Is Pakistan ready for democracy in '07?

Secretary of State Rice's visit put the spotlight on the regime's efforts to reform local government.

Pakistan's foreign ministry delivered a blunt response: "On the democratic processes in Pakistan, we do not require advice from the outside," adding that the leadership intends to hold "free and fair elections."

GREETINGS: President Musharraf shakes hands with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. REUTERS

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The diplomatic dust-up underscores the growing concerns over General Musharraf's commitment to instilling democracy - and the sensitivity of the issue for Islamabad. Musharraf is quick to point out that he has introduced sweeping democratic reform, an ambitious devolution program that promised to return power from the military-dominated center to the local level. But as elections loom, many analysts argue that those reforms have only expanded the reach of the military regime, giving it more power and influence to manipulate any vote.

"There are representative governments at the local level, but they have been so closely related to the government that they don't have their own character," says Hasan Askari Rizvi, an independent political analyst in Lahore. "[I]t functions as a pillar of the regime."

Nearly two years after seizing power in a bloodless coup, Musharraf implemented a Devolution of Power Plan in 2001, heralding it as a new era of democratic reform. Elected governments at the district and subdistrict level were to provide greater autonomy from the center, greater access to public officials, and empowerment of marginalized groups such as women and the poor. Since its implementation, local governments in 101 districts have been voted into office, each headed by an elected official known as a nazim, or mayor.

Changes enable 30,000 women politicians

A number of positive changes have resulted, reaching beyond the symbolic wei