Musharraf's
dilemma
Sir,
For Pak
President Musharraf, the religious
fundamentalism has come full circle with
the release of recent video-tape of
Al-Qaeda's Supremo Osama-bin-Laden
accusing him of betraying their cause for
a handful of dollars. The religious
fundamentalists were brought by Musharraf
to the country's politics to side-line
the mainstream political parties and
secure a comfortable position for
himself. He was following in the
foot-steps of his predecessor General
Zia-ul-Haq. General Zia was the first
military dictator in Pakistan who turned
to Islamic extremists to scuttle the
politicians and engage India in Kashmir.
However,
President Musharraf went a step further
by befriending the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
He thought that such an alliance would
give Pakistan 'strategic depth' in the
event of a war with India and help him
send across terrorists to Kashmir. He
thought that a conflict was inevitable in
view of his aggressive policies, which
manifested itself in the Kargil
intrusion. But it has all gone wrong.
First, kargil proved to be a disaster as
whole units of Pakistan's Northern Light
Infantry were wiped out as deposed PM
Nawaz Sharief has said. Now Al-Qaeda
wants Pakistani Muslims to rise against
the 'traitor', Musharraf.
With
Musharraf's ambitions slowly becoming
known to the nation that he would follow
the dictates of his mentor the US for
keeping himself in power at any cost.
General Musharraf made his intentions
public when he joined the latter in its
fight against global terrorism. This made
the fundamentalists and jihadis turned
against him for fear of losing support
from the Govt.
Musharraf
did every thing to consolidate his power
like holding the Referendum and becoming
the President of the country almost
unopposed. Then he amended the
constitution and vested himself with the
power of dismissing the elected PM and of
dissolving the National Assembly, the
country's Parliament. This is known as
Legal Framework Order (LFO), against
which the main stream political parties
including the MMA (Muttahida
Majlis-e-Amal), an alliance of religious
parties are fighting and demanding its
abrogation. He is holding the dual post
of the President of the country and the
army Chief which has caused concern in
the minds of the politicians and the top
army brass. There are demands from all
quarters to relinquish one post, most
probably that of the army chief.
Now that
the much hyped 'strategic depth' has
vanished with Indian PM peace initiative.
The Taliban and the Al-Qaeda have made
this strong foot-hold in the country with
their master mind Osama-in-Laden believed
to be in the country, much to the
displeasure of the US.
In the
given circumstances, Musharraf is all
alone sitting in the seat of power. He
can't trust anyone. Neither the army with
whose help he managed to topple the
democratically elected Govt. of Nawaz
Sharief. The top brass of the Pak army
has been calling the shot since the
imposition of first material law in 1958.
The army which has become a breeding
ground of fundamentalism with General
Zia's Islamization of it. He exploited
the name of Islam and Jihad in order to
perpetuate his rule. The country had to
pay a very heavy price for his decision
to join the Afghan war. The decision was
influenced more by his personal
requirement of legitimacy of his rule
than the interest of the country. An
exodus of more than 4 million refugees
along with gun-running, drug-trafficking,
religious and ethnic violence and drug
addiction were some of the consequences
that engulfed the entire country. All the
top brass of the army became the warriors
of Islam by hobnobbing with the Afghan
war-lords, offering them all the protocol
and facilities at State expenses. The
legacy has been successfully carried
forward by General Musharraf till
recently.
He can't
depend on the ISI either, which he uses
systematically to further his designs
against India. He also can't trust
anti-American religious parties which
have prospered because of his distrust of
traditional political leaders like Nawaz
Sharief and Benazir Bhutto.
Yours
etc...
MD Ashraf Khan
37/9 S.JE, New Delhi-29
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