Washington, Oct 10 : The Christian Science Monitor (CSM) in a report has said that Pakistanis across the country are angered by President Pervez Musharraf’s re-election and his power sharing deal with Benazir Bhutto.

"There is no way Musharraf-Benazir deal is going to bring stability. It is going to create more terrorists among people like me," Atif Jehangir, a young business student, says.

The CSM says that citizens see the deal not as a step towards democracy, but as an US-brokered power-sharing pact to prop up Pakistan’s ruling elite, which is almost universally viewed as corrupt.

As such, the deal exacerbates two of Pakistanis’ most deeply ingrained frustrations: That meddles too much in its affairs, and that justice is subverted by the rich and withheld from the poor, the report adds.

Electrician Khalid Iqbal said that with America’s aid, Musharraf and Bhutto "are both saving each other. She wants the chair and he wants to save his skin."

The report says what infuriates Pakistanis in general about the deal is that corruption has been legitimised.

According to Jehangir, "All the thieves and corrupt people have been forgiven. What justice is this?" Rather than a break from the past, when military dictators and ineffective civilians governed Pakistan, the deal is seen as a continuation of it.

"What Pakistan really needs is its institutions to be built in such a way that the process of democracy comes into the hands of the institutions, not the individuals," says Khalid Rahman of the Institute for Policy Studies in Islamabad.

"This is increasing the power of the individual," Khalid claims.

"America has coordinated this whole thing. They chose the President. They chose the Prime Minister. Why are you even asking us our opinion," opined another Pakistan citizen.

Indeed, many Pakistanis feel that their future has now been decided, and they have not even had say in it.

For many Pakistanis, she has compromised herself with this deal, putting herself in league with an unpopular President, then following that up with a number of ill-advised statements, the report says.

For example, she has said she would allow US forces into Pakistan to look for Osama bin Laden. It is a hugely unpopular idea here – not so much because of support for Osama, but rather resentment of America’s influence, the CSM observes.

The report says that the Musharraf-Benazir deal has boosted the popularity of another exiled former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the Daily Times reported.

The deal has also elevated the status of Sharif, who began the current uprising against Musharraf six months ago, taking to the streets when the General tried to sack the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. (ANI)