Nancy Pelosi Condemns Musharraf's Emergency Powers Acts in Pakistan

On Monday, in response to Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf imposing emergency rule and suspending Pakistan's constitution, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi issued a harsh statement condemning his actions and the policies of the Bush Administration toward him.

"For too long, President Musharraf failed to confront effectively his growing unpopularity. The Bush Administration enabled Musharraf's delusion by ignoring his undemocratic acts and lack of internal support in exchange for his assistance in efforts against terrorism. Pakistan will only be a reliable and capable ally against terrorism when its government is not seen as an enemy by its own people," said Pelosi.

Critics of Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic majority in the Congress say that the statement that the Office of the Speaker of the House published is counterproductive and inappropriate, while being motivated not by a concern for national security or foreign policy but merely by all-too-common political posturing.

The Bush Administration also condemned the actions of Musharaff immediately, who as military commander has detained or locked up in excess of 1000 political critics and opponents as well as lawyers and shut down a wide array of independent television stations and media outlets since he invoked emergency powers and martial law on Saturday.

United States Central Command head Admiral William Fallon had actually met with Musharaff on Friday to inform him that if he invoked emergency powers the Bush Administration and the United States military would condemn his actions.

At the behest of a multitude of Pakistani lawyers and "constitutionalists", the Pakistani Supreme Court had been called upon to rule on the legality of Musharaff's re-election last month, an action that Musharaff declared was the action of a hostile judiciary and which prompted him to invoke emergency powers.

The judiciary in Pakistan has been gaining in power and support since the early part of 2007.

In the wake of the harsh criticism from the United States, Musharaff has pledged that he will hold new elections in mid-January as originally planned, and will retire from the military.

Musharff's popularity and his control over national security in Pakistan were damaged in July when he unleashed commandos on the sacred Red Mosque of Islamabad in order to crush what was reportedly a violent and armed fundamentalist Islamic uprising there.

Maintaining order and security in Pakistan is very difficult because it is a nation where politics has been dominated by military leaders and dictators and is only in very recent years attempting the transition to a democratic form of government with a rights-protecting Constitution.

The United States has been allowed to rely strongly on the permission to utilize Pakistan's infrastructure and air space to carry out anti-terrorism war operations in neighboring Afghanistan.

Critics of Musharff have said that in spite of his efforts, he has been largely ineffective at quelling or stamping out forces of radical, terror-based Islam in his nation, with a good portion of his military commanders covertly helping out terrorism recruits within Pakistan who have fled their military defeats in other areas such as Afghanistan and Iraq.

A United States military intelligence report released in the summer stated that the Taliban organization had managed to do some considerable regrouping after its defeats because members were able to hide out and lick their wounds in Pakistan.

Analysts are troubled that if the political situation in Pakistan is not quickly re-stabilized, the nation could become even more of an active meeting and breeding ground for Islamic terrorists, and Coalition operations in Afghanistan might be compromised, especially given the fact that Pakistan possesses nuclear weapons.

Original Newswire Source:

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