Compromise and cohabitation

George W Bush and General Pervez Musharraf are reportedly good friends. They are also both, at least apparently, on the hot-seat. George Bush is dealing with the rapidly deteriorating situation in Iraq, with resistance to the American occupation growing by the day. Meanwhile, Musharraf has opened himself up on many fronts – from the National Security Council (NSC) (chaired by the president, the council gives the military a legal role in governance with powers of vetting decisions affecting national 'interest') to refusing to commit to taking off his uniform at the end of the year – and therefore remains under intense pressure and scrutiny. Bush and his team of neo-cons continue to harp on Musharraf´s stellar performance since September 11, while Musharraf continues to do America´s bidding, the recent 'successful' 12-day military offensive in South Waziristan (on the border with Afghanistan) the most visible example.

On the whole, the victimisation of political opponents that the Musharraf government has engaged in consistently since its takeover four and a half years ago has remained largely outside the purview of criticism from the Bush administration. As a gesture of tokenism, the US State Department did issue a statement expressing "regret" at the sentencing of prominent opposition leader Javed Hashmi – also the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) president and staunch critic of Musharraf's 1999 coup – to 23 years in jail with hard labour. Similarly, as most other pliant allies of the United States have done, Musharraf´s government has tiptoed around the flagrant violations of democratic and human ethics that have characterised US actions in the war on terror.