Democracy in the Bush (and Musharraf) style, by M.R. Farrukh, Pakistan Post, 7 May 2003. Translated from Urdu by Rehan Ansari.

At the start of the invasion of Iraq, the war was about Saddam’s possession of weapons of mass destruction. Now that the war is over and there are no such weapons to be found, the Pentagon, White House and neoconservatives are claiming that the war, and reconstruction, is about instituting democracy in Iraq. By that they must mean the kind of democracy that exists in Pakistan, a key ally of the United States in its war against terrorism.

Pakistan has a president, General Musharraf, who is also chief of the army and has given himself the power to dismiss the prime minister and the parliament whenever he pleases. The opposition in parliament recently asked the General to quit the Army. He responded that remaining in uniform is important for democrary!

The General has also said that he will not address the parliament because it is too “bloody” rowdy.

The General’s fuse is just as short with journalists. When he was in New York in 2000, I attended the press conference. The press conference was packed with nonjournalists and sycophants who were singing praises of the general. When the editor of the Pakistan Post wondered aloud whether the press conference was a joke, he was shouted down. But not before he managed to say that the then Pakistani Ambassador to Washington, Maleeha Lodhi, was upper-class and served only the interests of upper-class Pakistanis in the United States. At this remark, the General rose up angrily, smacked his fist into his palm, and asked how dare anyone question his appointment of an ambassador. He also said that Pakistani journalists are not independent, but on the payroll of someone or another.

It is clear that with General Musharraf if you agree with him, you are a democrat, or a journalist. This kind of democracy is kin to the one that is planned for Iraq, where if you agree with U.S. policy you will be considered a democrat.