter Klinghoffer

Judith Apter Klinghoffer

MUSHARRAF FOLLOWS MUBARAK'S AND NIXON'S FOOTSTEPS

Let's be honest, Musharraf is doing nothing new. He mainly follows the old Muslim tyrant script : Make sure that Islamists are the only viable alternative to your rule. They do not only make the argument but make sure that it is based on reality. Faced with that choice, the world can do nothing but succumb. So, like Mubarak prior to his election, Musharraf arrested liberals and released (25 top) Islamists.

Consequently, sooner of later, even Muslim liberal organizations change their stripes and chose the "safer road" of Islamism as the recent example of the Egyptian "Kifaya" movement demonstrates. Similarly, in Pakistan, the legal profession has already divided in the manner which reminds me of Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre:

ISLAMABAD, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- The eight-member full court of the Supreme Court (SC) Tuesday declared a seven-judge decision against the declaration of emergency as null and void, according to local press reports.
The full court ruled that the decision was null and void as it was taken after the declaration of emergency but those made the decision were no longer judges with the declaration of emergency.
It was binding for the said seven judges to take oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) to continue as the judges of the Supreme Court but they did not, and ceased as judges, the ruling said.

Be that as it may, nuclear Pakistan is not the place to challenge the notion the West failed to challenge in much less dangerous Egypt, for example. Sorry. The best we can hope for is that Benazir Bhutto continues to play ball and provide Musharraf with a cover in return for a share of power.

Posted on Tuesday, November 6, 2007 at 1:06 PM | Comments (0) | Return

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