Pakistan Faces Political, Security Challenges

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• JIM LEHRER:

  Now, Pakistan under pressure. We start with some background narrated by NewsHour correspondent Spencer Michels.

• SPENCER MICHELS, NewsHour Correspondent:

  It was one of the more remarkable scenes in Pakistan's 60-year history as an independent nation. Last March, judges and lawyers took to the streets in protest in the capital, Islamabad, and other cities.

  Their upset sprung from the decision by President Pervez Musharraf to fire the country's chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, on allegations of corruption. Ordinary Pakistanis appeared shocked and angry at the assault on the judiciary, an institution they were counting on to help restore civilian rule after eight years of rule by the military.

  General Musharraf came to power in 1999 after staging a military coup and made himself president. His term expires in October. Now, many Pakistanis believe he wanted to remove the independent-minded justice before the Supreme Court began considering the constitutionality of his plan to run for re-election this fall, while maintaining his role as the army chief.

  Musharraf promised in 2003 to give up his army position and to move Pakistan back to civilian rule, but has done neither.

  Protests have gone on for months and have often been met with harsh government response: 40 people were killed when a protest march took an ugly turn in Karachi last month.

  Despite his political troubles at home, his support from the Bush administration has remained strong. American officials call Musharraf a key ally in the war on terrorism. He backed U.S. efforts to overthrow the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan after 9/11. Since then, Pakistan has received more than $10 billion in U.S. aid.

  But last year, Musharraf made a deal with tribal chiefs in areas bordering Afghanistan, ostensibly to crack down on the Taliban and al-Qaida in the region. Many critics, including Afghan President Hamid Karzai, say instead the arrangement has given the Taliban sanctuary.

  In February, Vice President Cheney visited Musharraf to warn that he risked losing U.S. support unless he did more to crack down on al-Qaida and Taliban elements. Still, high-level U.S. officials also regularly reiterate their support for him, the latest, just this week, was Secretary of State Rice.

  CONDOLEEZZA RICE, U.S. Secretary of State: We have to recognize that Pakistan has come a very long way since 2001, in its commitment to try and root out extremism, to try to make reforms, educational reforms, reforms on concerns of women, and the like.

• SPENCER MICHELS:

  Later that day, Rice met with Pakistan's foreign minister, Khurshid Kasuri, who was in Washington visiting top administration officials and members of Congress.