Musharraf surprises me by the day and is embarking on a task of epic proportion, one that will bring South and Central Asia into the 21st century if he succeeds. He also needs the resolve of the people. He may be at the point of no return. There are a number issues that will reveal themselves in the coming months.
Does the people in Pakistan ready for such leadership? If so, which ones?, and will they remain the silent majority or just silent minority? Do they understand the consequences of their action or non-action?
Do the leaders of the various political parties have enough foresight of what is good for country?, or do they prefer status quo of political bickering and economic stalemate for their own self interests?
Do the tribal people comprehend what is at stake?, or have they been secluded and isolated for too many years to make any good judgement?
What is the mindset of the Muslim clerics? Do they have any nationalism in them? Are they willing to progress with the free world, or are they afraid to lose their political control? Are they looking after the welfare and well being of the Muslims, or just for their own self interest?
dailynews.yahoo.com
Thursday November 1 7:56 AM ET
Musharraf Courts Secular Parties
By GREG MYRE, Associated Press Writer
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - President Gen. Pervez Musharraf is reaching out to secular political parties, apparently hoping to broaden his base amid rising protests by Islamic groups opposed to his backing of U.S.-led strikes on Afghanistan (news - web sites).
Some analysts say the general may invite the secular parties to join his government, which is currently run by military men and civilians not affiliated with political parties. Musharraf has been meeting this week with members of political parties, which have been largely sidelined since he came to power two years ago in a military coup.
Early Thursday, the acting head of the Pakistan Muslim League, the leading political party, was arrested after his group said it would join an Islamic protest of Musharraf's pro-U.S. policies. The government confirmed later confirmed that Mukhdoom Javed Hashmi had been arrested.
The general's decision to support the U.S. military campaign has provoked street demonstrations by Islamic groups who remain sympathetic to the fundamentalist Taliban militia that rules Afghanistan.
``President Musharraf has taken a very big risk by siding with the United States, and I think he's now trying to broaden the base of his government,'' said political analyst Khwaja Masud.
The president's aides say this week's talks are limited to consultations on the Afghanistan crisis.
``Nothing has been happening behind the curtain,'' said spokesman Rashid Quereshi, who insisted Wednesday that no government changes were planned.
However, The News, an English-language daily, said Musharraf intends to ask secular political leaders to join his government.
Musharraf has been broadly popular since taking power, and remains firmly in control, according to Masud and other analysts. He has promised elections in October 2002 that would restore the country to civilian rule.
``I would say that President Musharraf is managing very well so far,'' said Talat Masood, a retired general and political commentator. ``But he is under pressure and if the (Afghanistan) campaign continues for too long, the pressures will intensify.''
Some political parties - including the Pakistan Peoples' Party led by exiled former prime minister Benazir Bhutto - have supported Musharraf's decision to join the global coalition against terrorism.
The Pakistan Muslim League, still officially led by former Nawaz Sharif, the former prime minister ousted by Musharraf in 1999, had not made its position clear. But Hashmi's arrest came just hours after the party agreed to participate in a Nov. 9 anti-government demonstration organized by Islamic parties.
Any low-key support Musharraf has gained has been overshadowed by the noisy street protests of the religious parties. Bloody clashes with the security forces have erupted on several occasions.
In a rally Wednesday, about 1,000 women and schoolchildren marched through Rawalpindi, just south of Islamabad. The marchers, supporters of the Jamaat-e-Islam, a leading religious party, denounced Musharraf and proclaimed their support for the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan, as well as Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), accused of orchestrating the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes in the United States.
Religious parties have threatened to launch a campaign of civil disobedience next week if the president doesn't renounce his backing for the U.S. campaign, which seeks to destroy bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network and oust the fundamentalist Taliban.
Pakistan religious movements have never done well in elections, where the country's 145 million people have consistently chosen secular leaders and parties. Still, the religious groups have required Musharraf to move cautiously or risk a backlash.
If he or his government stumbles, it could limit Musharraf's ability to openly cooperate with the U.S. campaign. Pakistan has allowed the Americans to use two air bases in southern Pakistan, near the Afghan border - though the U.S. aircraft are not permitted to take part in combat operations.
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Pakistani Protesters Respond to Restrictions With Defiance
South Asia: Dissenters vow to continue demonstrations in spite of new government measures designed to quell opposition to U.S. strikes on Afghanistan.
latimes.com
By TYLER MARSHALL and ALISSA J. RUBIN
TIMES STAFF WRITERS
November 2 2001
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Groups opposed to the United States' war in neighboring Afghanistan vowed Thursday to go ahead with street protests across Pakistan despite strict new government measures to curtail public dissent.
The statements set up the first real test of the restrictions, which include bans on loudspeakers, incitement against the military and processions that disrupt commerce or routine life. Traditionally, the largest public demonstrations in Pakistan come on Fridays, the Muslim Sabbath.
Collectively, the steps announced by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's military government late Wednesday represent the first concerted effort to curb the country's Islamic fundamentalist political parties on the Afghanistan issue since the demonstrations began in mid-September. "Processions should be discouraged," Interior Minister Tasneem Noorani said. "Peaceful public meetings can be held, but there can be nothing that disrupts civic life."
Although Pakistan is under military rule, people here have enjoyed considerable freedom, including being able to demonstrate and to criticize the government in public. The media have latitude in reporting the news.
The government also arrested a prominent mainstream politician on corruption charges early Thursday, only hours after his party voted to join a one-day general strike being organized by the Islamic parties for next Friday. Javed Hashmi of the Pakistan Muslim League was reportedly seized by police in Islamabad, the capital, shortly before 2 a.m. He was taken to the eastern city of Lahore, where he remained in custody later Thursday.
The head of the party's standing committee, Ahsan Iqbal, called the arrest "an attempt to crush the Pakistan Muslim League."
Others saw it as a preemptive strike by Musharraf in the form of a thinly veiled warning to leaders of other broad-based political parties that they too risk jail if they decide to join in the anti-American protests.
After several weeks of generally smaller-than-expected street demonstrations organized by Pakistan's religion-based parties, violence erupted last weekend in two cities. A massacre near the central Pakistani city of Multan on Sunday left 15 Christians and a Muslim security guard dead, and a bus bombing in the western city of Quetta claimed three lives.
There have also been disruptive sit-ins, with one group blocking the famous Karakoram Highway for several days. The road connects Pakistan with China through high mountain passes. The government's restrictive measures appeared to be a direct response to this unrest.
Leaders of the largest religion-based party, the Jamaat-i-Islami, declared Thursday that they had no plans to cancel either a large protest expected today in the city of Mardan, about 60 miles northwest of Islamabad, or a sit-in in Lahore.
"These events will take place," said Syed Munnawar Hasan, the party's deputy leader. "If the government comes to try to stop them, then it will be their violence, not our violence."
Interior Minister Noorani said provincial authorities will be given the final authority on how to enforce the restrictions but seemed to indicate that there would be little leeway.
In Quetta, the scene of some of the most violent riots in Pakistan against the U.S. bombing campaign in Afghanistan, government officials say they plan to permit the weekly Friday rally as long as it is peaceful. The rally is held in a stadium a couple of miles from the center of town. Officials say they are still considering whether to grant a request from religious political parties to hold a rally at a football stadium that is more centrally located.
As a result of strict enforcement of anti-riot laws, Quetta has been quieter in recent weeks than in early October, when angry Pakistanis looted theaters that showed U.S. movies and trashed buses and other sites to show their displeasure at the government's support of the war in Afghanistan.
But the protests have shrunk, and now that they are contained at a stadium, they are much less violent. The police are regularly deporting Afghans who participate in the protests: 15 were deported earlier this week, and 25 more are expected to be deported in the next couple of days.
In a related development, the Qatari-based Arab news network Al Jazeera read out a letter Thursday purportedly written by Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden that urged Pakistani Muslims to stand in the face of what he called "a Christian crusade against Islam."
"Muslims in Afghanistan are being subjected to killing, and the Pakistan government is standing beneath the Christian banner," the station's newsreader quoted Bin Laden as writing.
In mountainous northern areas of Pakistan, an estimated 1,200 Pakistani ethnic Pushtuns crossed the border into Afghanistan in small groups, the BBC reported Thursday. Earlier this week, several thousand volunteers massed along Pakistan's frontier with Afghanistan wanting to cross into the neighboring country to fight the Americans.
Taliban authorities inside Afghanistan asked the men not to cross, apparently out of fear that such a large group could easily become a target for U.S. raids.
--------------------------------------------
Friday November 2 10:18 AM ET
Islamic Militants March in Pakistan
By RIAZ KHAN, Associated Press Writer
dailynews.yahoo.com
MARDAN, Pakistan (AP) - Urging the army to overthrow President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, thousands of Islamic militants marched in this northwestern city Friday to protest their government's support for the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan.
``Musharraf is a risk for Pakistan,'' Islamic cleric Qazi Hussain Ahmad told the 10,000-strong crowd, many of them ethnic Pashtuns, the largest ethnic group in neighboring Afghanistan.
Qazi said Musharraf - an army general who seized power in 1999 - should be deposed. ``The sooner, the better,'' the cleric said.
The protest in Mardan was the largest of several throughout Pakistan on Friday, the Muslim holy day and the usual time for pro-Taliban demonstrations against the United States.
Smaller rallies were also held in the cities of Lahore, Karachi and Quetta.
Musharraf has endorsed the U.S.-led military campaign, and allowed Americans to use Pakistani bases for what his government says is logistical support.
The overwhelming majority of Pakistan's 145 million people are Muslim, and the anti-U.S. rallies have attracted relatively modest numbers considering the national population.
However, Islamic militants have vowed to step up protests against Musharraf and pledge a nationwide civil disobedience campaign Nov. 9.
At Mardan, protesters cheered when Qazi asked if they were ready to join a holy war against America. They raised their hands, volunteering.
``Bush has waged war against Islam and we will defeat him with the power of faith,'' Qazi said. ``It is the duty of every Muslim to support Taliban who are fighting against a mighty power.''
Qazi, president of Pakistan's main Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami, insisted his call for a coup was not designed to cause a rift in Pakistan's military.
``I am not issuing seditious statements against the Pakistan army,'' Qazi said.
``I have just asked the generals to protect the country's last disciplined and organized national institution by removing Musharraf, who wants to use it for appeasing America,'' Qazi said, in a reference to Pakistan's army.
Police and paramilitary troops stood guard by the hundreds at the rallies, keeping the protests in check.
-------------------------------------------------
dailynews.yahoo.com
Friday November 2 10:18 AM ET
Islamic Militants March in Pakistan
By RIAZ KHAN, Associated Press Writer
MARDAN, Pakistan (AP) - Urging the army to overthrow President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, thousands of Islamic militants marched in this northwestern city Friday to protest their government's support for the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan.
``Musharraf is a risk for Pakistan,'' Islamic cleric Qazi Hussain Ahmad told the 10,000-strong crowd, many of them ethnic Pashtuns, the largest ethnic group in neighboring Afghanistan.
Qazi said Musharraf - an army general who seized power in 1999 - should be deposed. ``The sooner, the better,'' the cleric said.
The protest in Mardan was the largest of several throughout Pakistan on Friday, the Muslim holy day and the usual time for pro-Taliban demonstrations against the United States.
Smaller rallies were also held in the cities of Lahore, Karachi and Quetta.
Musharraf has endorsed the U.S.-led military campaign, and allowed Americans to use Pakistani bases for what his government says is logistical support.
The overwhelming majority of Pakistan's 145 million people are Muslim, and the anti-U.S. rallies have attracted relatively modest numbers considering the national population.
However, Islamic militants have vowed to step up protests against Musharraf and pledge a nationwide civil disobedience campaign Nov. 9.
At Mardan, protesters cheered when Qazi asked if they were ready to join a holy war against America. They raised their hands, volunteering.
``Bush has waged war against Islam and we will defeat him with the power of faith,'' Qazi said. ``It is the duty of every Muslim to support Taliban who are fighting against a mighty power.''
Qazi, president of Pakistan's main Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami, insisted his call for a coup was not designed to cause a rift in Pakistan's military.
``I am not issuing seditious statements against the Pakistan army,'' Qazi said.
``I have just asked the generals to protect the country's last disciplined and organized national institution by removing Musharraf, who wants to use it for appeasing America,'' Qazi said, in a reference to Pakistan's army.
Police and paramilitary troops stood guard by the hundreds at the rallies, keeping the protests in check.
----------------------------------------
Afghanistan crisis clouds Pakistan's political future
Military president has promised court to relinquish power
sunspot.net
By John Murphy
Sun Foreign Staff
Originally published November 2, 2001
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - While world leaders worry about what kind of government Afghanistan would have if the Taliban regime collapses, politicians here in neighboring Pakistan are asking the same kind of questions about their own country.
Here, they wonder what Pakistan, now under military control, will become if and when it returns to democratic rule.
Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, came to power in 1999 after a bloodless military coup, ending his country's civilian-run government.
Since then he has enjoyed unbridled power as the holder of all top positions in the government including chief executive, chief of the army staff and in June, by his own appointment, president.
Ruling by decree, he suspended the constitution and legislature and banned political party demonstrations.
But one year from now, Musharraf is expected to pack up and return to the barracks, giving away his supreme political control.
That's the deadline Pakistan's Supreme Court gave for national democratic elections to be held, allowing Musharraf three years to accomplish his goals of rooting out corruption and instituting desperately needed economic reforms in his debt-ridden country.
Pakistan's political party leaders wonder whether the crisis over Afghanistan will change that promise. So far, Musharraf has given no indication that he will do otherwise.
"The president is on record as saying he is committed to the nation's schedule for democratic elections. We hope he will stand by his word," said Makhoom Amin Faheen, vice chairman of the Pakistan People's Party, a major political party. "We have been demanding transparent elections at every cost. We hope that will happen."
Faheen's group is a member of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy, a group of 16 political parties that have been pushing for democratic elections since the 1999 coup.
The alliance's president, Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, offered a very dim view of the political situation in Pakistan. He predicted the election will be held next year, partly because of the unprecedented attention Pakistan is receiving from the world's media.
He described that vote, however, as "meaningless."
The elections will be characterized by "vote rigging on a very large scale," he said, because the government has not agreed to establishing an independent election commission.
And in the end, Musharraf will not surrender his military role as chief of staff of the army and thus will continue to wield tremendous power. Many observers predict he will lead a "guided democracy" for a number of years before Pakistan develops a full democracy.
The military has always played a large role in Pakistan's leadership, never allowing democracy to take root for very long. Since the founding of Pakistan 54 years ago, military governments have ruled for 26 of them.
The power of the military in Pakistan can be seen in Musharraf's dress. Although he holds the title of president, Musharraf nearly always presents himself in his military capacity, dressed in a freshly pressed khaki uniform glimmering with medals.
His reign has been marked by tight controls for political opponents, who have been detained without charge, treated poorly while in custody and even tortured, according to Human Rights Watch.
In recent weeks Musharraf has detained dozens of members of the militant Islamic political groups that have organized extensive demonstrations in the country's major cities.
And Khan partly blames the United States and other Western democracies for the crackdown on political groups. They allow him to get away with it, Khan says.
"The Western countries always claim they want democratic process restored. But when the situation arises like this, they always side with the dictators," he said. "After the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan, they left us in the lurch. No one cared about the restoration of democracy in Pakistan."
The United States and Britain, however, have stressed the importance of Pakistan's return to democracy next year. Both were severe critics of Musharraf's coup.
The United States slapped harsh economic sanctions on Pakistan, which were recently lifted because of Musharraf's cooperation in the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan.
At home, Musharraf did receive widespread support from many Pakistanis who viewed the ousted government of Nawaz Sharif as hopelessly corrupt and the economy mismanaged. And many Pakistanis who might not care for Musharraf apparently believe he is sincere in his desire to change the country for the better.
"Everybody believes he is going to hold the elections on the stipulated date," said Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema, president of the Islamabad Policy Research Institute.
In fact, Cheema said that Musharraf would have held the elections sooner if not for the need to update voter rolls and make other preparations to hold elections.
Najam Sethi, editor of the independent weekly newspaper, The Friday Times, said Musharraf really has no choice but to stick to his "road map" for the return to democracy.
"He needs democracy now more than ever before," he said. "Musharraf needs to draw the moderate politicians in to support him. In a sense he needs to create a political armor against the Islamic extremists."
If Musharraf does not allow democratic elections, the moderate political parties would not offer him any support and there would be a political vacuum in which the vocal and well-organized Islamic parities could perhaps gain more control, Sethi said, creating more tension at home.
If the people choose their own leaders, he said, it would be very difficult for extreme elements to take power. |
