GENERAL PERVEZ MUSHARRAF THREATENS WEST
The hot air from
Not only Bush administration is finding harder to defend and sustain him
any longer, Democrats have been openly expressing their distress and
dissatisfaction over the continuous denial of democracy, human rights, rule of
law and independence of judiciary. To indicate they mean business they have put
on the anvil a draconian legislation against
The main thrust of pressures from various channels in support of
democracy, independence of judiciary and threat-free media among others—and
building of a domestic situation on the verge of an implosion—have limited
General’s both internal and external options. His desperation was writ large on
his face when he tried to dispel by a threat, the widely held western
perception that
Addressing the concluding session of a two-day land forces symposium (April
12) on “Common Security and Global War on Terror” in Islamabad at the National Defence University, President/General Pervez
Musharraf said: “If Pakistan, myself, the ISI and
the coalition forces across the border are all bluffing each other, then it is
better to end the cooperation. He elaborated that the anti-terror coalition was
meaningless, if the coalition partners lacked trust. “Our sincerity must
not be doubted. We have contributed a lot and suffered a lot ... but we are not
disillusioned. If (anyone thinks) I am bluffing or if the ISI is bluffing, we
should be out of the coalition.”
His dramatic outburst—while at the same time wiping his overly cold-sweated
face that seemed to have lost its commando composure—the General laid bare the
fact affirming the global perception that he has been bluffing the West and
that ISI is head deep involved in support of terrorists. Strangely, his threat
has come at a time when Western intelligence agencies have been trying to sift
the truth and half truths in the testimony of terrorist Khalid
Mohammad Sheikh who is alleged to have made certain sensational and what many
call dubious disclosures that create strong doubts about the possible
collaboration of the General and ISI as part of the problem of global terrorism
rather than its solution.
In what could be KMS’s attempt to divert
Western attention from Osama Bin Laden, Al-Qaeda and Taliban, he is believed to
have chided his captors for having misplaced their suspicions on a lot of
people who live in stone age, are hiding in caves and have hardly any access to
hi-tech know-how or have capacity to carry out their global terrorist
operations with sophistication and skilful precision. That KMS was more of a
key operator working for a very long time for the ISI rather than Al-Qaeda or
Taliban. He confessed that on occasions he used to intercede on Osama's request--with
the ISI for help to OBL. And that he was much more on his own--mastermind
allegedly backed by ISI at that-- who had singly organised
31attacks--rather than working for Al-Qaeda. He also ridiculed the Western
intelligence experts for having reached the conclusion that a stone-age Al-Qaeda
could do that much of damage to western interests. Such professional and highly
skilful operations could only be carried out either by or with the help of a
super intelligence agency that had the financial/logistic backing of a state. Attributing highly sophisticated acts of
sabotage to Al-Qaeda and Taliban is reflective of western intelligence
bankruptcy.
While the General stage-dramatised his anger,
distress and dismay over the growing American distrust at the Islamabad Global
Security seminar, his Prime Minister—Shaukat Aziz—more of a deceitfully softer and suave image of his
regime, pleaded in his address to the participants including US Army Central
Deputy Commanding General Major General Dennis Hardy, that “given the sacrifices Pakistan has made in
the War on Terror, any legislation critical of Pakistan would invoke a negative
public reaction and would prove counter productive.” Not only that, he emphasised the need to addressing the differences between
the two countries “quietly”. In other words, he pleaded—do disrobe us but
please don’t do it publicly. We look uglier.
Analysts see in the presidential outburst on deepening American distrust
in
There is lot of evidence that see through the regime’s madness. In their
multi-faced moves GMP and those in cahoots with him—the objective is only one—how
to perpetuate his rule indefinitely although now he says he needs only four
years more to complete his agenda. He, however, does not say how much he has
achieved in the last eight years that he should be allowed another four. He
has, on the other hand, instead of giving good governance, has reduced into
tatters the writ of the state. He has systematically destroyed all the
institutions that go a long way in sustaining a state and his policy of bloody
confrontation has plunged tribal areas and Balochistan
into fratricidal war. His intelligence agencies have allegedly been picking up
scores of individuals from across the country on vague and misguided
presumptions trampling upon human rights.
While he has rendered genuine political leadership into a football, the
dragging of the Chief Justice of the country by his hair on fabricated charges
was a blow severest of them all. Now his obviously tacit support to the
religious leaders of Lal Masjid
to set up Sharia courts is definitely a message to
the Supreme Judicial Council and the Supreme Court judges that if they would
not dance on his Praetorian tunes, Sharia Courts
would not confine to
The Hafsa seminary scandal and the rebellious
response by the perpetrators at the Lal Masjid need to be assessed in their rightful dread as to
what extreme ends the General would go if it comes to his head. Thanks to the
media, regime’s involvement with the Mullas was
adequately exposed when Musharraf’s Religious Affairs
Minister Ejazul Haq was put
on the mat by a TV channel. His association with the rebellious Maulana Aziz and Maulana Rashid of Lal Masjid and how he intervened to save them from being tried
as terrorists with the help of General Musharraf—should
be enough to indict the regime of being a collaborator in terrorism.
The General does not get tired of saying time and again that he would
restore the writ of the state but when it comes to doing it under his very nose
he buckles in to the pressure of his Taliban collaborators who, according to
media reports, have amassed lethal weapons both in the Lal
Masjid and Hafsa seminary. He,
his ISI and other agencies need to answer the alarming question as to who
allowed the occupants of the Hafsa seminary and Lal Masjid to accumulate arms,
trained men and women in the capital city next door to ISI’s
HQ. Are they not being protected by them to be used as a second line of defence in case the judicial crisis blows up in his face,
growing democratic challenge cannot be managed by him even by injecting large
doses of confusion through disinformation of political deals and his foreign
mentors seeing through his game withdraw their support to him ? The answer is
simple yes.
The General must understand that his goose is finally cooked and the
only exit route available to him is to install a government of national
consensus for the purpose of holding elections and call it a day. It is already
too late, any further delay could possibly lead to split in and the collapse of
the army and then it would be no use crying over the spilt milk. And finally, a
word of caution for the Pakistani politicians and the forces that want to see
supremacy of the civil society. The General is desperate. Every step that he
takes is dragging him deeper into the abyss. They must remember that in his
desperation to save his hold on power, he will abuse it further and the worst
for them is yet to come. They must not fall into his seductive machinations. Neither
he is in a position to give nor would anything from him now be worthwhile.
* Wajid Shamsul Hasan is Pakistan’s Ex High Commissioner at the UK