Pervez Musharraf To Quit? May, If President Bush Says So!
Will he?…Will he not? The once mighty ex-general Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan has become a pathetic figure desperately trying to cling on to the presidential chair. Meanwhile the new democratically elected politicians and the Pakistani public seem adamant…and are sending a clear message that the military dictator should move out of the presidential palace.
Yesterday I saw the BBC’s “Have Your Say” programme that reflects opinions worldwide on a topical subject. The majority verdict favoured that Mr Musharraf bow out of office instead of going through the ugly drama of impeachment by the newly elected parliament in Pakistan…But the world has come to believe that Musharraf would not leave office until his mentor in the White House orders him to do so. (However, the mentor has a few more months to go before he too is reduced to a similar situation as his Pakistani protege).
The last the world heard on this subject was that Bush & Co were pleading with (or pressurising) the new democratically elected Pakistani leaders to allow Musharraf to stay on. Says so much eloquently for the USA promoting democracies in the world and fighting ‘dictators’!!!
Pakistan’s wellknown newspaper The Dawn reports: “US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has backed President Pervez Musharraf in the strongest possible term, calling him the man the United States has been dealing with as the president and wants to continue to do so. Her endorsement comes three days after President Bush telephoned his Pakistani counterpart, apparently to assure him that his administration still recognises Mr Musharraf as the president of Pakistan despite the changes that followed the elections.”
While the Hindustan Times says: “Pakistan’s president Pervez Musharraf may soon resign to avoid being pushed out by the new coalition of the Pakistan Muslim League(N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), which will shortly assume power, according to a report in The Sunday Telegraph.
“A senior political analyst close to the Pakistani establishment, who did not want to be named, also confirmed independently to HT that Musharraf’s departure was very much a possibility. ‘Our information is that Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif agreed on Saturday to work together to oust the President,’ he said on telephone from Islamabad. ‘So chances are that he will go voluntarily instead of risking impeachment’.
“The analyst even named Aitzaz Ahsan, who led the lawyers’ campaign against Musharraf’s dismissal of the former Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, and is a PPP stalwart as well, as the likely nominee for the next President. Ahsan has a long and distinguished of opposing dictators, starting with the late Zia-ul Haq. He is currently under house arrest.
“Other names doing the rounds as possible contenders for the post of President are those of Asif Zardari himself and Yusuf Raza Gilliani, who was the speaker of the national assembly during Benazir Bhutto’s second term.”
The Washington Post adds: “After six years of relying on President Pervez Musharraf to combat extremism in Pakistan, the Bush administration has begun a slow and awkward separation from its ally, reaching out to disparate new political and military leaders to ensure future cooperation with the United States.
” ‘No one wants us to be involved in giving Musharraf the bum’s rush, pushing him out the door,’ a senior State Department official said. ‘We’re quite clear that we’re going to work with him, but in a new role, as we’ll work with new leaders in the parties, the army and civil society’.
“While waiting for the new opposition coalition to form a government, the Bush administration is exploring a range of ideas, including a proposal by Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), to triple nonmilitary aid, sustain it for 10 years, and focus on schools, roads and health care, U.S. officials said.” More here…
It is interesting that the US media, and the public, still talks of Musharraf as the best bet against war on terrorism. Ironically, it was Musharraf who was backed by Muslim hardliners, whereas the political parties that have won in the recent elections are liberal and progressive. The lack of information about the ground realities is playing havoc…and in turn promotes dictatorships.
The newly elected political leadership in Pakistan has repeated a number of times that the fears about the nuclear ams falling into the hands of terrorists are highly exagerrated…to allow Musharraf to continue. They say that it is not Musharraf but the Pakistani army that has full control of the nukes and, what a leading Pakistan Peoples’ Party leader said, are “200 per cent safe with the army”. Remember the army is now headed by General Ashfaq Kayani and not, repeat not, by Musharraf. Once a soldier removes his uniform, he is gone and the troops do not obey him (unless the new army chief becomes his puppet…a very unlikely scenario).
So why is the US administration so hell-bent in supporting Musharraf? A subject for another post, perhaps…
Pakistan’s Daily Times says: “The fourth major player (apart from Zardari, Sharif and Musharraf) is the Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Kayani. General Kayani seems to have put the integrity and reputation of the institution he commands above the political interests of the former COAS (Musharraf). As the new chief, General Kayani has so far fulfilled John Milton’s prayer that: ‘They also serve who only stand and wait.’ How long and what he is willing to wait for is the question that only he can answer.”
For a recent video where Zardari and Sharif promised to work together, please click here…
