Pakistan's return to US graces

With the capture yesterday of the suspected mastermind behind the Daniel Pearl kidnapping, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf visits Washington today as the man of the hour.

By arresting Omar Saeed Sheikh, a militant with the radical Jaish-e-Muhammad terrorist group, General Musharraf has managed a public-relations coup. He has assured American leaders that he is serious about cracking down on terrorist groups and in securing the release of Mr. Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who disappeared on Jan. 23.

Musharraf's visit also underscores how dramatically US global relationships have been reordered since Sept. 11. Once called a "failed state" by President Bush, Pakistan is now seen as too important to fail. Once scorned and sanctioned for leading a military coup, Musharraf is now a crucial frontline ally and a voice of Islamic moderation in a country mired in religious extremism.

But such praise has its limits, and the future of the US-Pakistani relationship depends on whether Musharraf can consistently translate his words into deeds. And even the Pearl case remains a sober reminder that Musharraf can only do so much to break the back of jihadi groups that have gained a foothold in Pakistan over the past 20 years.

"The Daniel Pearl kidnapping case should not become the lens through which we judge the credibility of the Musharraf government in cracking down on militant groups," says Rifaat Hussein, director of the defense and strategic studies department at Quaid-I-Azam University in Islamabad. "Nobody should be under any illusion that the jihadi mindset is going to die a quick death. It's going to be a long, drawn out struggle."

Thus far, Western and American diplomats give Musharraf high marks in his attempt to bring religious extremist groups - including those that continue to support the Taliban and Al Qaeda - under control. The turning point came in a Jan. 12 speech in which Musharraf told Pakistanis that the 20-year Islamic-oriented foreign policy of jihad, or religious struggle, against India and in favor of the Taliban in Afghanistan, was a "mistake."

"The extremist minority must realize that Pakistan is not responsible for waging armed jihad in the world," Musharraf said in his speech to his nation.

Soon afterword, the Pakistani government began a systematic crackdown on groups that have made jihad their livelihood and mission. Leaders of militant and terrorist groups have been arrested, along with the firebrand leaders of religious parties that supported them. The branch of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency that once funded and coordinated jihadi groups has been disbanded. And Pakistan has begun to regulate and monitor the thousands of private seminaries, or madrassas, that once provided jihad groups with the bulk of their recruits.

Some experts here say that the Pearl kidnapping may have been a signal from jihadi groups that they wouldn't go down without a fight. Pearl was last seen entering a hotel in Karachi for a meeting with Islamic militants. He had been researching a story on links between Pakistani militants, Al Qaeda, and the so-called shoe bomber, Richard Reid.

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