Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf won a messy and still legally disputed election over the weekend. Looks like another term for the U.S.-backed strongman. Maybe he’ll take off his military uniform, or maybe not.
Just to add to the confusion, a U.S.-backed rival to Musharraf, Benazir Bhutto, may return now from exile. Meanwhile, a battle in Pakistan’s wild west, where Osama bin Laden may lurk, left 80 dead. And more Afghanistan violence leads back to, well, Pakistan.
America’s stakes there are huge. Democracy is blowing in the wind, but so is chaos.
This hour, On Point: Pakistan’s disputed election, and the indisputable stakes for America.
-Jane Clayson
Guests:
Shahan Mufti, reporter for The Christian Science Monitor.
Adil Najam, professor at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, is a columnist for The News International, an English-language newspaper in Pakistan, and founding editor of the blog “pakistaniat.com”.
Samina Ahmed, South Asia Project Director, International Crisis Group.
Rick Barton, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies , is a former official at the U.S. Agency for International Development and the United Nations.
Tags: international relations, military, pakistan, politics
