Pakistan more democratic under Musharraf than before: Rocca

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: Christina Rocca, assistant secretary of state for South Asia, stunned a congressional committee hearing Tuesday by asserting that Pakistan was more democratic now than before the October 1999 coup.

She said, when asked if Pakistan was more democratic than during the overthrown civilian government, “Yes, it is. There is a functioning parliament with a prime minister that is passing legislation. There are grassroots — there have been grassroots elections that went very well. There will continue to be elections.” She added, “They’re definitely moving on the right path, so much so that ... (sentence not completed).” She also thought that there would be more amendments by Gen. Musharraf to the constitution.

In answer to another question, she replied that the Pakistan government has gone after the terrorists wherever it has found them, but domestic sectarian terrorism was a complicated affair and had been in existence for 20 years. “We obviously I don’t believe there’s an easy solution to it because there is a battle going on for the soul of Pakistan at the moment between extremists and moderates,” she added. As for the religious madrassas, she said, “really the real solution to the problem, if there is a solution to this problem, is long term because ... Pakistan needs to have an education system that provides an alternative to the madrassas, and right now that doesn’t exist everywhere. They’re working on it. They’re putting an awful lot of their own funds in it as well as ours and the international community’s. But it’s a long-term project and it’s not something that we’re going to see fixed overnight.”

In reply to a question about the current “status” of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Ms Rocca replied, “I believe Nawaz Sharif is living in Saudi Arabia. And that is according to a deal that he cut with the Government of Pakistan.” In answer to another question about the return of democracy to Pakistan, she said, “I think it’s on course. We’re not there yet. But certainly there is now a democratically elected Parliament and a prime minister, and there’s a functioning Parliament, which is a big step forward. President Musharraf has said he would take off his uniform by the end of the year. And we see all these things as good signs. And meanwhile, the devolution progress continues, and you’re seeing more grassroots efforts to elect people at the grassroots level. And by the way, a lot of our programmes are going in to help strengthen that.”

Congressman Ackerman asked if the US government or the IAEA had been given “direct access of Dr A.Q. Khan or any of his associates and if not how could it be proved that the information being filtered through the Pakistan government was authentic. Ms Rocca answered, “I can only answer in very abbreviated form in this forum. As you know, it’s an extremely sensitive matter. To my knowledge, we have not had access to A.Q. Khan. And I do not know whether the IAEA has done so, but I do not believe they have.” She said congressional leadership and certain members had been briefed on this issue. She added that some of the information being provided by Pakistan was “being borne out by some of the investigations that we’re seeing elsewhere in the world as well.” She said the US was working “very, very closely” with Pakistan on the A.Q. Khan investigation. Asked about the democratisation of Pakistan, she replied, “Well, I think we’re on track there. The President (Bush) has said that President Musharraf has said he will take off his uniform in the fall. We have a working parliament. There are steps that have been taken, and we’re continuing to work with them on that.” She said she could not say what would happen at the end of the year.

Asked why India was not informed in advance of Pakistan being granted the status of a major non-NATO ally, Ms Rocca answered that there had been no final decision to provide that status to Pakistan when secretary of state Colin Powell was in the subcontinent. Her exact words were, “No, there had not been a final decision to provide it to Pakistan. In fact, we didn’t think we were going to, and that is why it was not a live issue when we were in India. There was a day in between the trip to India and the arrival in Pakistan because Secretary Powell went to Afghanistan.” She added, when pressed, “Let me just say this. We have certainly made it clear that had it been — had we been able to, had we had the time to do it, we certainly would have consulted and apprised the government of India of this decision. This is — the perfect storm of circumstances conspired to prevent this from happening, and we have talked to the government of India about it. This was not the way we would have wanted it to play out, and consulting with India is — I’ve been quoted before as saying it was a no-brainer. Had it been a live issue, we certertainly would have done so.”

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