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Pakistan silences out-of-step politician
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - With the arrest on Wednesday night of
the president of the Alliance for the Restoration of
Democracy (ARD), Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, on charges of
abetting mutiny, Pakistan's rulers have made it starkly
clear that they are not afraid to use an iron fist when
needed.
Police seized Hashmi, who is also acting
head of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz -
PML-N), from his Parliament Lodges apartment in
Islamabad, from where he was taken into custody. Just
hours earlier, speaking to newsmen in his apartment,
Hashmi had expressed concern that he had been targeted
because he had earlier distributed a letter purportedly
written by disgruntled army officers in general
headquarters. (As reported in Asia Times Online, Pakistan: FBI rules the roost
of October 14)
Hashmi said that in fact he had
received a number of letters from army officers in the
past months expressing dissatisfaction with President
General Pervez Musharraf, who is also army chief. Hashmi
said that he was ready to go to jail and had already
packed his bags. He said that he would not "bow before a
military dictator". He added that he was not against the
army as an institution, but against those who had made
the army "controversial".
Musharraf came to
power in a bloodless coup in 1999, ousting the civilian
government of Nawaz Sharif. National elections last
October saw an elected government come into power, but
Musharraf effectively still holds the reigns of power.
Prior to Hashmi's arrest, the Inter-Services
Public Relations (ISPR) information minister, Sheikh
Rashid Ahmed, described the letter from general
headquarters (GHQ), which appeared on paper with a GHQ
letterhead, as a fake. Other officials have dismissed it
as a ploy by India's external intelligence outfit, the
Research and Analysis Wing.
However, in another
similar letter, which formed the basis of an Asia Times
Online exclusive report on August 30 (Musharraf's army breaking
ranks) it was stated that a number of army
officers had been arrested. This proved to be true, as
confirmed by the ISPR after the story broke.
According to Asia Times Online sources close to
the power corridors, what is called the "eyes and the
ears" of the army's top brass, Military Intelligence
(202) , has for several months been reporting that all
is not well within the army concerning the policies of
the government.
In particular, there is much
dissatisfaction over Musharraf wearing both a civilian
hat as president and a beret as Chief of Army Staff.
Indeed, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff
committee, General Aziz Khan, even came out publicly on
the issue, saying that engaging in politics in a uniform
was not a good thing.
His comments were
published in the national press, despite the ISPR's
frantic efforts to stop them (Musharraf was abroad at
that time) from appearing. Copies of the letter with the
GHQ monogram have been in circulation for some time in
the ranks of the armed forces, and latterly they have
made their way into civilian hands.
Whether the
letter is real or not, there is no disputing, though,
that Hashmi has been arrested, and the army is not happy
about talk of dissension in its ranks.
Opposition parties, meanwhile, are still working
out a plan of action. Speaking to Asia Times Online,
Raja Zafarul Haq, chairman of the PML-N, said that all
opposition parties would meet the speaker of the
National Assembly to raise the issue. A PML-N working
committee will also meet in Islamabad to decide how to
react. There is talk of a joint session of parliament to
discuss the issue.
Wednesday's arrest by the
military is not Hashmi's first. Soon after he was
installed as acting chief of the PML-Nawaz after premier
Nawaz Sharif went into exile, Hashmi was nailed by the
National Accountability Bureau in corruption charges.
Hashmi not only came out clean from this episode, he
went on to win a seat in parliament while still in jail.
Some analysts believe that ARD, an alliance
consisting of more than a dozen parties, including those
of two former premiers, Benazir Bhutto and Sharif, will
use this incident to stir up the masses against the
present administration, and there could be some
sleepless nights ahead at the army's general
headquarters.
(Copyright 2003 Asia Times Online
Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for
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