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Bhutto: Military Regime Was The Face Of Theocracy
DUBAI, Jan. 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The U.S.-led war in Afghanistan is bringing democracy back to Pakistan regardless of the military rulers, former Pakistani Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, said Monday.
"The crackdown against militants in Afghanistan heralds the approach of a new era," Bhutto wrote in an article published in UAE daily newspaper, Gulf News.
"That new era is now forcing itself on Islamabad irrespective of whether the rulers are ready for it."
Democratic principles promoted by Washington, London and New Delhi mark out the new era, according to Bhutto, Prime Minister from 1988-1990 and 1993-1996.
She reviewed Pakistani President, General Pervez Musharraf's declaration of war against theocratic politics, his promise to crush internal militancy and efforts to avert war with India.
“The promise to crackdown on internal militants was described as "historic" and "path-breaking". It could turn out to be neither. The declarations of combating militancy and the crackdown against militants are yet to pass the test of sincerity,” said Bhutto.
"In a bid to defuse an all out war, General Musharraf publicly admitted a policy re-appraisal this January. A leader who inherited the private militias and militants since he seized power three years back, came on television to declare a war against theocratic politics,” she added.
Bhutto was referring to a televised In a speech televised to Pakistanis, on Saturday, January 13 in which Musharraf told the world that Pakistan has to choose between becoming either a theocratic state or a progressive, dynamic Islamic nation, news agencies reported.
"The day of reckoning has come," he said, in his address which was dubbed as a "historic speech" in Pakistan and in which he banned two Kashmiri resistance groups blamed by India for the December 13 attack on its parliament.
In the same speech, Musharraf announced a crackdown on three other local Muslim groups and on religious schools, being accused of "breeding terrorism".
Hours after his speech, police arrested around 300 people from the five banned groups in central Punjab province after sealing their offices, a police official said, AFP reported.
"The real test for the military regime comes in ridding the theocratic structure set in place," Bhutto wrote in the Gulf News.
However, she continued, "In overtly repudiating theocracy, the military regime took measures, literally, from the manifesto and agenda of the democratic forces. The overt declarations by the Musharraf regime, irrespective of its covert intentions, mark the amazing victory of the ideas of the democratic forces."
"It is a watershed time in the history of Pakistan where the politics of the establishment are publicly repudiated by the establishment itself."
She added that “the declarations of conversion from theocrat to moderate are cosmetic until the pre-requisites of a democratic culture are met. The entire civil structure is groaning under the weight of military supervision.”
Bhutto said that “the conclusion by leading democrats, therefore, is that, in the absence of the foreign pressures, the military regime would continue backing militancy and theocracy.”
Bhutto, who divides her time in exile between London and Dubai, hoped for a peaceful transformation.
"Change in Pakistan can come through peaceful means if the Pakistani establishment sincerely abandons theocracy for democracy," she said.
"The military regime, for better or for worse, was the face of theocracy. If it grudgingly accepts combating theocracy, it will soon, even if grudgingly, accept the retreat of the military order."
Bhutto’s Pakistan People's Party government was dismissed on corruption charges in 1996.
Musharraf promised general elections in line with the October 12, 2002 deadline set by Pakistan's Supreme Court when it validated his October 1999 military coup.
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