New York, Oct 10 : A leading US newspaper has called President Pervez Musharraf’s election "a perversion of democracy", and chided the Bush Administration for encouraging the General to make a "backroom deal" with Benazir Bhutto.

The New York Times (NYT), in its lead editorial, has further said that Musharraf’s deal with Bhutto is "the General’s latest attempt to buy time and stay in office."

The vote was not really a vote since, knowing how badly the deck was stacked, the opposition parties refused to participate. The Supreme Court, which must decide whether General Musharraf was even eligible to run while still in uniform must now certify the results, the NYT said.

The editorial titled "General Musharraf’s Cynical Win", the NYT stressed "rather than encouraging such cynical deal-making, Bush should have encouraged a more-inclusive election process true to his democratic principles and true to what so many Pakistanis want."

"Under the deal, the flawed former Prime Minister and leader of Pakistan’s most popular party gets to return home, escape prosecution on corruption charges and — if all goes according to plan — stand for another term," the Dawn quoted the NYT, as saying.

The editorial said that restoration of democracy in Pakistan has been a declared goal of the US since Musharraf seized power in 1999, and expressed concern that "time and again he has promised to give up his uniform, but even now he is playing cute about when — and whether — that might happen."

"Almost all of the time, President Bush has acquiesced in Musharraf’s many misdeeds — and provided billions in American aid — as payment for the General’s service in the war on terror, the editorial said.

There, too, the General has delivered a lot less than promised, and the Taliban and al Qaeda are resurgent along Pakistan’s border, it added. (ANI)