President Pervez Musharraf last weekend embarked upon a mission to Europe’s most influential countries in an effort to correct Pakistan’s image damaged by the imposition of emergency rule in November and the events that followed and culminated in the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto. Before leaving for Belgium to meet the European Union officials, on the first leg of his trip, Musharraf reportedly told media persons that he will try to convince the officials at the European Union headquarters in Brussels that his unconstitutional steps of state of emergency were aimed at curbing terrorism and extremism and so that the country won’t falter on its path to democracy.

 The trip comes at a time when the Western countries, human rights groups and local Pakistani politicians suspect the fairness of elections and the return to full democracy under Musharraf. Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the two largest political parties in Pakistan, have questioned the support by Musharraf, the Election Commission and state machinery to the PML-Q in helping the Chaudhrys-led party return to power. The Western countries including the European Union and many human rights bodies like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have demanded free, fair and transparent elections. So much so, the Human Rights Watch has raised concerns that free elections are not possible under the present rule.

 While the political landscape of Pakistan promises a change after February 18 elections, Musharraf appears adamant on maintaining the status quo, which guarantees his survival at the top. To ensure that the status quo is not disturbed and the PML-Q wins a large number of seats that will ensure a hung parliament, Musharraf has already managed to manipulate the pre-election process and the opposition parties’ fear that he will tamper with the post election results as well. A hung parliament will ensure that different political parties, unable to get required majority in the parliament to form a government, look toward him for alliances and cooperation. While Musharraf still continues to dominate the domestic political scene, he is making efforts abroad to convince the Western world that what he thinks and is doing, is best for Pakistan.

 Pakistan is not ready for the Western style of democracy, Musharraf has maintained for the past eight years and he continued with this, what the opposition parties call illogical theme, during his address to the Pakistani expatriates in Brussels. Musharraf tried to convince the Pakistani expatriates and European Union officials that his brand of democracy or whatever form of government is best for 170 million people of Pakistan. While in Brussels, during his meetings with the EU and NATO officials, Musharraf also took the opportunity to brief them on his efforts to curb terrorism and extremism. Pakistan has al-Qaeda on the run, Musharraf said, while ignoring the fact that Taliban have organised and announced Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and were fighting security forces in the tribal areas. In the past one year, the Taliban seem more organised in Pakistan taking over cities and towns and forts manned by the security forces. The cases of suicide bombings have increased ten-fold in 2007, as compared with 2006, and police and paramilitary troops are constantly being targeted by suicide bombers and attackers. Pakistan’s death toll from terrorist and extremist attacks more than doubled last year to 2,116 from 967 in 2006, the interior ministry has said.
 
While statistics and reality shows that security situation in Pakistan is completely out of control of the Musharraf’s government he rejected calls of allowing United States troops and NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), based in Afghanistan, to carry out attacks on terrorist’s hideouts in Pakistan. He has rightly said that no foreign forces will be allowed to carry out attacks inside Pakistan but the opposition parties are also pointing out that Musharraf is not serious in fighting terrorism and the job should be handed over Pakistan’s civilian rulers supervising the fight against terrorism with the help of the army and the security forces. Musharraf also met with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and discussed the campaign against terrorism. NATO commands a force of 41,000 soldiers fighting Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. Though the NATO commanders have previously criticised Musharraf for failing to destroy terrorist training camps inside Pakistan, yet, the NATO chief said that Musharraf was indispensable in the fight against terrorism.
 
 While Musharraf is seeking to regain confidence of the international community after months of political unrest and after he was criticised for firing the top judges and detaining opposition supporters under a six-week state of emergency, the support being given by the Bush administration to Musharraf is being seen with great displeasure by Pakistani political parties and the people in general. Bilawal Bhutto, the son of Benazir Bhutto, who this month took over the party leadership, in his press conference in London asked the United States to stop supporting dictators in Pakistan. Nawaz Sharif has consistently viewed Musharraf’s position at the top as dangerous for the survival of Pakistan, while other opposition leaders cannot understand the reason behind the United States insisting on Musharraf to stay in power. Both Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari have warned that if elections were not free and fair, there might be mass civil unrest in the country.
 
 The past ten months have already seen worst kind of civil unrest in the country, starting from the sacking of former Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. The year of 2007 ended on another worst note as the people saw the unthinkable happening as Bhutto was assassinated and the government refused to accept any responsibility. The investigations to find the cause and people behind the murder also remain very suspect as the police hours after her assassination washed the scene of crime, thus, eliminating physical evidence. The people couldn’t get over the grief of Bhutto’s muder, came the worst-ever flour, electricity, water and gas crisis, which many people believe was caused by the government to divert attention of the people from Bhutto’s murder. With the situation getting from bad to worse with every passing day, rigging in the elections would prove to be the last nail, which will ensure the start of mass civil unrest as predicted by the opposition parties. The PML-Q leadership including Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has already started blaming the previous Shaukat Aziz government of causing flour and electricity crisis. It is very hard to believe that Ilahi at this stage will blame Aziz, who was a member of his party and the prime minister elected by PML-Q. Elahi ruled the biggest province of Punjab for five years and yet he blamed Aziz for the crisis. Aziz is no longer in Pakistan has left for Europe and then to the United States, probably never to come back. The former prime minister’s supporters in the shape of PML-Q are still in Pakistan and barring rigged elections are likely to face the wrath of the people.