Politics by other means

摘要

Elections loom and Pakistan's president,rnGeneral Pervez Musharraf, has chosen his campaign strategy: war. This week he declared an open season on Islamist terrorists. "We are in direct confrontation with extremist forces. It is moderates versus extremists." His comments came after a series of attacks, mainly on the army in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), claimed more than 100 lives. He also revealed that when his term of office expires in October, he will seek re-election (indirectly, from an electoral college) without stepping down as army chief. He told senior Pakistani journalists that a purely civilian government would not be strong enough to control extremists.