Besieged Musharraf plays for
time By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - President General Pervez
Musharraf put on a confident face on Monday during
a televised briefing for foreign diplomats on his
declaration of emergency rule on Saturday, saying
that elections will be held "as close as possible
to the schedule" of January 15, and that "there
will be harmony. Confidence will come back into
government."
Under the surface, though,
the president, who had suspended the constitution
for the second time (the first was in 1999 when he
took
power in a bloodless coup), barred the Supreme
Court from making any ruling against his
administration, and curbed the media, is a very
worried man.
Extensive protests in many
parts of the country, especially in Lahore, where
they were ruthlessly dealt with, took Musharraf
and his inner circle by surprise, Asia Times
Online contacts confirm.
On Monday,
Musharraf presided over a meeting that included
Vice Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez
Kiani, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and the
director general of Military Intelligence, Major
General Nadeem Ejaz. They acknowledged a few home
truths, notably that in the present highly charged
political climate, Musharraf's government cannot
afford to open up any new fronts against militants
in the Waziristan tribal areas, or elsewhere.
This means that Musharraf's support (read
money) in the West, especially from Washington,
will be placed on the line as he will not be able
to deliver on his pledges to go hard against
Taliban and al-Qaeda militancy in the country. US
President George W Bush and British Prime Minister
Gordon Brown have already said as much.
Apparently, some of Musharraf's senior
officers candidly asked him, "What are we supposed
to do?" Musharraf then phrased the same question
for the chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence
(ISI), Lieutenant General Nadeem Taj, and Nadeem
of Military Intelligence, and told them to report
back to him in a week. These two men are the real
architects of the state of emergency and they
pushed Musharraf into following their advice,
despite strong opposition from some of Musharraf's
closest associates.
Lawyers in the
firing line In the country's toughest
action ever against the legal fraternity,
law-enforcement agencies on Monday rounded up more
than 1,500 people in Lahore alone. Police were
liberal in their use of teargas and batons.
Many senior judges who have refused to
back Musharraf's emergency have also been detained
or placed under house arrest, including Chief
Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry. But despite
being confined to their homes, these judges are
providing a moral base to civil society's protests
and have vowed to continue their struggle.
Interviews broadcast by judges of the
Supreme Court, including Rana Baghwan Das, the
most senior judge after Chaudhry, have already
raised questions about the legality of the state
of emergency. They point out that before it was
implemented they had ruled against the emergency,
for which they were thrown out of office.
Another casualty of the protests is
retired Lieutenant General Hamid Gul, the renowned
former chief of the ISI and one-time immediate
commander of Musharraf . He has been arrested.
The events of the past few days have
forced former premier Benazir Bhutto, sent from
exile to Pakistan by Washington to support
Musharraf in a new political dispensation, to
review her situation. There is even talk of her
switching sides - no surprise therefore that
security agencies have been on standby since
Sunday to arrest her and her Pakistan People's
Party workers the moment they try to join the
protests.
The intelligence agencies have a
week to answer Musharraf's question on what to do
next, and the leaders will take some time to
digest the answer.
Civil society,
meanwhile, if events in Lahore are any indication,
is moving at breakneck speed, and protesters have
shown that the bigger the oppression, the louder
the reaction.
Syed Saleem
Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau
Chief. He can be reached at
saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com
(Copyright
2007 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
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