Perils of Power.(Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan)(Brief Article)

The war on terror made the world glad that Pakistan had a dictator. On Sept. 12, Gen. Proves Musharraf did not need to consult any pesky politicians or civic groups before turning against the Taliban. In January he did not check with his lawyers before banning several Muslim extremist groups and arresting thousands of their cadres. The decision to aid U.S. military forces in hunting down Qaeda remnants in Pakistan had to be cleared with only a few, handpicked generals. And the war on terror should have made Musharraf glad, too: desperately needed by Washington, he has been all but immune to international criticism.

Yet over the past nine months, Musharraf's dictatorial bent has eroded his standing within Pakistan. The January crackdown infuriated the military's former allies in the Islamist movement, as did his more recent decision to block insurgents from crossing into India's half of Kashmir. He has consistently refused calls from moderate politicians to share power: despite claims that 97 percent of Pakistani voters approved an April referendum extending his presidential term for five more years, most independent poll watchers--indeed, most Pakistanis-- believe the turnout was a paltry 15 to 20 percent, and the vote itself rigged. "He has isolated himself by refusing to compromise with Pakistan's mainstream political groups," says Husain Haqqani, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

Now Musharraf is set to lose the few friends he has left in the Pakistani establishment. Last week he announced a series of constitutional amendments that are intended to tighten his stranglehold on power before October elections mandated by the Supreme Court. If approved by his military-dominated cabinet after a month of public debate, only university graduates will be eligible to run for national and provincial Assembly seats, thus excluding the 95 percent of the population without a degree. Musharraf will have the power to appoint and sack the prime minister and to dissolve the National Assembly. The new laws also provide for a military-laden National Security Council, chaired by the president, with sweeping powers to formulate national- security policy as well as to recommend the dissolution of the prime minister's cabinet. As a result, the new prime minister, his cabinet and the National Assembly will be virtually powerless. "I have a fearful hunch he is going in the wrong direction," says retired Gen. Mirza Aslam Beg, the former Army chief who, rather than assuming power, organized the democratic elections won by Benazir Bhutto three months after dictator Zia ul-Haq's death. "The best service Musharraf can perform for Pakistan is to hold free and fair elections and ensure that power is transferred to those who get elected."

That seems increasingly unlikely. "Unless there is unity of command, unless there is one man in charge on top, [the government] will never function," Musharraf declared recently. He has angered politicians by refusing to talk to Bhutto, who still is arguably the country's most popular politician despite the fact that there are several corruption cases pending against her and her husband (both deny the charges). Nor has he ...