What Mr. Zardari is demanding is perfectly reasonable. No one in Pakistan is going to trust a Pakistani investigation.
The Pakistani military and intelligence agencies have long sympathized with Islamists. Even Gen. Musharraf declared he was “the best friend of the Taliban” and cooperating with the Americans to protect them.
Elections are routinely rigged, as news reports have former officials showing how the last one was rigged. Why should monitors be restricted? The military has every incentive to help the Islamists win.. after all the Islamists in parliament have consistently supported the General and the Pakistani military.
As a friend of the dictatorship, the USA is seen as an enemy of democracy and human rights (at least whenever it doesn’t fit their policy) by liberal and secular people. In particular, by secular Sindhis and Balochs, who are being crushed by the Pakistani military, and who like the Kurds in Iraq, would otherwise be natural allies of Americans.
Consider the impact of the ruthless war crimes (such as bombing villages, starving children by cutting off food supplies) that Pakistan is committing against secular Balochistan nationalists with American weapons. Contrast it with what it has been doing meanwhile: signing on again, off again peace treaties with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda sympathizers, and looking the other way as they cross borders to engage in terrorism in Afghanistan.
