Asia Times: US slammed for 'interfering' coup warnings



	September 25, 1999	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

US slammed for 'interfering' coup warnings
By Muddassir Rizvi

ISLAMABAD - While the Nawaz Sharif government does its best to play down the US State Department warning of an impending coup in Pakistan, the opposition has lashed out, saying such a warning was interference in the country's domestic affairs.

Pakistanis can do without lectures from the United States on ''how to remove'' the Sharif government or ''how the people'' should react to an inefficient administration, Naveed Qamar, a lawmaker from the main opposition Pakistan People's Party (PPP) said in a statement.

On September 21, an unnamed State Department official issued a warning to the Pakistan army through the Reuters news agency, saying Washington would deal very seriously with any attempt to use extra-constitutional methods to remove Prime Minister Sharif. Simultaneously the official reminded the Sharif government that peaceful demonstrations and free speech are to be permitted in a democratic system.

If Washington was seeking to bolster Sharif's position, the statement has only created more problems for the 30-month-old administration which is facing a serious challenge from a 19-part Grand Opposition Alliance over its ''mishandling'' of Kargil and the debt-laden economy.

Despite an official ban on strikes and protests issued in August by an embattled Sharif administration, opposition-called demonstrators are calling for the prime minister's resignation and the formation of an interim government to hold fresh polls.

The Sharif government is accused of rampant corruption and misrule, subversion of democracy and federalism, concentration of power in the hands of the Sharif family and friends, and intimidation of newspaper owners to muzzle the media.

Prime Minister Sharif has disgraced Pakistan by soliciting statements of support from the United States, thundered a top leader of the opposition alliance, Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, a day after the US warnings of the coup were published.

A defensive Sharif government - which has not denounced the US statement - said there was no threat from the army, and denied the possibility of a coup, while the army has stayed mum on the issue, although newspapers have reported a great deal of unhappiness in the army over its humiliating retreat from the Kargil sector in July.

Instead the government has put the blame on the opposition, saying the US statement was in response to the many visits by opposition leaders lobbying against an elected government, according to Information Minister Mushahid Hussain on Wednesday. He was referring to the recent visits, the latest on September 21, of PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto and Pakistan Tehrik Insaaf (Pakistan Justice Movement) chief Imran Khan, who met high officials of the Clinton administration, though what transpired at the meetings have not been made pubic.

While the State Department report came two days after Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Prime Minister Sharif's brother, returned from Washington, the government denies any link between the two events, although Shahbaz Sharif met the US national security advisor. Interestingly, the chief of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence Gen Ziauddin was in Washington on the day the State Department warned the Pakistani army to stay in the barracks.

Opposition politicians think Shahbaz was in the US to persuade the government to publicly endorse the Sharif administration, in return for pulling back from Indian territory across the Line of Control, a move which proved very costly for Sharif.

''Reiteration of US support for the PML government has vindicated our stand that Shahbaz Sharif had gone to the United States to seek assistance against army and Islamic movements,'' Qazi Hussain Ahmed, leader of the Jamaat-i-Islami, told the press in Lahore. The Jamaat-i-Islami has been vociferous in its criticism of the government's failure to protect the interests of the Pakistani army and mujaheedin, or freedom fighters, seeking to liberate India's northern state of Kashmir.

Differences with the army over the handling of the Kargil war has held up the government's decision to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which the US has sought to push through with eight rounds of separate talks with India and Pakistan last year.

Prime Minister Sharif was scheduled to sign the treaty at the ongoing General Assembly session in New York, but decided to stay home because of the uncertain political situation.

Washington is calculating on being able to force a weak Pakistan government to sign by raising the bogey of coups, a spokesperson for Imran Khan's party said.

''It may have found the PM's involvement in Kargil disappointing, but may have decided that he would still be a better bet to achieve peace, as compared to some others striving to oust him,'' the pro-government The Nation daily editorialized.

Prominent political analyst Irshad Ahmed Haqqani says the Pakistan government must be transparent if it's to be viewed as independent of US influence by the opposition. ''This will be in the interest of the government as well as the country.''

(Inter Press Service)

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