New York, November 6: The New York Times has blamed President George Bush for the crisis in Pakistan and suggested he consider discussions with India, Iran, China and Saudi Arabia on how to prevent further instability there.
"The United States is increasingly left with bad options," the influential US daily said in an editorial Tuesday noting, 'cutting off aid would only make it harder to enlist Pakistan's military in the anti-extremist fight and renew doubts about America's reliability as an ally'.
"The United States should at least condition that money on Pakistan's performance in the anti-terrorism fight, on some form of accountability and on shifting more of it toward building political parties, courts and schools," it said.
"It should also consider discussions with India, Iran, China and Saudi Arabia on how to prevent further instability in Pakistan," the Times suggested.
While critical of Bush, the daily seemed to favour the Washington-brokered deal between Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto as a good bet as 'ultimately, democracy, not dictatorship, is the best hope for a stable Pakistan'.
Reviving Musharraf's backroom deal with Bhutto, 'however distasteful, may be a way back from the abyss if it includes a real commitment to elections by the general, if Ms. Bhutto insists that the elections be open to all parties and if Mr. Bush gives her strong backing', it said.
By imposing martial law, Musharraf has pushed nuclear-armed Pakistan further along a perilous course and underscored the failure of President Bush's policy toward a key ally in the war on terrorism, the daily said.
But 'the events should not have come as a surprise to administration officials. This is what you get when policy is centred slavishly on a single, autocratic ruler rather than more broadly on his country'.
Noting that returning Pakistan to civilian government has been a declared goal of the US since General Musharraf seized power in 1999 in a bloodless military coup, the daily noted that he has repeatedly broken promises to move in that direction.
"Most of the time, Mr. Bush, who says he cannot win the anti-terrorism war without General Musharraf but clearly can't win it with him either, acquiesced in his misdeeds," the Times alleged.
"The Faustian nature of the bargain is more apparent than ever. Not only has the general proven less committed to the anti-terrorism fight than expected (Al Qaeda and the Taliban are resurgent on the border with Afghanistan), but now he has abandoned any pretence of moving toward democracy," it said.
Bush seems to have gained little leverage from the more than $10 billion in American aid that has fattened Pakistan's coffers since September 11, 2001, much of it unaccounted for, the daily said.
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