Pakistan in tug of war over
terror By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - United States efforts have
helped Pakistan come up with a basic formula for
co-existence between the presidency, Parliament
and the armed forces, but the million-dollar
question is how and when the Pakistani
establishment will assert itself against hostile
politicians and their allies in civil society.
Backroom efforts by US Deputy Secretary of
State John Negroponte since Pakistan's
parliamentary elections on February 18 have
already set aside the strong demands for the
impeachment of President Pervez Musharraf for
alleged unconstitutional actions taken during the
"war on terror" over the past five years of his
military rule.
Former premier Nawaz
Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League
(PML), which is a key part of the new ruling
coalition and
a main
rival of Musharraf, has agreed to remain quite on
the issue of impeachment.
However, during
a meeting with Negroponte and US Assistant
Secretary of State Richard Boucher in Pakistan
last week, Sharif did not agree on the question of
presidential powers to appoint armed services
chiefs and the president's constitutional power to
intervene in Parliament's assemblies.
Following the meetings, Sharif said he had
pointed out to the US officials that one-man
decisions in the "war on terror" were a mistake
and Parliament should decide on such matters.
Sharif is not entirely correct, though.
Pakistan's participation in the battle against
terror after September 11, 2001, was an
institutional decision by the Pakistan military,
and this decision remains, as does its support for
Musharraf, even though he has shed his uniform.
With this support, and that of the US, Musharraf
is seen as a "trouble shooter" should the
situation demand. There is no question of him
being replaced in this role by a regular
politician.
Through his personal
relationships, Musharraf obviously has an intimate
knowledge of - and power over - the armed forces
and he can effectively keep a check with any moves
that would be tantamount to a betrayal of the
cause of the "war on terror". At the same time,
his constitutional powers enable him to counter
any moves by law makers in this regard.
It
is in this context that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza
Gillani's remarks in Parliament on Saturday have
to be taken. He said that "all important policy
matters and decisions on important national issues
will be taken through the Parliament".
Many Pakistani intellectuals and others
regularly demand a US policy of non-intervention
in Pakistan's affairs, but none of them raises the
point of the US's extensive economic and military
aid to Pakistan, which is conditional on
Islamabad's support in the "war on terror".
Negroponte and Boucher have been assigned
to review Pakistan's performance in this theater
on a quarterly basis and report back to Washington
on whether or not aid should be released. In this
situation, Pakistan has little option but to
follow US demands. The alternative is to take the
radical decision to part ways from the "war on
terror" and face all sorts of economic sanctions,
although at least them the country's sovereignty
would not be compromised.
Litmus test for the
establishment Pakistan's legal
fraternity is still celebrating the release last
week of dozens of judges who had been detained on
Musharraf's orders last year. The ruling coalition
has since signed a declaration for their
restoration.
The majority party in the
coalition, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), did
not agree on that declaration, but Sharif's PML
prevailed so that the new administration could
face the masses. However, the restoration of the
judiciary carries with it the danger of a clash
with the establishment - not just with Musharraf.
The reason is, the sacking of the judges was an
institutional one, not just Musharraf's.
A
central issue in the judicial row last year was
"missing people". These were the hundreds of
people picked up by the security agencies for
alleged involvement with the Taliban or al-Qaeda.
They were detained without trail or formal
registration of a police case against them.
The Inter-Service Intelligence released
several people under court pressure, but this
pressure eventually came to a dead end. This was
not because the security agencies necessarily
wanted to defy the courts. The problem was that
not all of the detainees were in the custody of
the Pakistani security agencies. Dozens of them
were handed over to the Americans, ending up in
Bagram air base in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay in
Cuba or other US facilities.
Deposed chief
justice Iftikhar Chaudhary was so concerned that
he summoned all of the chiefs of the intelligence
agencies to his chambers to brief him on the
missing people. Visiting the chief justice was not
a problem, but the intelligence bosses simply did
not know the exact locations of the people in US
custody.
At this point, the security
agencies and the armed forces thought Chaudhary
might turn the issue of missing people into a huge
scandal. Therefore, on March 9 last year they
recommended action him and he was subsequently
suspended on charges of abuse of his position.
He was then restored on July 20 and
immediately chose a collision course with the
establishment on several issues, including the
National Reconciliation Ordinance which dropped
the corruption cases pending against slain former
premier Bhutto Bhutto and her husband Asif
Zardari.
So the restoration of the
judiciary remains one of the the biggest
challenges not only for Musharraf but also for the
Pakistani establishment, which in all likelihood
will once again be faced with the issue of missing
people.
The establishment is also upset by
the recent appointment of former boss of the
Pakistani Federal Investigation Agency and leading
member of the PPP, Rahman Malik, as an advisor
(minister status) in the Ministry of Interior
empowering him to run the "war on terror" theater
on the Pakistani side.
Malik owns and
operates Shaffaf Limited, a security and detective
agency which has coordinated Military Intelligence
operations in Pakistan against al-Qaeda. Handing
over the Ministry of Interior to Malik means
direct access to Military Intelligence matters,
and Malik also has a past seriously tainted with
corruption charges.
The Pakistani
establishment is certain to put its foot down over
these pressing issues related to the "war on
terror" and the judiciary. It is just a question
of when.
Syed Saleem
Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan
Bureau Chief. He can be reached at
saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com
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2008 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
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