Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf maintains a precarious balance. On one hand, he must tread carefully among the Muslims who make up 97 percent of his country's population. On the other, he must appease his international supporters, among them the United States, who demand that he crack down on Islamic extremists. The balancing act just got harder: Mr. Musharraf appears to have struck a deal with Pakistan's pro-Taliban militias in the country's restive border provinces that could create a haven for Taliban refugees from Afghanistan.
Mr. Musharraf came to power seven years ago when he overthrew a democratically elected regime. He has stayed in office by railing against corrupt politicians, promising to hand over power to civilians and, when those arguments lose force, warning that he is the only thing that stands between the world and a radical, nuclear-armed Islamic government. It is hard to tell how much of that last argument is a self-serving myth.
Many of the Muslim faithful in Pakistan are radicals; even moderates are unhappy with Mr. Musharraf's support for the U.S. position in the war against terror, which they consider a war against Islam. Afghanistan's Taliban regime was born in Pakistan and its members maintain powerful ties to co-religionists and clans with which they share ethnic origins.