Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto criticized Washington today for its support of President Pervez Musharraf and said she was "praying for the best" when she returned home next month.
Musharraf is a close US ally in fighting terrorism but Bhutto said his military rule had served only to fuel the extremism that Washington was trying to counter.
She called US backing of Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, a "strategic miscalculation."
"Military rule is the cause of the anarchic situation in Pakistan," said Bhutto who is in Washington to lobby for support ahead of her return to Pakistan next month. "Military rule is not the solution," she said in a speech hosted by the Middle East Institute.
The United States voices only rare criticism of Musharraf, preferring rather to encourage his counter-terrorism agenda than focus on criticism of his domestic politics.
One exception came yesterday when US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she found the recent arrests in Pakistan of opposition activists "troubling."
Bhutto, who has been in exile for the past eight years, said when she goes home on Oct. 18 she expected to be greeted with joy by people wanting an end to Musharraf's rule.
When another exiled prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, tried to return home this month, authorities bundled him off back to Saudi Arabia hours after he landed at Islamabad airport.