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‘Anti-US feeling high in Pakistan’

* CRS report says Musharraf likely to stay firmly in power in 2005 as Opposition divided

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: Notwithstanding its cooperation with the United States in the war against terrorism, Pakistan is probably the “most anti-American country” in the world, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), which advises the US Congress.

Pakistan is “probably the most anti-American country in the world right now, ranging from the radical Islamists on one side to the liberals and Westernised elites on the other side,” according to a CRS analysis up to February 14, reports the Press Trust of India.

While President Pervez Musharraf has vowed to “finish off extremism”, Pakistan’s Islamists routinely denounce military operations in the tribal areas, resist government attempts to reform madrassas, and criticise cooperation with the US, says the report.

According to K Alan Kronstadt, who is in charge of analysing Asian affairs for the CRS, increasing signs of “Islamisation” and anti-American sentiment add to US concerns about Pakistan’s domestic political developments.

The report says the lack of unity among opposition groups remains a serious constraint on their ability to pressure the Musharraf-led government to step down, the Hindustan Times reports. The CRS report says Musharraf and his supporters in parliament and the military are unlikely to relinquish power in 2005, and the factors behind opposition disunity includes an active campaign of “divide-and-rule” by the military.

“There are more than a few observers who see in Musharraf’s 2004 ‘shuffling’ of prime ministers evidence that the president lacks confidence in the sturdiness of his own system. Many also call the decision to maintain Musharraf’s role as army chief as damaging to his credibility. Thus, many foresee 2005 as a year in which Musharraf will continue to pursue a domestic political strategy of divide-and-rule,” says the report. The generals cannot govern Pakistan, but they will not let anyone else govern it,” one senior Western observer was quoted as saying.

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