US on Pakistan's campaign
trail By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - United States ambassador to
Pakistan Anne W Patterson made a direct appearance
on Pakistan's political stage on Monday with a
strong call for all political parties to
participate in the national elections scheduled
for January 8.
She personally met with
several politicians, including Nawaz Sharif, and
insisted that he take part in the polls. Former
premier Sharif, recently returned from years in
exile, has said that he,
along with some other
parties, might boycott the vote.
This open
intervention by a senior US diplomat follows
prolonged backroom efforts by the George W Bush
administration to dictate Pakistan's strategic and
domestic political issues, as well as matters
related to foreign policy, such as Kashmir, to
bring Islamabad in line with the US-led "war on
terror" and its regional policy on Iran and
Afghanistan for the remaining year or so of Bush's
term.
The US envoy's direct role comes as
civil society is demanding the reinstatement and
release of about 60 judges sacked and detained by
President General Pervez Musharraf on November 3
on the eve of a decision by the Supreme Court on
the validity of Musharraf's victory in
presidential elections. Replacement judges picked
by Musharraf upheld the poll results and last week
he was sworn in as a civilian president.
There are strong concerns that without an
independent judiciary, free and fair elections
cannot be held next month. Indeed, all opposition
parties suspect that the elections will be
"engineered" and former premier Benazir Bhutto
even predicted that 25,000 polling stations would
return the former ruling Pakistan Muslim League
Quaid-i-Azam.
And in a setback for Sharif,
the election authorities have barred him from
contesting, citing his criminal record dating from
a verdict in 2000 when Sharif was sentenced to
life imprisonment on the charge of ordering the
hijacking of a plane a year earlier. This related
to orders from Sharif, who was then premier, to
delay the landing of a plane carrying Musharraf,
then army chief, so that a new military head could
be appointed. But the military staged a coup,
enabling Musharraf to land and take charge of the
country.
Leaders of Sharif's Pakistan
Muslim League-Nawaz said he will not contest the
decision because of lack of faith in the top
judges. There is not much Washington can do
about these political games, other than to stress
the need for the parties to contest the polls
because that would be a major milestone for
Washington in having a popular party at the helm
of the country with the political will to carry
out certain actions, including stirring an
insurgency against the Iranian government and
supporting counter-insurgency operations in
Afghanistan.
After serving a year in jail
in 2000, Saudi Arabia brokered a deal for Sharif
to go into exile in that country, just as it
arranged for his recent return as the Saudis'
"card" in Pakistani politics.
Yet, Sharif
appreciates that unless he complements
Washington's designs in the region, he will remain
an underdog in the political process. And although
all polls place him as the country's most popular
politician, he will remain behind Benazir Bhutto's
Pakistan People's Party and Musharraf's allied
Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-i-Azam.
Despite Sharif's statements aiming at
showing his support for Washington's aims, such as
cracking down on militants, he is still considered
to be conservative and under the influence of
religious political parties like the
Jamaat-i-Islami, and therefore Washington is
reluctant to back him as a decision-maker.
Khalid Khawaja, a retired Inter-Services
Intelligence official and once a close aide of
Osama bin Laden, told Asia Times Online, "Sharif
is a better person compared to others, but
ironically he also turned his back on his mentors,
like Osama bin Laden and retired Lieutenant
General Hamid Gul in the past."
Bhutto and
others have pointed to Sharif's alleged links to
bin Laden, with Bhutto claiming that the al-Qaeda
chief financed Sharif in the late 1980s to topple
her government.
Independent analysts might
dismiss such matters as being a case of Sharif
simply furthering his domestic political
ambitions, and nothing else. But for Washington,
it sheds light on his linkages with Islamic
forces, which could be activated in any form at
any time.
And Sharif might be isolating
himself over his call for a boycott of January's
polls. He stands alone with the Jamaat-i-Islami on
this issue and is even facing pressure from within
his own party to reverse his stand and may face
defections.
The year 2008 is crucial for
Washington's regional plans, for which a
politically stable Pakistan is required -
preferably in the form of a unity government of
parties with various backgrounds.
Already,
an insurgency has been ignited against Iran from
Pakistani soil. A training camp belonging to the
banned militant organization Lashkar-i-Toiba has
been established in Mund, Balochistan province, to
train Iranian Baloch tribes to ferment sectarian
insurgency against the Iranian government. Iran's
response is to support the Baloch Liberation Army,
which has offices in Turbat in Balochistan.
The Pakistani army has for now won the
battle of the Swat Valley in Northwest Frontier
Province against militants, and recaptured all
districts that had fallen to militants loyal to
Mullah Fazlullah. The militants are seemingly on
the run. Pakistan Taliban leader Moulvi Faqir
Mohammed has been quoted as saying that the
militants have just retreated from their positions
to give the new army chief (General Ashfaq Parvez
Kiani) a chance for a truce, but if the army
continues its operations, the militants will start
a guerrilla war in the valley.
Nevertheless, Washington and Islamabad
will build on this development to continue their
initiative for ceasefire talks with the Taliban.
This will be done through small jirgas
(councils) .
The alliance of the
neo-Taliban and al-Qaeda, though, will always be
waiting to thwart the US's best-laid plans.
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
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