November 2007
MUSHARAF IS LOVING IT
SHAME ON HIM
Civilian Presidency
Beckons For Pakistan's Musharraf
ISLAMABAD November
21, 2007: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf returned from
Saudi Arabia on Wednesday expecting to be sworn in as a civilian leader
within days, having already freed thousands of detainees held under
emergency rule.
While critical of his imposition of the emergency on November 3, Washington
has given General Musharraf, a crucial ally against al Qaeda, space to put
things right before a parliamentary election on January 8 that the
opposition could boycott.
"He has said he's going to take off his uniform, he's said there would be
elections. Today he released prisoners, and so far I have found him to be a
man of his word," President George W. Bush told ABC News in an interview
overnight.
"And do I believe that he's going to end up getting Pakistan back on the
road to democracy? I certainly hope so."
Western governments fear that stifling democracy could play into the hands
of Islamist militants threatening nuclear-armed Pakistan, but Bush was
keeping faith with Musharraf.
The Commonwealth of 53 nations, mostly former British colonies, has
threatened Pakistan with suspension unless Musharraf repeals emergency rule
and takes other steps.
Caretaker prime minister Mohammadmian Soomro has asked Commonwealth
ministers meeting in the Ugandan capital Kampala on Thursday to delay their
decision, arguing that the situation was returning to normal.
A government spokesman said more than 5,000 lawyers, opposition and rights
activists detained in a round up of Musharraf opponents had now been
released. They included cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, freed on
Wednesday.
Although Pakistan is racked with militancy, one of Musharraf's aims in
invoking an emergency was to purge a Supreme Court that appeared set to
annul his re-election by parliament in October.
The court, now packed with pro-government judges, is expected to strike down
the last of six annulment petitions on Thursday.
WEEKEND SWEARING-IN
"We hope the petition will be decided tomorrow, God willing, and if it's
done then the president may take an oath as a civilian president, as he has
himself said, on Saturday or Sunday," Attorney General Malik Qayyum told
Reuters.
Police stopped Wajihuddin Ahmed, who ran against Musharraf in the election,
from visiting former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and other sacked judges
under house arrest on Wednesday.
"We want restoration of superior judges and removal of all existing judges.
They are not judges, they are dummies," Ahmed said, as police blocked him
and a dozen lawyers.
Investors in the Karachi stock market, however, took heart from Bush's
comments and the likelihood that Musharraf would finally be sworn in for a
second term.
The main index gained just under 1.5 percent to stand a little less than 3
percent below pre-emergency levels.
While securing his position, Musharraf remains concerned that he will have
few friends in the next parliament.
His visit to Saudi Arabia had sparked talk that he would either reach out to
former prime minister Nawaz Sharif or seek to prolong his exile there.
"This time no one contacted me," Sharif, the man Musharraf deposed in a
bloodless 1999 coup, told Reuters by telephone from the Saudi port city of
Jeddah.
Musharraf has sought support from another former prime minister, Benazir
Bhutto, but his strategy up to now has been to marginalise Sharif.
Chances of a deal with Bhutto, leader of the biggest opposition party, have
receded, but could be revived.
Musharraf allowed Bhutto to return to Pakistan in October shielded from
prosecution in old graft cases she says were politically motivated. Once
back, though, she became increasingly confrontational, and spent a few days
under house arrest.
After meeting British High Commissioner Robert Brinkley at her party
headquarters in Karachi on Wednesday, Bhutto said it was imperative
Musharraf quit the army but she did not repeat a call for him to step down
as president too.
(Additional reporting by Zeeshan Haider, Kamran Haider, Augustine Anthony
and Simon Gardner in Islamabad; editing by Roger Crabb)
Deposed judges
release ruling against Musharraf
ISLAMABAD:
Three defiant judges of the Supreme Court, who are presently under
house arrest after imposition of emergency, have now declared in their
detailed judgment submitted before the SC last Friday that General Musharraf
could not be allowed to contest the presidential elections.
They say frequent military interventions and destabilization of elected
governments have given “rise to indiscipline, disorder, unemployment,
massive corruption, intolerance, and extremism in Pakistan, which must be
eradicated and eliminated with iron hands”.
These judges who had refused to take oath under the PCO, have also observed
in their joint judgment, which has not been released to the media, that
continuation of Musharraf as the army chief beyond December 31, 2004 was
“illegal and unlawful”.
The judges, Justice Rana Bhagwandas, Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan and
Mian Shakirullah Jan, were part of the nine-member bench which had dismissed
the petitions of Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Imran Khan on September 28, 2007
with regard to the question whether Musharraf could contest election from
the present assemblies with or without uniform.
The judges submitted their detailed judgment to the Supreme Court on Friday
in which they have addressed seven questions that were raised before the
court. Talking to The News, Justice Rana Bhagwandas who headed the bench,
confirmed that he along with Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza and Mian
Shakirullah had submitted their judgment last Friday but the authorities may
not have released their 58-page long observations.
Justice Bhagwandas who was in good spirits and in a defiant mood told this
correspondent they had taken a lot of time and effort to put together the
arguments to establish their points of view. The SC should have made their
judgment public.
But, he said, it was not done. He observed that his staff might have handed
over the judgment to the concerned authorities for its release to the media,
but it was simply dumped and ignored. “These are very important observations
and everybody should come to know about those points on the basis of which
we had decided the issue of eligibility and merit.”
In the judgment spread over 58 pages, the three judges have observed that
“we earnestly feel that this country no longer can afford the luxury of
resorting to circumvent the law and the constitu tional mandate by upholding
and affirming the draconian doctrine of necessity restored to earlier.
Indeed, the judges of this court are under an oath to uphold, preserve and
defend the constitution of Pakistan, which must be strictly adhered to in
letter and spirit without any fear or favour, or ill will.
“Any endeavor to continue and affirm the present system of governance, which
has transformed parliamentary system of governance into presidential form of
government is bound to damage the dignity, respect and honour of the citizen
of this country in the comity of the nations and bring a bad name to it,
which can hardly be appreciated.
“Independence of judiciary, stability of the democratic system, regular
conduct of the general election process, allowing the institutions to serve
freely within the sphere of their scope and without involvement of the armed
would always be in the supreme interests of the nation.
They said: “Needless to emphasis, frequent military interventions and
destabilization of elected governments have always given rise to
indiscipline, disorder, conflict of interests, inflation, unemployment,
massive corruption, intolerance and extremism in the country which must be
eradicated and eliminated with iron hand and strengthen in accordance with
the law”.
In the same judgment the judges have also observed “we earnestly feel, there
appears to be enough substance and force in the submission of the
petitioners that General Musharraf could not contest elections from the
current assemblies as outgoing assemblies can not be allowed to bind the
successor assemblies to be elected as a result of popular mandate. Further
more, members of present electoral college, who have already expressed their
opinion by expressing a vote of confidence immediately after their
assumption of office, may not be in a position to exercise their right of
franchise freely and independently. They would naturally be influenced and
swayed by their earlier decision.
“Since the term of the office of President as well the present assembly
expires simultaneously on November 15, 2007, it would be in the fitness of
the things and in consonance with the democratic norms and intentions of the
framers of the constitution if the new assemblies and the electoral college
are allowed to exercise their right to elect a president of their choice
during the term of electoral college under the constitution.
“An exceptional situation which can be conceived may be where the incumbent
president, before expiration of his term of office, is removed from his
office on the ground of physical or mental incapacity, is impeached on a
charge of violating the constitution or the gross misconduct; resignation or
death when the office of president falls vacant, the existing electoral
college would be constitutionally authorized to elect another president for
the un expired term of office.
“Indeed, General Musharraf, was fully alive to this situation, therefore
while promulgating LFO 2002, he introduced meaningful amendments in the
Chief Executive order, he introduced meaningful amendments in article 224 of
the constitution, providing for time for election bye election. While the
original text provided that a general election to the national assembly or a
provincial assembly shall be held within a period of 60 days immediately
“preceding” the day on which the term of assembly is due to expire, the
expression “preceding” was intentionally substituted by the term
“following”.
“This amendment was intentionally and deliberately made with a view to make
a room for a seeking election to the office of the president from the
outgoing assemblies in conformity with clause (4) of article 41 of the
constitution stipulating that election to the office shall be held not
earlier than 60 days and not later than 30 days before the expiration of the
term of the president in office. The draftsmanship and ingenuity of those
who suggested the above said amendment in the constitutional provisions can
only cause dismay may be looked upon with sorrow and grief”.
“Since the purpose and object of the amendments never saw the light of the
day, it is hard to appreciate the ground realities providing the forum to
present electoral college for election of the same person to the office
president for another tem for which new assemblies have to be elected a as a
result of popular vote based upon election manifestoes of various political
parties.
“It may be further observed that the president being an integral part of the
parliament, it would be quite inconceivable and unusual that the parliament
with whom a president has to work in total cordiality and harmony should not
be elected by such parliament.
“At the cost of repetition, it may be noted that a parliament having
outlived its tenure should not be allowed to bind the successor parliament
with its choice as it is well settled that a parliament may do anything but
bind the successor parliament. The present parliament having outlived its
life, in our view, does not have a democratic mandate of the people to elect
the same person as president for another term of five years, which would
militate against the well entrenched principles of democratic value”.
“For the aforesaid facts, circumstances and reasons these petitions are
allowed and General Pervez Musharraf declared to be disqualified to contest
for the presidential election,” the three judges concluded.
General Musharraf sat on a wall
Husain Haqqani
He feels let down by the West. But every US-backed
authoritarian ruler has blamed America for creating circumstances that
eventually led to his great fall
After imposing martial law disguised as a state of emergency, General Pervez
Musharraf has cracked down on Pakistan’s judiciary, media, moderate
political opposition and nascent civil society. His actions have been
universally condemned by the international community. But instead of
recognising the error of his ways, he feels “let down by the West” and
“betrayed by the media.”
Musharraf is following in the footsteps of the Shah of Iran, Ferdinand
Marcos of the Philippines, and Manuel Noriega of Panama. In their final
days, each one of these US-backed authoritarian rulers blamed the United
States for failing to understand their compulsions and for creating the
circumstances eventually leading to their downfall.
In the days to come, Musharraf and his remaining loyalists can be expected
to whip up anti-Americanism in an effort to deflect blame for their
predicament. Things were going well until the US demonstrated its legendary
fickleness and showed a soft spot for Benazir Bhutto, Musharraf’s apologists
will argue vehemently.
Musharraf recently spoke of Bhutto as “the darling of the West,” completely
forgetting that he, and not Bhutto, was the recipient of billions of dollars
in aid and personal praise from a long list of luminaries ranging from
President Bush to Donald Rumsfeld. If, as Samuel Jackson asserted,
“patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel”, then anti-Americanism is
the last refuge of US-backed dictators.
The Shah’s problems were of his own making, as were those of Marcos. Manuel
Noriega mistakenly believed that his status as US ally would allow him to
get away with anything, including drug smuggling. Given the general
misgivings about US foreign policy in third world countries, these rulers
thought that all they had to do to retain US support was to raise the
spectre of joining the ranks of America haters within their societies
against whom they were originally supposed to help Washington. But the crash
of dictatorships comes from mistaken domestic policies; it is not always a
function of foreign policy.
Even now, the uproar against General Musharraf has been caused by his
disregard for Pakistan’s Constitution and his disrespect for rule of law.
After all, of the UN’s 191 member states, why is it that Pakistan is the
only country where the chief of the army staff has got rid of the country’s
Supreme Court to thwart a judicial verdict against his person?
But, accustomed as he is to turning to America for support, Musharraf is
trying to persuade the international community that he is indispensable for
the US-led war against terrorism and given his services for the West, his
coup against Pakistan’s constitution should be treated as a minor matter.
Soon after the 1999 coup d’etat that brought him to power, Musharraf
telephoned General Anthony Zinni, Commander of the US Central Command (CentCom).
Both Generals Musharraf and Zinni have publicly confirmed their
conversation. In his book Battle Ready, written with Tom Clancy and
published in 2004, General Zinni says that Musharraf told him “what had led
to the coup and why he and the other military leaders had no choice other
than the one they took.” Zinni also mentions Musharraf’s help, two months
later, in arresting some terrorists sought by the US, which led Zinni to
tell Washington, “now do something for Musharraf.”
In the aftermath of a military coup that entailed toppling an elected
government, General Musharraf found it expedient, possibly necessary, to
seek advice and support from the top American general dealing with the
Middle East and Central Asia. Musharraf has been proud of his American
connections, citing on more than one occasion US support since 9/11 as
somehow conferring legitimacy on his military regime. But now it is useful
for him to pretend that the West has turned its back on him.
For almost seven years, Musharraf has had a free ride with international
public opinion by pretending to be a reformer without delivering much by way
of internal reform. Now that he has exposed himself in the aftermath of
martial law/emergency, Musharraf should be prepared to lose the
international support he assiduously cultivated.
The US is being nice to Musharraf by giving him time to rectify his mistake
instead of putting its full weight behind Pakistan’s political opposition
and civil society. So, if someone should be complaining right now, it should
be the thousands of civilians jailed without cause, not Musharraf. The US
has already done more than its fair share for Pakistan’s ruler and all that
largesse has still not prevented Musharraf from turning against America. It
is time for America to do something for the democratic aspirations of the
people of Pakistan.
The writer is director of Boston University’s Centre for International
Relations
LEADER ARTICLE: Watch
Your Back
V R Raghavan
November 21, 2007:
In 1999, after mounting a coup, General Pervez Musharraf spoke to the nation
late at night. One of the reasons he attributed for the necessity of the
coup was Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif disturbing the integrity of the
Pakistan army by summarily replacing Musharraf with another general. That
telling observation indicated the army's perception of its role in Pakistan.
The integrity of the army was more important than the integrity of the
country, and for that an elected government had to be removed. This
perception has guided the Pakistan army through the country's independent
history. The past and future of Musharraf is better understood through the
conviction of the Pakistan army's image of itself.
The question being asked now is if, when and in what manner Musharraf would
leave office. But the real question is: How would the Pakistan army respond
to the possibility of Musharraf either continuing in or leaving the
political scene? In my several years of association with senior Pakistan
army officers — many of them with intellectual and professional acumen — the
overwhelming impression is of a deeply held belief that the army is better
endowed to govern the country than any other institution. This is a
conviction which has lasted from Field Marshal Ayub's time.
This belief that the army knows what is best for the country has been
sustained by the dismal political leadership of Pakistan. However, Musharraf
has had more attempts on his life than his predecessors. There have also
been attacks on him in the well-protected Rawalpindi military zone.
Not a few of these attempts involved insiders. The reality of dissent in the
Pakistan army is now recognised by observers. The question is whether the
army and particularly its corps and division commanders view Musharraf as a
liability. In other words, is he doing what Sharif did by disturbing the
legitimacy of the Pakistan army? There is a strong opposition to the US-led
military operations in Pakistan, particularly in the border areas. The army
by its association with American operations is inevitably seen to be
fighting someone else’s war and worse, fighting its own people.
The recent reverses in tribal areas, including surrender of Pakistani
soldiers to tribal militias, has not enhanced the army's image. The army has
also taken more casualties in this campaign than it has in many decades.
Retired generals have gone to the extent of saying that army morale has
"folded up like a tent". While this may be an overstatement, it does provide
clues to the army's state of mind.
General Kayani's elevation as the chief designate until Musharraf demits
office is a pointer to the internal politics of the Pakistan army. Kayani
was not part of Musharraf's inner circle in 1999. He is, however, like
Musharraf, a self-made man. Musharraf reposed faith in Kayani by choosing
him to probe the assassination attempts. Later, he was made GOC of the
Rawalpindi Corps, which is the ultimate indicator of commanding the trust of
the army chief.
Kayani was also deputy military secretary to Benazir Bhutto when she was
prime minister in 1980s. No wonder he was chosen to parley with Bhutto in
Dubai on the power-sharing arrangement with Musharraf. When asked if she
trusted General Kayani, Bhutto is reported to have said that while she has
faith in him, she did not like questions on trust. Bhutto has obviously gone
through too much to trust the army.
The Pakistan army is a professional army with a sound chain of command.
Discipline and commitment has always been high.
On the other hand, the social milieu in the country has changed greatly.
Pakistan now has a far more complex society with greater Islamisation than
ever before. The army cannot remain wholly unaffected by the national mood.
If that mood which has turned against Musharraf now turns against the army,
a real change would have occurred. Greater use of the army in subduing
popular movements and casualties to the civilian population could suddenly
become an explosive issue.
It is not clear if Bhutto can mobilise a million people to march in
Islamabad. The possibility of that has forced Musharraf to have her detained
and released by turn. Musharraf has ruled with the assurance of the army's
loyalty to him and its perceived place in Pakistan's polity. If these
defining elements are increasingly seen to be eroded, there could be a need
to question the general's wisdom.
Alternately, if Musharraf is seen to be above the army, his relevance to the
integrity of the army would be questioned. Musharraf and Kayani are products
of a system which gives primacy to the power of the military over politics.
The infallibility of the military as the only factor in Pakistan's future is
now in question. It remains to be seen if the army views the costs of its
loss of public esteem to be greater than the continuation of Musharraf as
the head of state. In the interim, Bhutto and Musharraf could well find a
way for political cohabitation.
(The writer, a retired lieutenant general, is director of Delhi Policy
Group)
PPP Says PCO SC
verdict would not resolve legitimacy issue
Islamabad, 20
November 2007: The Pakistan Peoples Party said that the PCO
Supreme Court verdict Monday dismissing petitions against General
Musharraf’s nomination as Presidential candidate was expected after the
Constitution was suspended.
In a statement today a spokesperson of the Party said that nonetheless the
issue of legitimacy would still have to be referred to the new Parliament as
and when it was elected, and the verdict had not solved this issue.
He said that the verdict would be viewed by many as reminiscent of the
verdict given by the then Federal Court headed by Justice Munir that still
haunts the country.
Political manoeuvre:
Sharif shuns Mush, woos Bhutto
November 20, 2007:
Exiled former premier Nawaz Sharif urged fellow opposition leader
Benazir Bhutto to join him in boycotting Pakistan’s upcoming elections, as
he said he had spurned a meeting with President Pervez Musharraf.
The former premier’s comments in a telephone interview came amid fevered
political manoeuvring in nuclear-armed Pakistan, as Musharraf jousts with
his foes over his imposition of a state of emergency.
Musharraf was flying on Tuesday to Saudi Arabia, Sharif’s home in exile,
fuelling reports that he would reach out to the former premier in a bid to
split a possible Bhutto-Sharif alliance. Sharif, however, ruled out any
meeting with the man who ousted him eight years ago, saying: "I am not
prepared to meet that man when he has arrested the judiciary, gagged the
media and suspended the constitution."
"I think the nation needs to prepare for a decisive battle against
dictatorship," Sharif said from his home in Jeddah late on Monday. Sharif
said Musharraf tried to contact him three times in the past two months
asking for a meeting. "I regretted it, I said no, it will not serve any
purpose," he said.
The industrialist-turned-politician was kicked out of Pakistan within hours
when he tried to return from exile in September.
Instead, Sharif said talks to form an opposition front with Bhutto had
progressed further — so long as they can agree on an agenda to adopt against
military ruler Musharraf. "I welcome the proposal by Benazir Bhutto for
holding an all-parties conference," he said, referring to a meeting called
by Bhutto for the middle of this week.
Musharraf in Talks on
Exiled Rival
By JANE PERLEZ
ISLAMABAD,
Pakistan, Nov. 20 — In his first trip out of the country since
declaring emergency rule, the Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf,
arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to discuss the future of one of his main
political rivals, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who lives in exile
there.
Saudi Arabia, one of Pakistan’s closest allies, has indicated that Mr.
Sharif should be allowed to return to his homeland to participate in
parliamentary elections, Pakistani officials and Western diplomats said.
The Saudis have argued, diplomats said, that since Pakistan allowed a
secular female leader, Benazir Bhutto, to return from self-imposed exile,
then Mr. Sharif, a more conservative and religiously inclined leader, should
be permitted to come back, too.
General Musharraf toppled Mr. Sharif in a bloodless coup in October 1999 and
sent him into exile soon afterward. He has become one of the general’s
fiercest critics, and his return to Pakistan could present a strong
political challenge to the party that backs the president and to Ms.
Bhutto’s party.
In General Musharraf’s absence, the Pakistani election commission said that
parliamentary elections would be held on Jan. 8. General Musharraf has
insisted that these elections will be held under emergency rule, a stance
the Bush administration has criticized.
Opposition parties have that said free and fair elections would be
impossible without the judiciary and the television stations that General
Musharraf banned under emergency rule more than two weeks ago. But so far
the parties have stopped short of forming a united front that would boycott
the voting.
As the Musharraf government prepared for the controversial elections, the
Interior Ministry announced that 3,416 detainees arrested under the
emergency rule had been released. That figure could not be verified. A
Western diplomat said Tuesday that the Pakistani government had indicated
that about 1,000 detainees out of 4,500 had been released.
In Sindh Province, the home secretary, Ghulam Mohammad Mohatarem, said 650
people had been released from detention. Diplomats said there seemed to be a
revolving door; as detainees were let go, other political opponents were
being arrested.
In Karachi, police arrested about 200 journalists Tuesday as they marched
from the press club to the governor’s house in protest over the closure of
Geo TV. The television station has refused to sign a new code of conduct
introduced by the government since emergency rule was imposed on Nov. 3.
Speaking in Karachi from a police station where he was being held with 35
other journalists, Zarar Khan, a reporter with The Associated Press, said
that two journalists were beaten severely by police officers as they were
rounded up and had suffered head wounds.
In an example of the government failing to follow through on its promised
releases, 45 lawyers were ordered released on Monday by the High Court in
Lahore, Iqbal Haider, the secretary general of the Pakistan Human Rights
Commission said. But then the government immediately issued new detention
orders for the lawyers, and they were kept in prison, he said. In Karachi, a
prominent lawyer, Naim Queresh, was removed from the bar association
headquarters Monday as he was addressing his colleagues, Mr. Haider said.
The most prominent of the government’s opponents remain detained. Among them
are the four leaders of the lawyers’ movement, including Aitzaz Ahsan, the
chairman of the Supreme Court Bar Association, and leaders of the Pakistan
Muslim League, the political party led by Mr. Sharif. The judges on the
Supreme Court who were dismissed by General Musharraf are also still under
house arrest.
The role of Mr. Sharif has come to the fore since the return of Ms. Bhutto,
who also is a former prime minister. Mr. Sharif tried to return to Pakistan
a few months ago after the Supreme Court, which General Musharraf dismissed,
ruled that he should be permitted to do so. But soon after landing at the
Islamabad airport in September, Mr. Sharif was unceremoniously deported and
sent back to Saudi Arabia.
Since then, supporters of Mr. Sharif have protested, asserting that it was
unfair of the Saudis to keep Mr. Sharif and effectively prevent him from
participating in Pakistani politics. The demonstrations against Saudi
Arabia, an ally that contributes financially to Islamic schools and sells
Pakistani oil at favorable rates, are deeply embarrassing to the Saudi royal
family, diplomats and Pakistani officials said.
In an interview in Tuesday’s issue of the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, Mr.
Sharif said that he would not meet with General Musharraf in Saudi Arabia.
In the interview, Mr. Sharif said that he wanted emergency rule lifted
before he would return. Ahsan Iqbal, a spokesman for Mr. Sharif’s party,
said that General Musharraf would be trying to dissuade the Saudis from
releasing Mr. Sharif.
“From the Saudi point of view, Benazir Bhutto is here, but Sharif is not
allowed,” Mr. Iqbal said. “By having him in Saudi Arabia, they become
involved in party politics here, and they don’t like that.”
In his autobiography, “In The Line of Fire,” General Musharraf described how
he had arranged a deal with Mr. Sharif in 1990 in which criminal charges
against the former prime minister were dropped on the condition that he
agreed to go to Saudi Arabia for 10 years and remain out of politics.
Rasheed Abou-Alsamh contributed reporting from Jidda, Saudi Arabia.
Pakistan's Bhutto
meets US envoy after talks plea
KARACHI
November 19, 2007: Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto met the top
US diplomat in Pakistan on Monday after Washington called for a resumption
of power-sharing talks with President Pervez Musharraf.
Ambassador Anne Patterson travelled to Bhutto's stronghold in the southern
port city of Karachi for talks at her residence.
Patterson also visited the offices of a leading private news channel that
was shut down at the weekend by the government to express her concern at the
move, officials said.
The flurry of activity came after Bhutto spoke late Friday with US Deputy
Secretary of State John Negroponte during his weekend visit here to try to
defuse the crisis over Musharraf's state of emergency.
Before he left Sunday, he urged Musharraf to end emergency rule and resume
talks with Bhutto, who had last week ruled out further contacts.
Patterson told reporters as she left that she was meeting Bhutto and other
political leaders to press for free, fair and transparent elections.
"The United States is interested in the reconciliation of all the moderate
political elements," she said.
"I am here to assure her and all others that we will do everything possible
to ensure that the election takes place."
Musharraf's government said earlier Monday that he had recommended setting
January 8 as the date for long-promised general elections.
Bhutto and Musharraf had been in power-sharing talks before the November 3
imposition of emergency rule, with the United States eyeing an alliance of
the two moderate, pro-Western figures as a bulwark against Islamic
militancy.
Last week Bhutto said those talks were over and pledged never to work with
Musharraf in government, but she pointedly declined to repeat those comments
when interview Sunday by CNN after Negroponte's departure.
"Let's stop a moment and see whether he first responds to Washington," she
said, referring to Musharraf.
Nor
did she repeat them Monday following Patterson's visit.
"I mentioned our concern about the credibility of the election process and
asked for the steps that should be taken to ensure free, fair and
transparent elections," she told reporters.
"Elections are essential for democracy but should be held in a transparent
and impartial way."
Patterson also visited Geo television's studios in Karachi, two days after
the station and another private news channel were closed down by
authorities, the station and US officials said.
"She went in person and expressed great concern over the situation. She said
that it is not only an issue of free speech but also about economic
punishment," US embassy spokeswoman Elizabeth Colton said.
Mir Ibrahim, a senior Geo executive, said the government had also shut down
Geo's entertainment and sports channels beaming out of Dubai in an apparent
punitive measure.
"The US ambassador visited our office in Karachi. She expressed deep
concerns about the staff and their financial well-being," Ibrahim told AFP.
He said Patterson had "expressed solidarity and that she was particularly
concerned why Geo was targeted."
Fading hopes for the
‘disappeared’
Monday, November
19, 2007: The disbandment of the full-bench of the Supreme Court,
hearing the case of about 100 ‘disappeared’ people, and initial indications
of a changed tone and tenor from the apex court, come as a blow to the
families of victims of enforced disappearances. Till early November, when
emergency was slapped on the country, the families of these persons had had
reason to hope they would soon be freed. The tough stance adopted by the
court, its warnings to top intelligence agencies and its harsh words to
government officials, had raised the possibility of more people emerging
from the secret places of detention where they continue to be held,
sometimes for years. Indeed, largely as a result of the active role adopted
by the court, at least 99 secretly detained persons, who featured on a list
of 198 ‘disappeared’ people put before the court by the Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) early this year, in a petition seeking their
release, had been set free, and the whereabouts of several others uncovered.
Investigations by the court, and evidence from accounts given by those
released, also led the bench to conclude that these persons were in the
hands of intelligence agencies. It is unfortunate that rather than utilizing
these findings to restrict, or at least regulate, the working of
intelligence agencies, the regime has instead enacted laws, such as recent
amendments in the Army Act, which give further protection to these agencies.
Previously too, President Musharraf had insisted that the ‘missing’ people
had in fact themselves ventured away from their homes for ‘jihad’. This
conclusion ignores reality. The fact is that the largest number among the
‘disappeared’ are young Baloch men, known as belonging to progressive,
indeed secular, schools of thought. Others on the list are prominent Sindhi
writers or poets, again known to be at least as fervently opposed to
religious extremism as the president himself.
Sadly, a few seem to have been victimized simply because of a personal issue
pitching them against intelligence personnel, and a large number, according
to testimonies they have provided to the court, have suffered severe torture
while in custody. For some, this has brought lasting physical and
psychological damage. It is unfortunate that rather than taking up the issue
of such persons, and indeed the wider matter of human rights abuses
committed by state agencies, the regime would prefer such matters to be
buried and hidden away. Already, Pakistan’s name figures on the lists of
countries where enforced disappearances are an issue, and Amnesty
International, among other groups, has campaigned extensively to draw
attention to their plight. All well-wishers of Pakistan would surely wish
that the country’s name could be removed from this category of countries.
This can happen only if the existence of human-rights abuses is squarely
acknowledged and faced up to, so these problems can be resolved. Denying
that these are an issue at all, or wreaking wrath on all those who deign to
take up the matter, including the courts, can, in the longer run, solve
nothing at all.
PPP files reference
against former PM Shaukat Aziz, Ch. Shujat, Senator Mushahid Syed and former
Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani
Islamabad, 19
November 2007: Pakistan Peoples Party has filed a reference with
the National Accountability Bureau against former Prime Minister Shaukat
Aziz, President Pakistan Muslim League(Q), Ch. Shujaat Hussain, Secretary
General PML(Q) Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed and former Minister Information
Senator Muhammad Ali Durrani for misappropriating huge amounts belonging to
the national exchequer and thereby causing a colossal loss to the government
of Pakistan by way of corruption, corrupt practices and misuse of powers.
The reference was filed by Ch. Mohammad Aslam Advocate on behalf of the
Pakistan Party.
The reference reads, “The Respondents who are deadly against the Pakistan
Peoples Party & it’s Chairperson Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, have been trying
their level best to malign the party with a view to keep the party and it’s
leadership away from the people of Pakistan right from the day, they assumed
the posts in the Muslim League (Q)/ Government of Pakistan and they have not
hesitated from using illegal, unethical, unconstitutional and unprecedented
means and ways even in this regard. In connection with the filthy campaign
launched by the respondents against the symbol of democracy Mohtarma Benazir
Bhutto Chairperson PPP and her popular party which rules the hearts of
millions of people of Pakistan, the respondents got a highly objectionable,
derogatory, insulting, damaging and baseless proclamation published in the
daily The News, The Daily Jang, The Daily Nwa-i-Waqt, daily Waqt, Daily The
Nation, Daily Ausaf and Daily Jinnah vide publications dated 14th & 15th of
November 2007 (Copies attached herewith) at the expense of Government of
Pakistan which amounts to misuse of powers, misappropriation of government
funds and an illegal act, regarding the government funds entrusted to the
Respondent No. 1 who in connivance with the other respondents committed an
offence punishable Under the NA Ordinance 1999.”
The reference reads, “Based on the above facts and grounds respondents have
shown wilful indulgence in misusing their power and corrupt practices under
Section 9 of the NAB Ordinance. They are liable for the punishment under
Section 10 of the NAB Ordinance 1999.
“It is therefore requested that the orders may kindly be passed for
investigation into the matters set out herein above and a reference against
the respondents for violating the provisions of Section 9 of the NAB
Ordinance 1999 punishable under Section 10 of the Ordinance be initiated in
competent court of law.” The reference prays.
Pakistan caretaker PM
vows to improve army capabilities
Islamabad, Nov 17 -
Pakistan's caretaker Prime Minister Mohammadmian Soomro said Saturday the
government would continue to extend all necessary support to enhance and
improve the capabilities of the armed forces to meet the defence needs of
the country.The prime minister was talking to the chairman of Joint Chiefs
of Staff Committee, General Tariq Majeed, who called on him at the Prime
Minister Secretariat, reports Online news agency.Soomro said Pakistan is a
peace loving country and does not harbour aggressive designs against any
country. Nevertheless, peace is achieved through strength and not
weakness.He also said every Pakistani is proud of the role played by the
armed forces in maintaining internal and external security, particularly
their role during earthquake and the recent floods in Sindh and
Balochistan.Gen. Majeed updated the caretaker prime minister on the
modernisation and upgradation projects undertaken by the army to increase
its defence preparedness.
Pakistan Rejects
Calls to End Emergency
By PAUL HAVEN
November 18, 2007:
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's
government dismissed a last-ditch U.S. call to end emergency rule, leaving
the Bush administration with limited options Sunday in steering its
nuclear-armed ally back toward democracy.
Pakistan said U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte brought no new
proposals on a make-or-break visit, and received no assurances after urging
Musharraf to restore the constitution and free thousands of political
opponents.
"This is nothing new," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Sadiq told The
Associated Press. "The U.S. has been saying this for many days. He
(Negroponte) has said that same thing. He has reiterated it."
Locked in a battle with increasingly powerful Islamist militants, Pakistan
is seen as a key front in the war on terror. U.S. officials are clearly
fearful that the emergency rule imposed more than two weeks ago could lead
to a potentially destabilizing round of political turmoil.
In an early morning news conference before departing Pakistan, Negroponte
said he hoped that the president listened to his appeal to end a crackdown
on opponents before legislative elections scheduled for January.
"I urged the government to stop such actions, lift the state of emergency
and release all political detainees," Negroponte told reporters at the U.S.
Embassy. "Emergency rule is not compatible with free, fair and credible
elections."
But Musharraf has appeared intent on setting his own pace despite warnings
from Washington, which has been hesitant to match criticism with actions
such as cutting military aid.
Militant gains have raised U.S. concerns about Pakistan's ability to combat
militancy and flush out remnants of al-Qaida and the Taliban believed to be
sheltering in the country's rugged northwestern tribal areas.
Pakistani army helicopter gunships strafed militant positions in the
northwest on Sunday, hitting a valley where fighters loyal to a pro-Taliban
cleric have been battling security forces for months, the army said.
Soldiers also fired artillery and mortar shells at militants in Swat,
inflicting "many casualties," the army said. It did not offer any specific
casualty figures.
Fighting in Swat, a former tourist destination about 100 miles northwest of
Islamabad, has turned parts of the region into a no-go zone for journalists,
and the army claims could not be independently verified. The rebels could
not be reached comment.
Fighters loyal to Maulana Fazlullah, a rebel cleric who wants to impose
Islamic rule, have steadily advanced down the Swat valley since July, taking
over towns and driving back government forces.
On Saturday, a top general said 15,000 troops were massed for a major
offensive against the insurgents, and the military said that between 35 and
40 rebels had been killed in attacks by army helicopter gunships a day
earlier, bringing the total number of rebels killed in the past week to more
than 100.
Elsewhere in the northwest, rival Sunni and Shiite Muslims battled Sunday in
a town where three days of sectarian violence has left 91 people dead,
officials said.
Both sides fired mortars and other heavy weapons at each other in the town
of Parachinar late Saturday and early Sunday, targeting residential areas
and hitting mosques, an intelligence official said. He spoke on condition of
anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Plumes of smoke were seen billowing from two Sunni neighborhoods in the town
early Sunday, the official said.
In a bid to quell the violence, the military said it was deploying an
unspecified number of soldiers and members and Pakistan's Frontier
Constabulary paramilitary force to Parachinar.
Musharraf has insisted he would only lift the emergency if the national
security situation improved, and strongly hinted that such a move was
unlikely before parliamentary elections scheduled to be held by Jan. 9. The
opposition has called that position preposterous, saying a free and fair
vote could never be held while thousands of opponents were behind bars and
political parties were denied the right to assemble.
Sadiq insisted the government was taking all necessary steps to hold a fair
election.
Despite Musharraf's apparent intransigence, Negroponte would not
characterize his trip as a failure.
"In diplomacy, as you know, we don't get instant replies when we have these
kinds of dialogue," he said. "I'm sure the president is seriously
considering the exchange we had."
Senior Bush Administration officials have said publicly that they have no
plans to cut off the billions of dollars in military aid that Pakistan
receives each year.
Musharraf has said he would step down as army chief by the end of the month,
but has insisted that he will serve out a five-year term as civilian
president. He won the extra term in an October vote in parliament. The
Supreme Court was set to rule on whether the vote was constitutional when
Musharraf declared the emergency on Nov. 3, effectively purging the court.
In addition, some 2,500 opponents have been jailed and independent TV
stations taken off the air.
Musharraf has defended the moves, saying they are necessary as his forces
struggle to combat an increasingly virulent Islamic insurgency. But
opponents note that the vast majority of those targeted in the crackdown
have been pro-Western moderates, human rights activists, lawyers and
journalists.
Negroponte met for more than two hours Saturday with Musharraf and
Pakistan's deputy army commander, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, as well as other
leaders. He also spoke by phone with former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto,
who returned to Pakistan last month hoping to work out a power-sharing deal
with Musharraf but has ended up becoming one of the leading voices calling
for his resignation.
Negroponte urged the two on Sunday to restart talks and ease "the atmosphere
of brinkmanship and political confrontation."
"If steps were taken by both sides to move back toward the kind of
reconciliation discussions they were having recently, we think that would be
very positive and could help improve the political environment," he said.
Bhutto told CNN's "Late Edition" that: "I believe Mr. Negroponte did the
right thing in asking General Musharraf to lift the gags on the media, to
release the thousands of opposition and human rights leaders, as well as to
retire as chief of army staff ... We just wonder how we can have fair
elections when so many people are under arrest and the media is gagged."
Though measured in his comments, Negroponte expressed some impatience with
Musharraf, saying he hoped to see more steps toward democracy soon. "There
remain some other issues that are yet to be considered, or yet to be
undertaken," he said, without going into detail.
Associated Press reporters Matthew Rosenberg and Sadaqat Jan in Islamabad
contributed to this report.
PPP
workers and leaders sent to jail
Islamabad, 18 November 2007:
The arrested leaders, office bearers and workers of Pakistan Peoples
Party were brought hand cuffed before duty magistrate Rawalpindi. These
included former Senator Malik Hakmeen, Atif Kiyani, Rashid Nasim Abbasi,
Muhammad Anwer, Jaffer Shah, Babu Idrees, Malik Sher Ahmed, Ashfaq Kazi,
Riasat Abbasi and Gulfraz Awan.
Afterwards, they were sent to Adiyala Jail. Earlier PPPP Secretary General
Raja Pervez Ashraf, Zammurad Khan and Sardar Shoaib Mumtaz were released.
These PPP workers and leaders were arrested on Saturday while protesting
against the imposition of Martial Law in the country.
In NWFP, the PPP workers, leaders and office bearers arrested on 9th and
10th November have been kept in Dera Ismail Khan and Haripur jails.
They include Rahim Dad Khan, Arbab Alamgir, Fareed Toofan, Israr Khan,
Behramand Tangi, Sarmad Khan, Attaullah Khan and dozens other.
PPP leaders in Faisalabad have been charged under 16 MPO and sent to
district jail. These include Raja Riaz, Rana Aftab Khan, Jahanzeb Gill,
Zafar Iqbal and Bashir Ahmed.
Mohtarma Bhutto condemns murder of Hayatullah’s wife
Demands probe and arrest of killers
Islamabad November 18, 2007:
Former Prime Minister and Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma
Benazir Bhutto has condemned the brutal murder of the wife of tribal
journalist Hayatullah and demanded a thorough probe into the matter and
arrest of the culprits involved.
The wife of Hayatullah was killed in a bomb attack on her house in Mir Ali
in North Waziristan late last night.
In a statement today the former Prime Minister said that she was shocked and
grieved to learn about the gruesome murder of the widow of a young and
promising journalist who himself had been slain last year by unknown
assailants.
Mrs Hayatullah has been vigorously pursuing the killers of her husband and
had complained of receiving threatening calls warning her against chasing
her husband’s murderers.
Only an impartial and judicial probe can reveal the bloodstained hands
behind the crime, Mohtarma Bhutto said.
Last year her husband the 29-year-old journalist, who was abducted on
December 5 2005 while investigating the death of an Al Qaeda operative in
the tribal areas, was found dead on 17 June 2006. He was handcuffed and had
been shot in the back of the head.
A few months later his brother was killed under mysterious circumstances.
The family members of tribal journalist Hayatullah Khan alleged that state
agencies were involved in his murder.
She also prayed for eternal peace for the soul of Mrs. Hayatullah and solace
to the members of the bereaved family.
Meanwhile Mohtarma Bhutto has also condemned the disappearance of journalist
Shoaib Bhutta and demanded his early release. The family of Shoaib Bhutta
has alleged that he was whisked away by some men in plain clothes from his
office in Islamabad and taken to an unknown place.
The former Prime Minister said that the mysterious disappearances in the
country had increased alarmingly and called for bringing the agencies under
the ambit of law. She also called for the immediate release of Shoaib Bhutta.
Pakistan’s Collapse, Our Problem
New York Times
By FREDERICK W. KAGAN and MICHAEL O’HANLON
November 18, 2007, Washington:
AS the government of Pakistan totters, we must face a fact: the United
States simply could not stand by as a nuclear-armed Pakistan descended into
the abyss. Nor would it be strategically prudent to withdraw our forces from
an improving situation in Iraq to cope with a deteriorating one in Pakistan.
We need to think — now — about our feasible military options in Pakistan,
should it really come to that.
We do not intend to be fear mongers. Pakistan’s officer corps and ruling
elites remain largely moderate and more interested in building a strong,
modern state than in exporting terrorism or nuclear weapons to the highest
bidder. But then again, Americans felt similarly about the shah’s regime in
Iran until it was too late.
Moreover, Pakistan’s intelligence services contain enough sympathizers and
supporters of the Afghan Taliban, and enough nationalists bent on seizing
the disputed province of Kashmir from India, that there are grounds for real
worries.
The most likely possible dangers are these: a complete collapse of Pakistani
government rule that allows an extreme Islamist movement to fill the vacuum;
a total loss of federal control over outlying provinces, which splinter
along ethnic and tribal lines; or a struggle within the Pakistani military
in which the minority sympathetic to the Taliban and Al Qaeda try to
establish Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism.
All possible military initiatives to avoid those possibilities are daunting.
With 160 million people, Pakistan is more than five times the size of Iraq.
It would take a long time to move large numbers of American forces halfway
across the world. And unless we had precise information about the location
of all of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and materials, we could not rely on
bombing or using Special Forces to destroy them.
The task of stabilizing a collapsed Pakistan is beyond the means of the
United States and its allies. Rule-of-thumb estimates suggest that a force
of more than a million troops would be required for a country of this size.
Thus, if we have any hope of success, we would have to act before a complete
government collapse, and we would need the cooperation of moderate Pakistani
forces.
One possible plan would be a Special Forces operation with the limited goal
of preventing Pakistan’s nuclear materials and warheads from getting into
the wrong hands. Given the degree to which Pakistani nationalists cherish
these assets, it is unlikely the United States would get permission to
destroy them. Somehow, American forces would have to team with Pakistanis to
secure critical sites and possibly to move the material to a safer place.
For the United States, the safest bet would be shipping the material to
someplace like New Mexico; but even pro-American Pakistanis would be
unlikely to cooperate. More likely, we would have to settle for establishing
a remote redoubt within Pakistan, with the nuclear technology guarded by
elite Pakistani forces backed up (and watched over) by crack international
troops. It is realistic to think that such a mission might be undertaken
within days of a decision to act. The price for rapid action and secrecy,
however, would probably be a very small international coalition.
A second, broader option would involve supporting the core of the Pakistani
armed forces as they sought to hold the country together in the face of an
ineffective government, seceding border regions and Al Qaeda and Taliban
assassination attempts against the leadership. This would require a sizable
combat force — not only from the United States, but ideally also other
Western powers and moderate Muslim nations.
Even if we were not so committed in Iraq and Afghanistan, Western powers
would need months to get the troops there. Fortunately, given the
longstanding effectiveness of Pakistan’s security forces, any process of
state decline probably would be gradual, giving us the time to act.
So, if we got a large number of troops into the country, what would they do?
The most likely directive would be to help Pakistan’s military and security
forces hold the country’s center — primarily the region around the capital,
Islamabad, and the populous areas like Punjab Province to its south.
We would also have to be wary of internecine warfare within the Pakistani
security forces. Pro-American moderates could well win a fight against
extremist sympathizers on their own. But they might need help if splinter
forces or radical Islamists took control of parts of the country containing
crucial nuclear materials. The task of retaking any such regions and
reclaiming custody of any nuclear weapons would be a priority for our
troops.
If a holding operation in the nation’s center was successful, we would
probably then seek to establish order in the parts of Pakistan where
extremists operate. Beyond propping up the state, this would benefit
American efforts in Afghanistan by depriving terrorists of the sanctuaries
they have long enjoyed in Pakistan’s tribal and frontier regions.
The great paradox of the post-cold war world is that we are both safer, day
to day, and in greater peril than before. There was a time when volatility
in places like Pakistan was mostly a humanitarian worry; today it is as much
a threat to our basic security as Soviet tanks once were. We must be
militarily and diplomatically prepared to keep ourselves safe in such a
world. Pakistan may be the next big test.
Frederick W. Kagan is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise
Institute. Michael O’Hanlon is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Musharraf Refuses to
Say When Emergency Will End
ISLAMABAD,
Pakistan, Sunday, Nov. 18 — Continuing to defy the United States,
Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, declined to tell a senior
American envoy on Saturday when he would lift a two-week-old state of
emergency, Pakistani and Western officials said.
In a two-hour meeting, Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte urged
the president to end the emergency. But General Musharraf said he would do
so when security improved in the country, the officials said. Mr. Negroponte
is the United States’ second highest ranking diplomat.
“The president said, ‘I have noted your concerns and I think I will address
all of these,’ ” a close aide to General Musharraf said.
In a news conference before he left Pakistan on Sunday, Mr. Negroponte said
it would take time to determine whether the American message had an impact.
“In diplomacy, as you know, we don’t get instant replies,” he said. “I’m
sure the president is seriously considering the exchange we had.”
The state of emergency remains a major embarrassment for the Bush
administration, which has given more than $10 billion in aid to General
Musharraf’s government since 2001 and declared him a valued ally. Ten days
ago, President Bush personally telephoned General Musharraf and asked him to
end the state of emergency, with no result.
The Bush administration has also pushed for General Musharraf, who is army
chief as well as president, to resign from his military post. The general
has said he will, but not until the Supreme Court certifies his re-election
last month to a five-year term as president, which opposition groups say was
illegal.
In addition to meeting with General Musharraf, Mr. Negroponte met twice with
Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the deputy commander of Pakistan’s army and
General Musharraf’s designated successor to head the army. The time and
attention paid to General Kayani, a pro-Western moderate, seemed to signal
American support for him.
Mr. Negroponte met with General Kayani for an hour on Saturday morning.
Then, Mr. Negroponte had a two-hour dinner with General Kayani and Tariq
Aziz, a close aide to General Musharraf. General Kayani is widely believed
to want to remove the military from politics and to focus on securing the
country.
On Nov. 3, General Musharraf declared emergency rule, blacked out
independent news stations and began a crackdown that led to the arrest of an
estimated 2,500 opposition politicians, lawyers and human rights activists.
The move, which General Musharraf has said is an effort to curb terrorism,
is widely seen by Pakistanis as an effort by the increasingly unpopular
ruler to cling to power.
Mr. Negroponte said he had urged the Pakistani leader to end the emergency,
release all political prisoners, resign from his post as army chief and hold
free and fair elections in January.
“Emergency
rule is not compatible with free and fair elections,” Mr. Negroponte said at
the news conference. “The people of Pakistan deserve the opportunity to
choose their leaders.”
In a sign of General Musharraf’s growing isolation, the secretary general of
the main political party backing him called Saturday for an end to the
emergency. The leader, Mushahid Hussain, said that ending the state of
emergency would cause “less tension, less political conflict and less
polarization.”
“The national interest would be better served,” Mr. Hussain said in an
interview with Dawn News, a Pakistani television channel. “The emergency has
been having a very negative impact, both at home and abroad.”
A poll in late August and early September by the International Republican
Institute, a Washington-based group that conducts democratic training
programs overseas, found that 70 percent of Pakistanis supported General
Musharraf”s immediate resignation. His popularity is believed to have
decreased further since the declaration on Nov. 3.
Western diplomats say they believe that Pakistan’s army still supports
General Musharraf, but that there is unease with his leadership. With the
army facing a growing insurgency from Islamic militants in the northwest,
generals are eager to have an army chief who is focused solely on military
matters, they said.
Twice in Pakistan’s history, senior generals have asked military rulers to
resign when their conduct was deemed damaging to the army. So far, no signs
have emerged that General Kayani or other leaders have asked General
Musharraf to step aside.
Mr. Negroponte held a series of meetings that seemed intended to revive an
alliance between General Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto, an opposition
politician and former prime minister.
On Friday, Mr. Negroponte telephoned Ms. Bhutto. He then met Mr. Aziz, the
Musharraf aide who served as a back-channel negotiator in an effort to
broker a deal between the president and Ms. Bhutto.
American officials hoped that Ms. Bhutto’s presumed popularity in Pakistan
would bolster General Musharraf’s low standing. The state of emergency
decree seems to have scuttled any deal, for now.
European diplomats and Pakistani analysts have long questioned the viability
of an American-engineered Bhutto-Musharraf alliance. Any government they
form would be viewed as a United States puppet, they said, and be unpopular.
In the September opinion survey, only 28 percent of Pakistanis polled named
Ms. Bhutto as the best person to handle the problems facing Pakistan, out of
seven choices. Seventeen percent named General Musharraf. Nawaz Sharif, the
former prime minister who is in exile in Saudi Arabia and refuses to
negotiate with General Musharraf, received the highest marks, with 36
percent support.
The poll of about 4,000 Pakistanis had a margin of error of plus or minus
two percentage points.
Also on Saturday, hundreds of Pakistani journalists in three cities
protested the president’s continuing crackdown on the media.
In the days before Mr. Negroponte’s arrival, the government allowed several
independent news stations to resume broadcasting on cable television, but
they operate under a strict new law that carries a sentence of up to three
years in jail for journalists who “ridicule” the president.
Carlotta Gall contributed reporting from Islamabad.
Bush
Failed to See Musharraf’s Faults, Critics Contend
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
WASHINGTON,
Nov. 17 — In the six years since Pakistan’s president, Gen.
Pervez Musharraf, joined President Bush in the fight against Al Qaeda, it
has been an unlikely partnership: a president intent on promoting democracy
and a military commander who seized power in a bloodless coup.
Mr. Bush has repeatedly called Gen. Musharraf “a friend.” In 2003, the
president invited the general to Camp David, a presidential perk reserved
for the closest of allies. Last year, at the general’s insistence, Mr. Bush
risked a trip to Pakistan, jangling the nerves of the Secret Service by
spending the night in the country presumed to be home to Osama bin Laden.
But now that the general has defied the White House, suspending Pakistan’s
Constitution and imposing emergency rule, old tensions are flaring anew. Mr.
Bush is backing away from the leader he once called a man of “courage and
vision,” and critics are asking whether the president misread his Pakistani
counterpart.
They said Mr. Bush — an ardent believer in personal diplomacy, who once
remarked that he had looked into the eyes of President Vladimir V. Putin of
Russia and had gotten “a sense of his soul” — was taken in by the general,
with his fluent English and his promises to hold elections and relinquish
military power. They said Mr. Bush looked at General Musharraf and saw a
democratic reformer when he should have seen a dictator instead.
“He didn’t ask the hard questions, and frankly, neither did the people
working for him,” said Husain Haqqani, an expert on Pakistan at Boston
University who has advised two previous Pakistani prime ministers, Nawaz
Sharif and Benazir Bhutto. “They bought the P.R. image of Musharraf as the
reasonable general. Bush bought the line — hook, line and sinker.”
White House aides said Mr. Bush is clear-eyed about his pact with the
general, a pact that was sealed on a Saturday evening in November 2001, over
an intimate dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. They had just
met face-to-face for the first time, during a meeting of the United Nations,
and, despite past tensions between their countries, an air of cozy
familiarity filled the room.
“It was a lovely dinner, very sociable,” said Wendy J. Chamberlin, the
former ambassador to Pakistan, who attended. “I wasn’t nervous, because I
knew Musharraf and I knew how charming he is, and I could see that they
would get along fine. And besides, the mood was exuberant. Musharraf was
like a conquering hero, Musharraf had done the right thing. He was the man
of the day.”
Today, the general is hardly the man of the day. On Saturday, Deputy
Secretary of State John D. Negroponte — who was the host at the Waldorf
dinner as the ambassador to the United Nations then — met with General
Musharraf and pushed him to end Pakistan’s state of emergency. Back in
Washington, Mr. Bush was close-mouthed, saying little about the man he once
praised as “a courageous leader and friend of the United States.”
The
two have spoken just once, on Nov. 7 by telephone, in the two weeks since
General Musharraf imposed de facto military rule. Mr. Bush, who initiated
the call, termed it “a very frank discussion” — Washington code for a
pointed airing of differences.
“My message was very, very plain, very easy to understand,” the president
said. “And that is: the United States wants you to have elections as
scheduled and take your uniform off.”
The “Bush-Mush relationship,” as some American scholars call it, has always
been complicated, more a bond of convenience than a genuine friendship, some
experts said. When he was running for office in 2000, Mr. Bush didn’t even
know General Musharraf’s name; he couldn’t identify the leader of Pakistan
for a reporter’s pop quiz during an interview that was widely replayed on
late-night television.
Relations between the nations had been tense over Pakistan’s nuclear
ambitions even before Mr. Bush took office, and American aid to Pakistan had
been all but cut off. But Sept. 11 threw the United States and Pakistan
together. Mr. Bush demanded General Musharraf’s allegiance in pursuing Al
Qaeda — and got it. General Musharraf demanded military aid that could help
him maintain power — and got it.
Experts in United States-Pakistan relations said General Musharraf has
played the union masterfully, by convincing Mr. Bush that he alone can keep
Pakistan stable. Kamran Bokhari, an analyst for Stratfor, a private
intelligence company, who met with General Musharraf in January, said the
general viewed Mr. Bush with some condescension.
“Musharraf thinks that Bush has certain weaknesses that can be manipulated,”
Mr. Bokhari said, adding, “I would say that President Musharraf doesn’t
think highly of President Bush, but his interests force him to do business
with the U.S. president.”
In his autobiography, “In the Line of Fire,” General Musharraf writes
glowingly of the trust Mr. Bush placed in him. But he passed up a chance to
praise Mr. Bush on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” where he was promoting
the book. Mr. Stewart asked who would win a hypothetical contest for mayor
of Karachi, Mr. Bush or Mr. bin Laden.
“I think they’ll both lose miserably,” the general replied.
Mr. Bush, by contrast, was “favorably impressed” with General Musharraf,
according to Ari Fleischer, the president’s former press secretary. Mr.
Fleischer recounted one session where the general had been warned in advance
not to ask the president for F-16 fighter jets, because the answer would be
no. “Musharraf brought it up anyway,” Mr. Fleischer said, “and Bush told him
the answer is no. But I think Bush liked the fact that he does what he wants
to do, and says what’s on his mind.”
Their ties have not always helped General Musharraf; critics in Pakistan
have accused him of being a tool of the United States, and derisively call
him “Busharraf.” In Washington, Mr. Bush has faced criticism as well, from
those who say he should have been tougher on General Musharraf, especially
with top Al Qaeda operatives like Osama bin Laden still on the loose.
Richard C. Holbrooke, the ambassador to the United Nations under President
Clinton, said one of Mr. Bush’s biggest mistakes was not pressing General
Musharraf to turn over A. Q. Khan, the former chief of Pakistan’s nuclear
program, to American interrogators.
“I don’t see that the Bush administration was wrong in 2001 to put its chips
on Musharraf, who promised democracy and who promised to take off his
uniform, but something has gone very badly wrong,” Mr. Holbrooke said,
adding, “The question is, is this because Bush was soft on Musharraf the way
he was soft on Putin?”
As the state of emergency drags on, the administration has begun thinking
about alternatives to General Musharraf, and is reaching out to generals who
might replace him. Mr. Haqqani, the Boston University professor, and Ms.
Chamberlin, the former ambassador, said the effort was long overdue.
Mr. Haqqani has been cautioning the administration for years not to
“personalize this relationship,” while Ms. Chamberlin said it is a mistake
to view General Musharraf as indispensable. “Our relationship with the army
and with the people of Pakistan is indispensable,” she said, “but it is not
based on one man.”
Yet, having declared General Musharraf a friend and an ally, Mr. Bush is not
ready to give up on him. The president places a high premium on loyalty;
when top aides like Donald H. Rumsfeld, the former defense secretary, and
Alberto R. Gonzales, the former attorney general, disappointed him, he was
reluctant to cut them loose. So it is with General Musharraf.
“President Musharraf made a decision the president didn’t agree with,” said
Dana Perino, the White House press secretary. “We are disappointed with it,
but the president doesn’t want to pre-emptively throw up his hands. He wants
to help him get back on track.”
Arrest of PPP workers
and leaders continues
Islamabad, 17 November 2007:
The arrest, torture and harassment of Pakistan Peoples Party workers
continue all over the country. From Karachi to Khyber PPP workers continued
their protest against imposition of Martial Law by General Musharraf.
In Khairpur Mirs, PPP candidate from PS-30 and President Bar Association
Khairpur, Syed Muhammad Bachal Shah Jillani was arrested along with over 200
PPP workers yesterday.
Today the Secretary General Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians, Raja
Pervez Ashraf continued the long march for the restoration of democracy from
Gujar Khan with a procession of thousands of PPP workers. A heavy contingent
of police stopped the procession at Mandra toll plaza and police baton
charged the protestors and arrested over seventy PPP workers including Raja
Pervez Asharaf. The arrested were taken to civil lines police station,
Rawalpindi.
The police also stopped another procession in Rawalpindi led by Zammurrad
Khan, former Senator Malik Hakmeen and Atif Kiyani. Police used tear gas
shelling and baton charged the procession causing injuries to dozens of PPP
workers including women workers. Dozens of workers have been arrested
including Zammurrad Khan, Malik Hakmeen Khan, Atif Kiyani, Jafar Hussain
Shah, Sohaib Mumtaz, Rashid Nasim Abbasi, Babu Idrees, Malik Sher Ahmed,
Mohammad Anwer, Ashfaq Ahmed Kazi and Riasat Abbas. PPP women workers have
also been arrested.
The PPP workers took out a procession in NWFP and blocked the Tourkhan –
Afghanistan road for few hours. They were protesting against the imposition
of Martial Law in the country by General Musharraf. Severaloffice bearers
and PPP workers were arrested including President PPP Khyber Agency, Farhad
Shabab Afridi, President PPP FATA, Malik Waris Khan Afridi, PPP General
Secretary FATA Mirza Ahmed Jihadi, PPP Information Secretary FATA, Ishrat
Shinwari, Presidnet Muhammad Agency, Dr. Farooq, Khiyali Khan, President PPP
Landi Kotal Ata Mohammad Shinwari, President PYO Khyber Agency Fawad Afridi,
President PSF FATA Saiful Islam, Mannan Afridi and Chief Coordinator PPP
Women Wing FATA Ms. Ayesha Gulalay.
All Pakistan Minority Alliance also took out procession in Karachi against
imposition of Martial Law and house arresting Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto in
Lahore. The APMA workers were detained at defense police station and cases
were registered against them under Section 7 of Anti-Terrorist Act, 16 MPO,
148/188 and 290/147.
Despite the arrests, intimidation, registration of cases, harassment and
victimization, the PPP workers reiterated their resolve to continue their
struggle for restoration of democracy under the fearless leadership of
Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto.
Dispatches from sub-jail
By Sherry Rehman
November 16, 2007: When
an elephant starts dying, it thrashes around for its survival. The danger is
that if it takes too long, it damages the very soil it feeds on.
Unfortunately for Pakistan, the regime in power today is doing more than
just collateral damage as it thrashes about blindly to save itself.
In Islamabad, on November 10th, the whole world saw how the police
barricaded the PPP Chairperson, Mohtarma Bhutto and a few parliamentarians
into her home. All of Islamabad was paralysed and the whole of Rawalpindi
blocked. The PPP workers at Liaqat Bagh were arrested in hordes and the area
sealed off.
For those who have seen Pakistan 's many political convulsions, it felt like
history was repeating itself. The regime clearly fears the pulling power of
the PPP as once again, the party openly took on a martial law regime in a
cloud of teargas, mass arrests, and clashes with police. The show of public
strength on October 18th in Karachi had caused many sleepless nights in the
establishment's ranks. The threat of a million people waving flags from
Islamabad to Laiqat Bagh, Rawalpindi was enough to rock the sinking ship.
Yet everyone knew that after the Karachi welcome, the second real challenge
to the tottering regime would come from the heart of the Punjab. The
prospect of a PPP Long March, led by a defiant Ms Bhutto from Lahore to
Islamabad via a long route, over three days, was again too much for the
regime to stomach without further blundering. On the night of November 12th,
before we could say the words " midnight knock", right after Ms Bhutto met
with a group of senior editors in Lahore at Senator Latif Khosa's house, the
gate slammed shut on all of us inside the house.
All those outside had remarked on the huge police contingent amassing around
the Defence Road bungalow, and by midnight when the last visitors had left,
the barbed wire started rolling out by the kilometre. Massive trucks filled
with wet sand positioned themselves in front of all the barricades to
prevent the PPP skirmishes which occurred in Islamabad, where a handful of
parliamentarians had managed to break the barbed wire mesh and battle past
the first barricades to get Ms Bhutto out of the house near the press, who
were waiting near the turning. But in Lahore, by 12.30 am, two Armoured
Personnel Carriers, like mini-tanks, positioned themselves in front of the
house. The side walls were encircled and the house at the back filled with
more police.
We stayed up most of the night in illegal detention, while the morning saw a
notice slapped on the padlocked gate. The notice was a Maintenance of Public
Order charge against Ms Bhutto, putting her under house arrest for seven
days. Even though the house was declared a sub-jail, the rest of us on the
inside were illegally detained.
Before the authorities could swoop down on the rest of this battle-hardened
party, PPP Punjab President, Shah Mahmoud Qureshi left with over 200
vehicles joining him along the way to lead the Long March from Ferozepur
Road to Okara. This group took hundreds of people along the way, joined
later by Qasim Zia and Makhdoom Yusuf Reza Gilani, which inflamed the regime
that had grown used to arresting leaders and de-mobilising entire political
parties. By the evening, Punjab crackled with the din of "Jeay Bhutto"
slogans resounding from police vans rounding hundreds of PPP leaders and
workers.
Back at the Khosa House, the gaggle of bristling paparazzi at the barricade
was moved away as part of the media black-out policy the regime had adopted
since November 3 2007. A journalist at the barricade rang to say that 4000
policemen were posted around the house, wondering why such a heavy
contingent was needed to lock in one unarmed woman. I told him that the one
woman whom they needed an army to detain, was the symbol of resistance to
all that the Zia-ist establishment had plotted for.
He asked why was this group relevant today? What had they got to do with the
state Pakistan was in now, where terrorists were on the rampage with
impunity, while police and rangers ran around rounding up peaceful
democrats? This group is relevant today because this was a nexus that had
spent billions of rupees of slush money to create the IJI in 1990 against
the PPP, and this was the group that had fuelled the Afghan jihad. They had
a heavy investment in keeping the PPP out of power, and they would stop at
little, including creating new leaders with no following to pose as
alternatives. They were paranoid about a political party with real mass
support and plans, to run the country without military hegemony. They
preferred politicians who fast-tracked their careers via the intelligence
agency route. This was the group that had been instrumental in sponsoring
the Afghan Mujahideen, the Arab Al-Qaeda, and later the Pak-Afghan Taliban.
After scanning the work of experts on Pakistan's role in the Afghan jihad,
and its own blowback in Pakistan, the journalist rang back to say that this
was also the shadowy nexus that was now feeding key people in his profession
to say that Ms Bhutto was insincere, and that her defiance, both at great
personal and physical cost was part of a pantomime staged to pressure
Musharraf. He added that he had reason to believe that this group had
international links, and was powerful enough to shuffle one military
dictator for another military ruler dressed up as a moderate in order to
counter Bhutto.
His words were prescient. Sub-jail is not the same as suffering in a nasty
jail, but it has its limitations. Access to amenities one takes for granted
start drying up and newspapers have to be smuggled in. On November 14th, the
small group with Ms Bhutto in Khosa House woke up to many newspapers
carrying huge half-page advertisements plastering a forged letter written by
Ms Benazir Bhutto to Peter Galbraith in which she was cast in an anti-state
mould, appealing to the Americans and the Indians to lean on Pakistan to
facilitate her return to power. Even in 1990, the Zia-ist combine that had
the letter forged and planted all over the national press, was widely seen
as a crudely put-together chapter of the dirty-tricks campaign that the
Bhutto-bashers had been running since 1986. And here it was again, funded
and sponsored by the same people who had probably sprung for the hit on Ms
Bhutto's truck on October 19th, killing 158 people.
Political activists have now been thrown summarily in jails all over the
country under terrorist cases. In Lahore as in Islamabad, women
parliamentarians like Uzma Bokhari, Farzana Raja, Mehreen Raja and Fawzia
Habib were dragged by the hair to be shoved into police lock-ups with no
washroom facilities, left to sleep on freezing floors. Phone calls flooded
our cell phones to report arrests all over the Punjab, with reports of the
jails and lock-ups bursting with detainees shouting slogans.
Without missing a heartbeat, Sindh rose up with one voice to protest the
internment of the PPP chairperson. Mass arrests followed virtually
everywhere. Earlier on, Karachi had seen almost the entire Sindh leadership
of the PPP arrested for peaceful marches. Now Larkana, Jacobabad, Matyari,
Tando Mohammad Khan all saw laathi charges and police action where the
protestors were tear-gassed ruthlessly. In Qambar Ali Khan, Thatta, Badin
and Ranipur, women and students were violently dragged to armoured vans. All
over the province, we heard of major arteries like the National Highway
blocked in Dadu while the Hub River Road remained blocked by protesting
citizens and the Qaidabad routes were choked off by angry students the whole
day. In the NWFP too, police has swooped down on the PPP Frontier President
Rahimdad Khan, and arrested him with the entire party executive of the
province.
In Lahore, as the battle on the streets intensified with the state clashing
with the PPP everywhere, Ms Bhutto demanded the end of General Musharraf's
divisive and violent rule in Pakistan. "His promises mean little, as his
goalposts keep changing," she said. People phoned in, excited by the
prospect of an open challenge to a tottering regime. But this is not a
matter to celebrate, a colleague rightly said. Pakistan does not need more
chaos and instability.
Unfortunately, this is not a choice we made, but a responsibility thrust on
the party. People are looking for leadership out of this crisis, and the PPP
will not disappoint. Ms Bhutto is determined that the Long March to freedom
will continue, in more ways than one. If not this week, then the next, or
the next, the sound of our feet will drown the sound of the jackboots.
Sherry Rehman is Central Information Secretary of the Pakistan Peoples
Party.
Pakistan's One-Man
Calamity
By Nawaz Sharif
Saturday, November 17, 2007 JIDDAH,
Saudi Arabia: My country is in flames. There is no constitution.
Judges have been sacked on a whim and arrested, political leaders locked up,
television stations taken off the air. Human rights activists, lawyers and
other members of civil society are bearing the brunt of a crackdown by a
brutal regime. Extremism has assumed enormous and grave proportions.
All of this is the doing of one man: Pervez Musharraf. He first struck at
the core of democracy on Oct. 12, 1999, when he dismissed my government at
gunpoint. My government was chosen by the people of Pakistan in free and
fair elections. But Musharraf so feared my popularity that he banished me
from the country and won't allow me to return. After Pakistan's Supreme
Court declared this year that I have a right to return, I flew into
Islamabad in September. But Musharraf brazenly refused me admittance to my
own country.
On Nov. 3, Musharraf struck again at democracy. He abrogated the
constitution and declared a state of emergency. For Musharraf, the
constitution is nothing but a piece of paper that can be crumpled and
discarded. After the Supreme Court stood up to him early this year and
attempted to restore the fundamental rights of the people, he dismissed
Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry. Stung by the successful civil
society movement that led to Chaudhry's reinstatement, Musharraf acted
quickly after suspending the rule of law. The Supreme Court was considering
Musharraf's eligibility to be elected president despite being the army
chief, but before the court could rule, Musharraf dismissed the entire
judiciary.
These are the wages of dictatorship. Democracy holds the key to resolving
Pakistan's problems. Musharraf hopes that other nations will prefer his
despotism to the anarchy he claims would erupt were he to leave office. This
is a lie that America and other Western nations should not accept. Tyranny
is never a substitute for freedom, and there is no substitute for democracy.
Musharraf's self-serving contention that a free vote would result in
extremists coming to power is utterly flawed and intended to frighten the
West. First, the people of
Pakistan should have the chance to elect people they trust. My party, the
Pakistan Muslim League, and Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party enjoy
tremendous support across the country. Both of these parties are more
progressive and forward-looking than the general's ineffective autocracy.
Second, were there to be free and impartial elections, the world would see
the rise of moderates in Pakistan. We are a moderate country. It is
dictatorship that is fueling extremism. Return to the people their right to
vote in free elections, and you will see the results. Musharraf and his men
have turned their backs on freedom and put their lust for power over the
good of the nation.
They are hoping that a state of emergency will continue their control and
are ignoring the fundamental damage to Pakistan.
America has always been a friend of Pakistan. It is our strategic and
natural ally. I remember the good relationship I shared with President Bill
Clinton during my term in office. When Musharraf's misadventures in Kargil
in 1999 brought us close to nuclear confrontation with India, I, in close
consultation with Clinton, defused the situation. I remember President
Clinton saying: "The world should thank Nawaz Sharif for averting a nuclear
conflict between Pakistan and India."
Clinton refused to shake hands or be photographed with Musharraf when he
visited Pakistan in 2000. People took that as a gesture from a friend who
wished Pakistan well. By refusing to associate with a dictator, President
Clinton essentially won the hearts of the Pakistani people. That was the
policy that should have been pursued. That is the policy that should be
pursued now. America should not alienate 160 million Pakistanis by
supporting a dictator who prefers rifles to reason.
America must support the Pakistani nation -- not a single individual.
America must also support the democratic process in Pakistan. The people of
Pakistan are waiting for the powerful voice of America to be heard clearly
by the enemies of freedom. The generals must go back to the barracks. The
judiciary should be reinstated as it stood before the proclamation of
emergency. There is no other way forward.
We are struggling for the restoration of genuine democracy in Pakistan. Our
jails should be filled with criminals and law-breakers, not politicians and
law-abiding lawyers. The army of Pakistan should be defending the liberty of
the people at the direction of elected, civilian leaders, not usurping power
and creating a police state. Musharraf is the problem, and he should quit --
both as army chief and as president.
Nawaz Sharif was twice elected prime minister of Pakistan. He is living in
exile in Saudi Arabia.
Reverend Jessie
Jackson telephones Mohtarma Bhutto
Expresses solidarity with efforts for restoration of democracy
Mohtarma Bhutto invites Reverend Jessie to visit Pakistan
Islamabad November 17, 2007:
Reverend Jessie Jackson today telephoned Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and
conveyed his support for the efforts aimed at restoration of democracy in
Pakistan and to her struggle for the holding of free and fair elections in
the country.
Reverend Jessie Jackson a distinguished leader of the Democratic Party
leader is known for his outstanding humanitarian efforts in Syria Cuba
Yugoslavia and Liberia.
He is known the world over for supporting democracy movement in South Africa
when Mr Nelson Mandela was fighting apartheid and for saving countless
lives.
The former Prime Minister appreciated his services for the caus
