Pakistan marches into Washington
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan this week takes another step in cementing its long-term
strategic partnership with the United States, with ministerial-level talks
scheduled in Washington on Wednesday.
Significantly, the Pakistani side's agenda will be driven by army chief General
Ashfaq Parvez Kiani. President Asif Ali Zardari is not in the delegation that
is technically being led by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and which
includes the ministers of finance, commerce and agriculture as well as the
director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Lieutenant General
Ahmad Shuja Pasha.
Kiani visited the headquarters of the US Central Command in
Florida at the weekend and was due for meetings at the Pentagon with the
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, and Defense
Secretary Robert Gates on Monday. Kiani will attend the talks at the State
Department on Wednesday that will be headed by Qureshi and Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton.
The underlying mission of the Pakistanis is to place themselves in the driving
seat of the Afghan issue by getting the US to strike a deal for an endgame that
is to their liking.
Effectively, the Pakistani military has sidelined the civilian government.
Former president and retired general, Pervez Musharraf (June 2001-August 2008),
is on Tuesday due to launch a new political party - the All Pakistan Muslim
League - but even he is not expected to be a challenge to the incumbent top
brass.
Last week, for the first time, Kiani chaired a meeting of federal ministers at
General Headquarters Rawalpindi. Zardari was not invited. In the past few
months, Zardari has given up his powers as the chairman of the Nuclear Command
Authority (handed to the prime minister) on the advice of military quarters; he
has extended Pasha's term at the ISI on the recommendation of Kiani and he has
agreed to give up his presidential power of being the supreme commander of the
armed forces. He has also said he would give up his power to dissolve
parliament.
The secretaries were gathered to finalize the agenda for the US trip. Apart
from security matters, topics to be covered include the economy, agriculture,
water and power and the transfer of nuclear technology to Pakistan.
The president's office was not pleased with the meeting in the garrison city of
Rawalpindi and used a leading private television channel to denounce it.
The fight against militancy in both Afghanistan and Pakistan is likely to be
tougher than ever this summer and a main challenge is to prop up the Pakistani
leadership so that it can at least bind mass opinion behind the "war on
terror". Crucial to this is winning continued US support, both in aid and
loans, to bolster the flagging economy.
Musharraf emerges
A close aide of Musharraf, barrister Muhammad Ali Saif, recently registered the
All Pakistan Muslim League in Pakistan and Musharraf is due to formally launch
the party on Tuesday in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
Although several politicians are expected to be in Dubai, the ground realities
are dead against the former dictator. The incumbent military leadership
considers him to be too ambitious and won't back him, while Musharraf is not
popular among middle-ranking soldiers. Whether it is Baloch insurgents in the
southwestern province of Balochistan or Islamic militants across the country,
he is the number one target to be hit. Several assassination attempts were made
against him while he was in office.
He is certainly not popular with the judiciary, having at one stage sacked it -
it is now reinstated.
In short, Musharraf is viewed as a serious liability for the American war in
the region.
The two leading political forces in the country - the ruling Pakistan People's
Party (PPP) and the opposition Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz - PML-N) -
recently exposed their weaknesses.
The PML-N operated its election campaign in a by-election with the help of a
banned Sunni outfit - the Sepah-e-Sahaba. Punjab law minister Rana Sanaullah
publicly admitted on television that since the banned outfit controlled the
vote bank, its help was required to win the election.
In southern Punjab, the PPP did the same by inviting the leader of the same
banned outfit to speak in its favor, and this at a meeting at which the PPP's
governor, Punjab Salman Taseer, was present.
Zardari, along with his son Bilawal Zardari, who is a co-chairman of the PPP,
have become reclusive because of the security situation and they prefer to host
events in the presidential palace rather than venture out in public.
In this situation Kiani has plenty of room in which to maneuver, especially as
Washington sees him as its only reliable player in the country. He shares with
the US the conviction that only an American victory in Afghanistan against the
Taliban can bring good for Pakistan.
At this point, Kiani is firmly in charge of Pakistan's destiny, and he will
press his case hard in Washington.
Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can
be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com
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