Pakistan’s Military Leader Vows Return to Civilian Rule Within 3 Years

Pakistan’s military dictator pledged Thursday that he will hand over power to democratically elected leaders within three years.

Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who overthrew the civilian government seven months ago, told a nationally televised news conference that he will abide by a recent court decision limiting his time in office.

“Yes, obviously. This is a Supreme Court judgment which has to be accepted,” the general said.

It was the first time that Musharraf gave a timetable for returning Pakistan to civilian rule. The regime has been shunned around the world and is under mounting pressure at home, where Musharraf is attempting to overhaul key institutions.

Musharraf presides over an extraordinarily volatile country of 140 million people who have seen military rulers come and go in the five decades since independence from Britain. The general heads the only military-run government that is known to possess nuclear weapons, and Pakistan is increasingly riven by the activities of terrorists and extremist Islamic groups. The country ranks among the poorest and depends on regular injections of foreign money to stay afloat.

Musharraf, the chief of the Pakistani army, seized power Oct. 12 when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif tried to fire him. Many Pakistanis welcomed the coup and the ouster of Sharif, who was widely viewed as corrupt and tyrannical.

Several Pakistanis filed legal challenges to the coup, and Musharraf, in one of his more highhanded moments, forced all members of the Supreme Court to swear loyalty to him. Several judges resigned, and this month a newly constituted court validated the general’s seizure of power on the grounds of “necessity.”

But the judges did not let things go at that. They said military coups could harm Pakistan, and they told Musharraf that he had to return to the barracks within three years.

“Prolonged interference of the military in politics is not good,” the court said. “It will politicize the army, and democracy should be restored within the shortest possible time.”

Until Thursday, Musharraf had resisted setting a date for a return to democratic rule. In March, he announced a round of local elections beginning in July, but that failed to satisfy his critics. When President Clinton visited the region in March, he met briefly with Musharraf but without ceremony or enthusiasm.

“Who says we have been isolated? That is a lie,” Musharraf barked at his news conference. “We are a nuclear power with 140 million people. Nobody can ignore us.”

Recently, though, Musharraf’s biggest opposition has come at home, where he is facing resistance to his calls for change. Earlier this month, the general bowed to pressure from Islamic parties and abandoned his efforts to reform the country’s law on blasphemy. The law, which prescribes death for people who defile the prophet Muhammad, has been used to persecute the country’s Christian minority.

Last week, businesspeople protested Musharraf’s plans to impose a national sales tax, step up tax collection and curb smuggling. The general has vowed to push ahead with his plans and this week was dispatching revenue agents around the country to search for untaxed income.

Violence between members of Islam’s two main sects continues unabated in Pakistan, and several armed groups operate freely inside the country.

The growing opposition to Musharraf troubles some people in Pakistan, and they welcomed his pledge Thursday to return the country to civilian rule. Talat Masood, a retired army lieutenant general, said that if the military did not soon get out of politics, it ultimately might destroy itself--and take Pakistani democracy with it.

“If democracy does not come back and it does not succeed,” Masood said, “there could be anarchy in this country--even civil war.”