Spencer: After Musharraf, the Deluge

August 19, 2008

And that problem is not going to improve with the departure of Musharraf, for it is rooted in the power of Pakistan’s spy service, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). General David D. McKiernan just last week accused the ISI of aiding the jihadists who have grown increasingly assertive in the border areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as in Afghanistan itself: “There certainly is a level of ISI complicity,” said McKiernan, “in the militant areas in Pakistan and organizations such as the Taliban.” He said that the ISI was “facilitating these militant groups that come out of the tribal areas in Pakistan.” Likewise, Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai has for quite some time charged Pakistan with fomenting the jihad against his regime.

All of this is likely true: it’s entirely consistent with ISI’s record. The ISI, we must remember, was behind the formation of the Taliban government in Afghanistan when the Soviet Union withdrew its invasion force...

Terror Free Tomorrow polls conducted in August 2007 and January 2008 both found that a consistent level of about 75% of Pakistanis consider “implementing strict Sharia law throughout Pakistan” an “important” priority for the Pakistani government...

Pakistan’s leading exponent of political Islam, Maulana Sufi Muhammad, who was released from prison in May as a gesture of good will from the Pakistani regime, has announced that he will dedicate his efforts henceforth to implementing the fullness of Islamic law in the country. He may not find this a difficult task: one of the leading candidates to succeed Musharraf, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, has supported legislation increasing the scope of Sharia law in Pakistan...

... the strong popular support for Islamic law in Pakistan is not going to disappear, and it will leave its mark on the next government. And that, in turn, will continue to strain the U.S./Pakistan alliance, as the imperatives of political Islam lead Pakistani officials to continue to obstruct and obfuscate anti-terror efforts -- or maybe even to aid them actively and openly. Before too long, American officials may be looking back on the corrupt and duplicitous Musharraf regime as the good old days.