Reply #22: nuance on Sharif vs. Musharraf [View All]

[sui generis]

"His replacement, Pervez Musharraf, pointedly refused to do anything to assist Clinton in dealing with these threats."

That's because Clinton unfortunately took a public stance of condemnation of the coup and initially refused to recognize the new government.

The very last weeks in Pakistan under Sharif were gruesome to say the least. His government turned a completely blind eye to "moral" killings, to inter-party assassinations, to crime against westerners, and to the growing establishment of police brutality and other inter-cultural strife that was building at the time, and most particularly in Quetta province and even in Karachi.

I can't tell you the number of times I opened the Dawn newspaper and saw page after page of gruesome torture pics and horrible stories about police "bribery" and torture scandals, motorcycle assassinations, the "beggar's mafia", and "summary extra-judicial executions", i.e., the military taking over both the function and remedy of civil court.

I think that "pointedly refused" was actually a bad timing issue, and perhaps mischaracterizes the situation.