Press Trust of India Posted online: Tuesday, March 07, 2006 at 1334 hours IST Updated: Tuesday, March 07, 2006 at 1420 hours IST
London, March 7: Cautioning the United States that it risked repeating past mistakes by supporting a military regime in Pakistan, former premier Benazir Bhutto has accused America of being "selective" in applying its foreign policy yardsticks.
Recalling US President George W Bush's inaugural address in January 2005 espousing the cause of democracy, social change and human rights, Bhutto said, "the Bush doctrine, making democracy and human rights the centrepiece of US foreign policy, has been selectively applied."
"It is waived at countries like Burma and Syria, but hardly applied to political and religious repression among US allies. And in Pakistan, democracy has been deferred by the US in the face of the military dictatorship of Pervez Musharraf," Bhutto wrote in an article in The Guardian.
"The question is - will America pay the same price in Pakistan as it is now paying in other hotspots? " the leader of the Pakistan people's party asked.
Noting that the US often chose to ally with authoritarian regimes out of a perceived "strategic interest", the former premier said the "result, though, was often myopia".
"America supported the Shah of Iran without pressing for fundamental reforms. That gave the US cheap oil in the short term and in the long term Ayatollah Khomeini, whose followers are still at loggerheads with Washington."
"The 'myops' of the 80s embraced the brutal dictatorship of Zia ul-Haq, indifferent to or ignorant of the consequences. They also failed to nurture moderation and democratic values within the afghan coalition fighting the Soviets," she wrote, adding this "tragic miscalculation" led directly to the Taliban and eventually to al-Qaeda and 9/11.
Warning Washington that it could be making the "same mistake" in Pakistan, Bhutto said, "An authoritarian ruler plays the trump card of short-term cooperation in exchange for western acquiescence to his brutal junta. The consequences may be just as tragic."
US support for Musharraf risks fomenting mass distrust and anger. The price is unconscionably high for the dictator's sham public support for the war on terror - especially since he allows al-Qaeda and the Taliban to roam unencumbered in critical areas of the Pakistan frontier, she said.
Bhutto claimed that when she was in power she "partly" succeeded in reforming the political Madrasas by introducing a modern curriculum.
"The Musharraf regime, by neglecting the social and educational sector, has created conditions that make the Madrasas expand and prosper. These are the breeding grounds for young people's rejection of political moderation and the direct consequence of the sustained repression of the popular democratic will," Bhutto said.
Noting that the "sub-text" to the cartoon protest should not be ignored, Bhutto said, "Musharraf bans all political demonstrations except for anti-American and anti-western ones. So Pakistan's people and parties used the incident to vent a broader anger."
