Musharraf Pledges Reforms

Amid what administrators characterizered as the tightest security ever to guard a dignitary’s visit to Harvard, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said yesterday that his country will continue to combat Islamic extremism and support President Bush’s global coalition against international terrorism.

“I remain determined not to allow a fringe element to hold the entire nation hostage and hijack our agenda for reforms,” he said.

The president of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan spoke to a capacity ARCO Forum audience yesterday evening in the first forum event of the academic year.

Pakistan has become a prominent American partner in the war against al Qaeda in wake of last year’s terrorist attacks on the United States.

“Since the horrible events of a year ago, [Pakistan] has been thrown into the spotlight as never before,” University President Lawrence H. Summers said in introducing Musharraf. “The world is listening very closely to the words of its leaders.”

And Musharraf said his county’s support has been crucial in America’s war efforts.

“Our unstinting support has been critical in the battle against terrorism. This support would continue until our shared objectives are fully met,” he said.

Musharraf, however, was noncommittal about what his county would do if President Bush turns the war on terrorism toward Iraq.

After one student asked about Pakistan’s potential involvement or support in a U.S.-Iraq war, he replied, “Pakistan has its hands full.”

Continuing conflict with India over the Indian-controlled territory of Kashmir currently demands much attention of the Pakistani military. Just yesterday the Associated Press reported Pakistani troops exchanged fire with Indian troops in Kashmir, killing two.

In his speech, Musharraf criticized “Indian intransigence” towards Pakistani efforts to peacefully resolve the conflict.

The growing rift between the two countries, he said, holds “dangerous possibilities of the eruption of conflict by accident or design.”

“Indo-Pakistan relations today are at their lowest ebb,” he added.

Musharraf, who formally took the oath as president in June 2001 after coming to power in a bloodless military coup in 1999, also discussed his plans for political and social reform in Pakistan and the country’s rocky relations with India.

“We wish to be a force for peace and stability,” he said. “We see Pakistan as an important bridge between the Islamic world and the West.”

Economic revival, improved governance, political restructuring and reducing poverty, he said, form the core of his administration’s plans for reform.

Though the developing country still faces a large debt and widespread poverty, Musharraf said that recent statistics show that the economy has improved under his watch.

Despite coming to power in an undemocratic fashion, he said the key to his administrations’ popularity and to reforming he country’s social and political landscape is giving more power to the people.

“We have genuinely empowered the impoverished,” he said. “They have been made masters of their own destiny.”

And the country is well on its way to democracy, Musharraf said.

“I know it’s rather odd for a military man to be talking of democracy,” he said. “I am extremely democratic. You have to believe me.”

At the end of his speech, Musharraf warned of the increasing “emergence of widespread prejudice” toward Islam.

“Hate should not have a market,” he said. “It must be stomped out with the same zeal with which the fight against terrorism is being pursued.”

The event was tightly guarded by police from Harvard, Cambridge, Boston Police, Massachusetts State Police and the U.S. Secret Service, along with Pakistani security officers. Metal barricades blocked traffic on JFK Street and Eliot Street and those entering the auditorium had to pass through metal detectors and were prohibiting from bringing in bags or phones.

Hundreds of students waited in mob-like lines for a chance at tickets to the speech, gathering as early as 1 p.m. outside the Charles Hotel. Institute of Politics officials began distributing tickets to the crowd at 3 p.m., but many students were turned away.

Some students who were turned away criticized the tight security and what the saw as an unfair distribution of tickets.

Genelle King, a student in the Kennedy School’s mid-career program, said she arrived outside the Charles Hotel around 1:30, only to be turned away after several hours of waiting.

“No one had a loudspeaker to sort of inform the crowd and let them know what was happening. There was just no order kept,” she said. “Folks that showed up much later in the day were able to get ahead in line and get tickets before us.”

—Staff writer Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at shoichet@fas.harvard.edu