KARACHI - A plot to stage a coup against
Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf soon
after his recent return from the US has been
uncovered, resulting in the arrest of more than 40
people.
Most of those arrested are
middle-ranking Pakistani Air Force officers, while
civilian arrests include a son of a serving
brigadier in the army. All of those arrested are
Islamists, contacts in Rawalpindi, where the
military is based, divulged to Asia Times
Online.
The
conspiracy was discovered through the naivety of
an air force
>
officer who
this month used a cell phone to activate a
high-tech rocket aimed at the president's
residence in Rawalpindi. The rocket was recovered,
and its activating mechanism revealed the
officer's telephone number. His arrest led to the
other arrests.
Other rockets were then
recovered from various high security zones,
including the headquarters of the Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI) in Islamabad.
According
to Asia Times Online sources, more arrests can be
expected, both military and civilian.
Several assassination attempts have been
made on Musharraf since he took power in a
bloodless coup in 1999, and in all attempts there
was a connection with the armed forces, especially
the air force. However, this time it appears that
beyond the attack on the president, a coup against
his administration was also planned.
This
plot takes place amid major developments. While in
the US, Musharraf, in a meeting with President
George W Bush, once again pledged his commitment
to the US-led "war on terror". He drew world
attention to his belief that the real threat were
the Taliban in Afghanistan, and not al-Qaeda. He
subsequently agreed to terms with Washington for a
massive joint operation against the Taliban.
Still in the US, Musharraf also claimed
that former ISI officials were supporting the
Taliban and he sent instructions to the director
general of the ISI to check on top officials,
including retired Lieutenant General Hamid Gul and
retired Colonel Ameer Sultan (known as Colonel
Imam). Gul is a former director general of the ISI
and Ameer is considered as the founding father of
the Taliban movement. He was Pakistan's
consul-general in Herat in western Afghanistan
when the Taliban emerged in the mid-1990s.
Musharraf also instructed that a list be
compiled of all retired officers who had been
involved in any significant intelligence
operations and who were suspected of still being
sympathetic towards the Taliban.
At the
same time, he began to backtrack from an agreement
Islamabad had made with the Pakistani Taliban in
the Waziristan tribal areas for the release of
al-Qaeda-linked people detained in Pakistan.
Instead, more were arrested, including Shah
Mehboob, a brother of former jihad veteran and
member of parliament, Shah Abdul Aziz. Also
arrested was a British-born suspected member of
al-Qaeda, known as Abdullah.
"This is just
one glimpse of upcoming events as a result of
Musharraf's pro-American policies, which are in
contrast to the thinking pattern of Pakistan's
state institutions," said retired squadron leader
Khalid Khawaja, a former ISI official who went to
Afghanistan after his forced retirement and fought
alongside Osama bin Laden against Soviet Russia in
the 1980s. (Khawaja features on Musharraf's list
mentioned above.)
"Musharraf always blamed
the madrassas [Islamic seminaries] for
extremism, but all plots against him or his
government go back to the armed forces. But he
still does not realize why this happens," Khawaja
maintained.
"He says retired ISI officials
are involved in supporting the Taliban. I say
there is no difference between retired and serving
ones. All of them have the same approach, mindset
and conviction. The retired ones act freely, while
the serving ones have some job constraints, but
both think in the same way. The present move of a
coup against Musharraf is the writing on the wall
that if he continues with pro-American policies,
he will continue to face problems like that,"
Khawaja said.
"These governments, whether
it is Indian or Pakistani, compel their forces to
work for their strategic requirements, and when a
particular operation is over, they talk about
peace and wash their hands of everything they have
done in the past. For instance, the Kargil
operation [the Pakistani incursion into
Indian-administered Kashmir in 1999]. Pakistan
initially called it an action by the 'mujahideen'.
Six months later, they started awarding medals to
their army officers for their performance in
Kargil. What does it prove? It proves that
governments are personally involved in everything,
whether it is the Kargil operation or the Kashmiri
resistance, and then they blame the mujahideen or
whatever."
Khawaja said that whatever
officials did during their service in the ISI, it
was on state instructions, and if the state tried
to punish these same officials, the result would
be the type of events that are happening now.
It is all too apparent that Pakistan's
head and tail are moving in opposite directions:
while Musharraf is fully behind the "war on
terror", the strategic institutions are reluctant
to follow Islamabad's instructions.
This
is not something new, but over the years Musharraf
and hardliners within the army have been able to
live with one another. Had a hardline ruler been
in Musharraf's place, Western countries would have
tightened the noose around Pakistan and its
security institutions would not have been able to
manipulate their support of the Taliban. Because
of Musharraf, Western countries are not prepared
to be tough on Pakistan, which allows the
hardliners to continue their activities.
Musharraf is acutely aware of the
undercurrents in the army, which historically
draws its inspiration from Islam, and more
recently from the attacks on the US of September
11, 2001, when anti-US sentiment also took root.
Musharraf exploited this by convincing the West of
his usefulness in keeping the army - "full of
extremism" - under control, something that a
democratically elected government could not do, he
argued
This cozy arrangement, or uneasy
truce, between Musharraf and hardline Islamists in
the ranks is breaking down as the US is demanding
that Musharraf do something about the resurgent
Taliban. He has responded, as outlined above, by
cracking down on Taliban supporters and
sympathizers. These people, both in uniform and
out, have in turn given their reponse: they are
not prepared to throw away all the gains that have
been made in Afghanistan.
Syed
Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan
Bureau Chief. He can be reached at
saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com
(Copyright
2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
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