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| Musharraf proving to be a liability to US | | |
General Musharraf is a stranger to truth. Imran Khan, the Pakistani cricketer, described Musharraf as America's poodle. "A general who former US president Bill Clinton would not even shake hands with when he came to Pakistan has become George Bush's blue-eyed boy in doing his dirty work," said Imran, adding: "He has become suddenly acceptable, but it has come at a heavy price for Pakistan because when he pretends to be one who is keeping the extremists, fanatics and terrorists from swamping the nation, he is doing the biggest disservice just to be Bush's poodle".
He talks big, but knows when to knuckle down. When the United States threatened to bomb Pakistan into the Stone Age if it did not cooperate in fighting al-Qaeda, he buckled down. When he made a statement that the CIA had paid millions of dollars to Pakistan for helping arrest 680 al-Qaeda terrorists, he did not realise how angry the CIA would be for making that revelation. He must have again been threatened that if he did not withdraw his remark, Pakistan would be bombed into the Stone Age. He quickly and shamelessly withdrew his remark. He didn't have the courage to say `no' to the US when it asked him to fight the al-Qaeda and the Taliban both of which were the joint creation of Pakistan and the US. Why? He has given three reasons for his puerile attitude.
One was that if Pakistan did not succumb to US pressures, "militarily it would be destroyed, thus wiping out the military parity it had achieved with India." That is another lie. Militarily Pakistan is nowhere on par with India.
The second reason he adduced was that with Pakistan militarily crippled, India would walk into the breach and gain "a golden opportunity vis-a-vis Kashmir" and "might even be tempted to undertake a limited offensive there."
The third reason adduced by Musharraf was that, failure to cooperate "would end in the destruction of Pakistan's economic infrastructure". In other words, without American help Pakistan has no standing. And now he has made his peace with militants in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area of Waziristan. Why? Imran Khan spoke the truth when he wrote: "Waziristan has been a disaster. There has been a disgraceful withdrawal of the Pakistan Army from the region. The army has been defeated and they conceded to every demand of the tribals". And this in the context of Musharraf claiming that the Pak Army is on par with the Indian Army. The Pak Army cannot even stand up to poorly armed Wazrisitan militants. The truth is that Pakistan is rapidly sliding down the scale.
According to a survey conducted by the Pakistan chapter of the international anti-corruption organisation Transparency International, Musharraf's ongoing second regime has been found to be the "most corrupt" government the country has ever had. The survey conducted in all four provinces of Pakistan showed that as many as 67 per cent of people said Musharraf's second regime beginning 2002 was more corrupt compared to those of former premiers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharief. A sample of 4,000 persons had been selected in each of the four areas surveyed. This is corroborated by a Pakistani journalist, Arif Azad, writing in Economic & Political Weekly (Sept 16). According to Azad, Pakistanis "have observed disturbingly visible signs of corruption among the defenders of Musharraf's rule."
Apart from monetary corruption, military officers have been seen as "encroaching upon traditionally civil jobs, setting off a worrying trend." Azad put the number of top military officers inducted into civilian jobs "at more than 1,000" since Musharraf's coup in 1999. Then there is the matter of land allotment to military officers. Azad notes that "in the last few years, military officers have embarked on an unprecedented land-grabbing operation whereby premier chunks of land have been appropriated by the military in the name of national security, the land thus appropriated being parcelled out among the military officers who have gone on to make enormous money by selling it at commercial rates."
Worse still, according to Azad is "the continuing policy of shutting out major political forces leading the army to import religious parties into the political arena". Consensus has apparently emerged that the religious alliance of parties known as Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) has been in close alliance with Musharraf regime. Notes Azad: "This should come as no surprise to avid Pakistan-watchers who have seen the Pakistani military working in concert with the religious political and terrorist groups to achieve the military-set domestic and foreign policy objectives".
It would seem that in an effort to stem the tide of popular anger the military regime has blocked websites that detail atrocities committed by the Pakistan Army on Baluchis fighting for provincial autonomy. Similarly, the government has blocked media access to Waziristan where, reportedly, the military operation to hunt down al-Qaeda is going on, though Musharraf himself had just stated that Osama bin Laden is living in Kunar province of Afghanistan under the protection of a tribunal leader.
Azad further refers to civil unrest in Pakistan where "the military intelligence has engaged in a dirty war with its own people picking up dissenters in broad daylight." Azad estimates "that hundreds of political activists are either missing or presumed dead during the last five years". What is even more significant is what a prominent Dawn columnist and ex-military officer, Ayaz Amir, wrote about "considerable unease within the top brass of the military over certain decisions taken by Musharraf in recent years, including the holding of a bogus referendum to get himself elected as president". (May 12).
In his summing up Azad notes: "The dividing line between the democrats and the people on one hand and Musharraf and his band of army-backed civilian allies are hardening day by day." But in the end, it is not what the people of Pakistan who will decide Musharraf's fate, but the policy makers in Washington who are increasingly getting aware that a change in Pakistani leadership has become a necessity. How this awareness will get translated into action is anybody's guess. But presently a lot of thinking must be going on in the White House and CIA headquarters. Musharraf is getting to be a liability to Washington and it shows in comments made by experts like Selig Harrison.
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