Musharraf's last stand

I've talked about the importance of Pakistan a few times, especially concerning South Asian regional stability. The latest development there revolves around President Musharraf who is refusing to resign, despite impending impeachment charges.

The charges stem for a number of "offenses", varying in their legal strength. Despite his economic mismanagement and authoritarian streak, the only charge with merit concerns his dismissal of a number of judges, including the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

The next week will prove vital for Pakistan's democratic development and US strategic interests. Pakistan has had trouble embracing the democratic process and its history is littered with coups, some successful, others not. You can be sure that a lot of licit and illicit diplomatic maneuvering is occurring right now and will continue throughout the hearings. Pakistan is too strategically important to allow for any period of serious instability or confusion.

What the international community is hoping for, and should be working toward, is one of two things. Either a swift conviction of Musharraf, followed by his exile and the decoupling of the military from government hands to independent military men, preferably sympathetic to US training and presence OR Musharraf's acquittal where after he becomes a shadow controller of his loyalist party. I may be vilified for saying this but it is the most attractive option if the first does not happen, which, Pakistan being Pakistan, it will not.

While Musharraf was a "dictator" he kept Pakistan free of the extremism that has spread since he lost central power. While he certainly overstepped his bounds by attempting to strong arm the judiciary, if he worked behind the scenes and effectively kept Pakistan on the path to liberalization this would be vastly preferable to a democratically elected (but still corrupt) government lacking the strength and control to stabilize Pakistan.

Foreign policy is often about picking the best of the worst. And right now, unless Pakistan's government steps up, that pick will be Musharraf.