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India, Pakistan lobbies in overdrive during Musharraf's US visit

The Pakistani and Indian lobbies and their supporters in Congress were in overdrive last week during President Pervez Musharraf's visit to Washington, DC.

Illinois Democrat Senator Richard Durbin placed Musharraf's speech of January 12, promising to rid Pakistan of religious extremism and terrorism, on the congressional record.

Durbin, who serves on the Appropriations Committee, the Judiciary Committee, the Governmental Affairs Committee, and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, described Musharraf's speech as historic -- a view shared by the Bush administration -- and inserted it into the record on February 12, the day the Pakistani leader arrived in Washington.

The record chronicles daily sessions and debates of the House and the Senate and the one-minute speeches that the lawmakers can make on any subject or individual or group before the Congress goes about its day's business.

Durbin urged Pakistanis to eschew the 'Kalashnikov culture' of religious extremism and violence and help make Pakistan a progressive Islamic state.

"Musharraf told us that the public response to his revolutionary message has been positive even among the Muslim clergy, who met him before the speech was delivered," he said, and added, "if real peace and progress are to come to the Islamic world, we must help him succeed."

Durbin said Musharraf had "made his case in terms far different than western secular leaders. Speaking to his Muslim nation, he invoked the name of Prophet Muhammad, the Quran and Islamic history and tradition".

The lawmaker said: "If Osama bin Laden could find justification for his hate-filled extremism in a corruption of Islamic belief, Musharraf found tolerance, universal brotherhood and peace in Islam."

He noted that Musharraf had delivered the speech at "a time of great danger", when in the aftermath of the December 13 terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament, more than half a million Indian troops were massed on the border and tension was simmering between New Delhi and Islamabad.

On the House side was congressman Joe Pitts, a Pennsylvania Republican who recently visited Afghanistan and Pakistan and has become one of Musharraf's cheerleaders in the US. Pitts introduced a resolution welcoming Musharraf and praised him for helping the US in its war in Afghanistan.

Pitts, whose resolution was referred to the House International Relations Committee, said the US-led anti-terrorism campaign "underscores the importance of strengthening the historic bilateral relationship between the US and Pakistan".

The lawmaker, who is a member of the International Relations Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, said Musharraf had sought to return Pakistan "to democracy and civil society and has adhered to the timetable for restoring democratic elections to Pakistan".

However, members of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans cautioned Congress not go overboard in its praise for Musharraf and not to forget that he still has some hard questions to answer.

Jim McDermott, the Washington Democrat who is co-chair of the India Caucus, took to the House floor to welcome Musharraf and acknowledged that "the friendship exhibited by the general's government has been an important component of the war on terrorism".

"Moreover, the courage that General Musharraf has shown in taking a stance against Pakistan's traditional ally, the Taliban, has been especially welcome," McDermott said.

But, he argued, "While we welcome General Musharraf to Washington and congratulate him on his commitment to participating in our war on terrorism, we must also ask our friends in Pakistan some hard questions."

"For instance, we must ask Pakistan to show the world that it does not support cross-border terrorism. Pakistan must also clamp down on the dozens of fighters that cross daily into Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir," he asserted.

The lawmaker said, "If, as the general claimed last week, the fighting in Jammu and Kashmir is indigenous to India, will he order that his borders are tightly sealed against the radical Islamic militants who are based on Pakistani soil and wage war in India?"

McDermott also said that "the general's government would gain tremendously in the international community if it also divulges to the world the status of the 20 'Most Wanted' -- the list of international terrorist leaders that are accused of being sheltered in Pakistan."

He said, "There is no doubt that terrorism is alive in Pakistan. We only have to look at the case of (abducted) Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl, to show us that Pakistan has not been able to clamp down on terrorism."

Congressman Frank Pallone, New Jersey Democrat, echoed McDermott's sentiments. He took Pitts to task for saying that Musharraf "has pursued the return of Pakistan to democracy and civil society", saying it could not be substantiated by the actions taken by the Pakistani leader since he deposed the democratically elected government of prime minister Nawaz Sharif in October 1999.

He said, "Musharraf has made no concrete attempt to restore democracy in Pakistan and I urge Congress and the administration to be very wary of any guarantees of a return to civilian rule in Pakistan."

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