Liberals back Pakistan president's anti-Islamism

"He has time, he has power and now he has to prove himself. So far he has done little."

Afrasiab Khattak, head of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan

President Pervez Musharraf's renewed tirade against fundamentalist Islam has the firm backing of Pakistan's liberals, but many are skeptical of the army's commitment to scaling back its traditional use of extremist groups.

General Musharraf, long a campaigner for moderate Islam, last week unleashed a fresh outburst against what he called the "Talibanized" Islam of religious parties ruling North West Frontier Province (NWFP), on the Afghan border.

But the timing of his two fiercely critical speeches, including one in the Islamist heartland of NWFP's Kohat district, as well as the army's perceived continued interaction with militant Muslims fighting in Kashmir, has many liberals skeptical.

"Supporting Musharraf's statement against Talibanization is one thing, but I don't see any major shift in the army's policy towards Kashmir," said Afrasiab Khattak, the head of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

"He has time, he has power and now he has to prove himself. So far he has done little."

Khattak the cynics' translation of the acronym for the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal religious alliance, which surged to power in NWFP after Musharraf sidelined popular secular leaders and swung his support behind the US-led defeat of Afghanistan's Taliban.

"MMA is a military-mullah alliance. They are two sides of one coin," he said.

"Today, they are fighting and accusing each other, but who knows tomorrow they could become friends again."

Critics Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup, of deliberately helping the MMA come to power as a means of scaring the West and securing its support of strong army rule.

Pakistan's is widely accused of cultivating Muslim militants to wage proxy wars -- first in Afghanistan in the 1980s against occupying Soviets, then in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989.

The religious parties and their new power are the army's own creation, such critics contest.

"It is good that criticism of extremists is coming from the army, which is largely responsible for this trend," said Anis Haroon, leader of the women's group Aurat Foundation.

"What he is doing today to get rid of Talibanization should have been done long ago."

Philanthropist B.M. Kutty, a former Communist Party member, said Musharraf had to choose between liberal, progressive and religious parties.

Currently is at war with both, accusing the MMA of defying Pakistan's needs to progress and the moderate vision of the Islamic republic's founders, while dismissing secular parties' demands over his self-appointed rule and broad political powers he has given both himself and the military.

Musharraf's fight against both is causing his isolation, Kutty said.

"If he or his team has finally decided to fight Talibanization he will get their support, but in the past he announced abolishing discriminatory laws...then backed out because of pressure from extremists."