A Turkish path for Pakistan?

"It's not that he wants a lock on every mosque," says Noman Shafi, a political analyst at Qaid il-Azam University in Islamabad. "It's not like Turkey, where you cannot say your prayers in the park because it's illegal." Instead, Mr. Shafi says, he wants to make sure Pakistan doesn't continue to educate a generation of children, mostly from poorer families, who have studied nothing but the Koran.

The university's name, which translates to "Great Leader," is the title ascribed to the country's founding father, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who was also influenced by Ataturk's writings. But in today's Pakistan, "secular" is something of a taboo word. Musharraf's supporters insist he would never try to enforce the kind of secularism as has been tried - and often failed - in other Muslim countries.

But it is not easy to show his tolerant side in the midst of a crackdown on the country's Islamic militants, as well as a reported military and intelligence shakeup that moved pro-Taliban officers out of positions of power. Musharraf says new madrassahs will have to register with the authorities, and foreign students must have visas and special permission from their home governments. Mosque sermons, government officials say, may be taped for monitoring.

"These people have made a state within a state and have challenged the writ of the government," Musharraf said in his Jan. 12 speech to the nation. "We must check abuse of mosques and madrassahs and they must not be used for spreading political and sectarian prejudices."

The Dec. 13th attack on the Indian Parliament and Sept 11th have become the two defining moments in the Musharraf's presidency. And while Musharraf's attempt to reinvent his country's erstwhile image as a nation of Taliban supporters and jihad sign-me-ups is being welcomed by educated urbanites, some say he's sowing the seeds of a major backlash.

"All of this frustration will lead to the building of another Taliban - a Pakistani Taliban - not like ... the one in Afghanistan, but for the same reasons," says Mullah Abdul Aziz, the head of the Martyrs of Islam Mosque, one of Islamabad's largest.

Already there's pressure within the military for Musharraf to demand a timetable for how long the US plans to use the bases in Pakistan, which have served as launchpads for attacks on Afghanistan.

"He hasn't said it, but he should be [disappointed]," says retired General Hamid Gul, a former head of the ISI. "They viewed us as a coalition pawn rather than a coalition partner on Afghanistan."

Javed Jabbar, who served in Musharraf's cabinet until Oct. 2000, says that Musharraf's efforts to bring more democracy and less theocracy "is the natural progression from the point at which he took charge of Pakistan. It's not a change of heart or change of mind."

In fact, says Nazari, Musharraf is trying to undo Gen. Zia ul-Haq's legacy. During General Zia's rule until his death in 1988, Pakistan received substantial financial support from Saudi Arabia. Zia, in turn, "Islamicized" the country by passing laws against crimes such as blasphemy and making the jihad - or holy war - in Afghanistan a national priority.

"He won't ban signs of religiosity, like in Turkey," says Nazari. "But he's saying, 'let's get back to [Mohammed Ali] Jinna. The hardest thing was for Musharraf to say to the nation, to the religious extremists, 'We've had enough.' "

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