Musharraf Rejects U.S. Pressure to Lift Emergency Rule

By Emily Wax and Imtiaz Ali
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, November 18, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 18 -- President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday rebuffed pressure from a senior U.S. envoy to revoke emergency rule under the country's current security situation, envoys said.

In a tense two-hour meeting, Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte delivered a "very strong message" urging Musharraf to end the state of emergency, step down as head of the military and release of thousands of political prisoners.

"Emergency rule is not compatible with free, fair and credible elections," Negroponte said at a news conference Sunday morning, referring to parliamentary elections set for early January. "The people of Pakistan deserve an opportunity to choose their leaders free from the restrictions that exist under a state of emergency."

A diplomat characterized the meeting as "short of tough love, but still tough."

"It was made clear that if things don't change, aid money could be cut, and it was very serious and on the table," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity. "There is a limit."

Negroponte also met with Pakistan's deputy army commander, Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani, a pro-Western leader expected to take over as military chief in the coming weeks if Musharraf steps down as head of the army and starts a second term as a civilian president. The two met three times, including for dinner Saturday night.

Negroponte's meeting with Kiyani was a sign that the United States was looking to court other possible leaders who could keep the country stable and be a partner in its fight against terrorism, analysts said.

Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, now a chief rival to Musharraf, spoke to Negroponte by telephone hours after she was released from house arrest. She reportedly told him she could no longer work with Musharraf and was focusing on building an opposition that could pressure him to step down.

"In current circumstances, engagement and dialogue -- not brinkmanship and confrontation -- should be the order of the day for all parties," Negroponte said in urging Musharraf and Bhutto to end their bickering.

A key ally in U.S. counterterrorism efforts, Musharraf has said he declared emergency rule Nov. 3 to give him a freer hand in battling militant groups in the country's northwest, where Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters operate.

However, Western diplomats and Musharraf's aides have said privately that his main objective was to prevent the Supreme Court from ruling his Oct. 6 reelection invalid.

Musharraf said in an interview Friday that he would tell the United States that he was the only leader capable of "protecting and safeguarding Pakistan."

"We need to fight the terrorists and we need the emergency for a peaceful environment," he said.

His aides said he repeated those views in the meeting with Negroponte. "The war on terror needs Musharraf," one of the aides said on condition of anonymity. "Musharraf is good for America."

The United States has increasingly found Musharraf to be a liability since he suspended the constitution, dissolved the Supreme Court and jailed his political opponents, Western diplomats said. However, Negroponte praised Musharraf's efforts in the fight against terrorism, saying that he "continues to be a strong voice against extremism."

Meanwhile, thousands of journalists in Karachi and Islamabad protested the blackout of Geo TV and ARY, two of Pakistan's largest and most popular news networks. Both had been broadcasting via satellite from Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.

Station owners said they were forced to take their broadcasts off the air after Musharraf pressured the government in the UAE to shut them down.

Waving placards and posters that read "Press and Nation Rise and Fall Together" and "World Press in Chains," journalists said the sudden blackout of the stations showed the limits of satellite television, which has been the primary source of information here since Musharraf declared emergency law and shut down dozens of private channels.

"The tentacles of Musharraf have spread all the way to Dubai. This was a sanctuary for us, and now the government's pulled our final links to the world down," said Imran Aslam, president of the Geo network, speaking in a telephone interview from Karachi.

Geo, a major news source for Pakistanis living abroad, and ARY both refused to sign Musharraf's new code of conduct for journalists that sets fines of up to $40,000 and three-year jail sentences if their coverage "ridicules" the president or other government officials.

"Musharraf is calling us anti-state, which he must equate as anti-government," said Kashif Abbasi, whose political talk show on ARY, "Off the Record," has been blacked out.

Musharraf was the first leader to allow a free media environment in Pakistan. "But what he took eight years to achieve has vanished in eight days," said Tariq Mahmood, a journalist with ARY. "Now Musharraf is going beyond the borders of Pakistan to crush resistance, and it feels medieval. If the U.S. really is a champion of human rights, they should tell Musharraf to stop this."

Shafqat Mahmood, a political analyst and a former minister and senator, said: "To me the issue is very clear. Musharraf is so damaged politically that he's outlived his utility, especially from a national security point of view."

Meanwhile, Pakistani army officials said they killed 100 fighters loyal to a pro-Taliban cleric in three days of fierce battles in northern Swat Valley in North-West Frontier Province.

Maj. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, director general of military operations for the Pakistan army, said a deployment of 1,500 troops had joined the 15,000 security forces already in Swat Valley.

Sen. Maulan Rahat Hussain, from the troubled Shangla district, blamed the government for not trying to solve the militancy issue through dialogue.

"Obviously, when you send thousands of troops with gunship helicopters hovering daily in the sky, it clearly means that the government wants to plunge this area into another front in its so-called war on terror," he said.