The Perils of Pakistan

Now that Mr. Musharraf is gone, perhaps the country's democrats can focus on governance.

PERVEZ MUSHARRAF stepped down as Pakistan's president Monday, brought down by a combination of his own dictatorial overreaching and the resistance of the parliamentary coalition that won elections six months ago. Having given up command of the country's army in November, Mr. Musharraf was already a far weaker figure than the brash general who seized power in a 1999 coup. A very real threat of impeachment prompted him to leave four years earlier than planned. Given Mr. Musharraf's repressive record in domestic politics and his inconsistent support for U.S. anti-terrorism efforts, his departure is for the best. Now, Pakistan's democratic politicians have what they wanted: full responsibility for governing this notoriously unstable, nuclear-armed nation of 167 million mostly poor people.

So far, however, the politicians have spent most of their energy on disputes left over from the Musharraf period. First among these is the question of what to do with Mr. Musharraf. One coalition partner, the Pakistan People's Party, which is headed by the late Benazir Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, seems to favor allowing him a comfortable exile; the Pakistan Muslim League of Nawaz Sharif apparently wants him put on trial. This issue, in turn, is entwined with another struggle over how and when to reinstate the Supreme Court justices whom Mr. Musharraf purged, especially the former chief justice. Mr. Zardari dislikes the jurist because he once refused Mr. Zardari bail when he was jailed on corruption charges; Mr. Zardari fears that those charges might be revived.

All transitions from authoritarianism to democracy raise questions of retrospective accountability and justice. The fact that the Pakistani politicians wrestling with these questions are themselves hardly innocent of mistakes and abuses does not make the issues any less legitimate. Obviously it's up to the Pakistanis themselves to resolve Mr. Musharraf's fate and the future makeup of the Supreme Court. Pakistan's friends, including the United States, will have to show patience.

But Mr. Sharif and Mr. Zardari must simultaneously tackle the problems of Pakistan's present and future. Those include not only rising food and fuel prices but also the continuing cross-border Muslim insurgency linked to Afghanistan's Taliban. As a deadly Tuesday strike against French troops in Afghanistan and a foiled suicide bombing against U.S. troops the same day show, the West has a strong interest in defeating these guerrillas, and it cannot do so without Pakistan's help -- which Pakistan has promised. But the new Pakistani authorities have not yet demonstrated a convincing strategy for keeping that promise. Indeed, the Bush administration has confronted Pakistani leaders with evidence of links between Pakistan's military intelligence service and Islamist militants, including a behind-the-scenes role in a Taliban attack on India's embassy in Kabul in which 60 people were killed. Pakistan's new leaders swept to power on a claim that democracy is better at fighting terrorism than dictatorship. The sooner they start proving it, the better.