New government in Pakistan hints at changes to US

Parliament plans broader oversight and authority

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani to review terror fight.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Not so long ago, the Bush administration could take a one-stop approach to its dealings with Pakistan. Whether Washington wanted to carry out air strikes against Al Qaeda, trade sensitive intelligence, or orchestrate the arrest of a terror suspect, it essentially came down to dialing the number of President Pervez Musharraf.

Now all that has changed. Newly inaugurated Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani has vowed to take a hard new look at counterterrorism, the centerpiece of Musharraf's nearly nine-year rule. He will be backed by a Cabinet made up of former opposition figures who probably will be sworn in this week.

An assertive new parliament is vowing to wield authority that lawmakers here lacked for years, demanding oversight on matters that were previously the president's sole purview. And the general who succeeded Musharraf as army chief just four months ago has methodically removed the military from politics and promised accountability to elected officials.

When it comes to relations with the United States, the public mood is angry. It is probable that some US military actions routinely allowed under the old regime will be subject to greater scrutiny.

But some analysts and officials said that despite a universal desire to put the United States on notice that the center of gravity has shifted from Musharraf, many basic elements of the American-Pakistani relationship will remain in place, even in security matters.

The new government has pledged to restore Pakistan's status as a parliamentary democracy in which the president has mainly ceremonial powers.

That seems in line with Musharraf's role of late. In the past week, he has occupied himself with duties such as watching a military parade from the reviewing stand and presiding over ceremonies including the somewhat awkward swearing-in of Gillani, whom Musharraf once jailed for five years.

"It's a sea change," said Talat Hussain, a senior journalist and analyst. "The whole idea of serious undertakings occurring on only one person's authority, without review or scrutiny by any institution - that is the problem that everyone wanted addressed, and now it is being addressed."

The widespread perception of Musharraf as a puppet of the United States has been a driving force in events of recent months, including the defeat of the president's party in February elections.

Many Pakistanis believe their army has been fighting what amounts to a proxy war for Americans against Islamic militants in the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan and at the same time experiencing horrendous "blowback" from dozens of suicide bombings that ravaged cities and towns.

"All these years, Musharraf did America's bidding," said flower vendor Abdul Rashid, whose soldier son died fighting insurgents in Pakistan's restive northwest. "And we are the ones who have suffered for it."

That chill was much in evidence during a recent visit by two senior American diplomats.

"Hands off, please, Uncle Sam!" a headline in the News, a nationally circulated daily, admonished arriving Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte and Richard Boucher, the assistant secretary of State for South Asian Affairs.

Despite the anger directed at Washington, there still are many areas in which the new government probably will work with the United States, including counterterrorism.

"It wouldn't be fair to characterize it as a change in fundamental goals," said Husain Haqqani, a Boston University professor expected to play a senior foreign policy role in the incoming government.

"In fact, in my opinion, the elected government will be far more effective because it will have popular legitimacy, and whatever commitments are made to the Americans will not be undone on legal or other grounds," Haqqani said.

Musharraf was thought to have given tacit approval for US air strikes in tribal areas, of which there have been several recently, including an attack that killed a senior Al Qaeda figure in January.

US intelligence has warned for more than a year that elements of the Taliban and Al Qaeda have regrouped and strengthened in the tribal areas, where the Pakistani government has limited authority. Pakistani military efforts in the borderlands have had little effect.

"There may be some new parameters set on outside types of intervention," said a Western official in Pakistan, speaking on condition of anonymity. "But I think we will still be able to achieve certain objectives that would be in everyone's interests."

Closer civilian oversight of Pakistan's shadowy intelligence services is one expected change under the new administration, said a senior figure in the ruling coalition, speaking on condition of anonymity.

In the past, Pakistan's intelligence services helped nurture the Taliban and other militant groups, seeing them as a means of challenging India over Kashmir and keeping Afghanistan quiescent.

Even while promising changes in government strategy for dealing with the militants, Gillani stressed in his policy address that Pakistan and the Americans wanted many of the same things.

"It is our fight, too," he said.