Asia Times: Pakistan calm after military takeover



	October 14, 1999	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

Pakistan calm after military takeover

ISLAMABAD - The morning after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was toppled in a bloodless military coup, Pakistan's cities were calm.

All financial markets were closed on Wednesday, causing some chaos outside the Karachi Stock Exchange where a large crowd had gathered. Bewildered central and provincial government workers were turned away from their offices.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, army chief General Pervez Musharraf made his first public statement on TV and radio reassuring his country that the ''situation is stable and under control''. Musharraf is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee and Chief of Army Staff.

Dressed in military fatigues, the general surprisingly addressed the nation in English and kept the whole thing short, without revealing his future plans. But he said he would soon address the nation again to make a policy statement.

''You all know how the country has gone through turmoil and chaos and the economy too is in a state of collapse,'' began Musharraf, charging that all vital institutions of the country were ''played around with and systematically destroyed''.

Sharif, who swept to power with a huge parliamentary majority in elections in February 1997, is being kept incommunicado under house arrest in Islamabad. On Tuesday, he had taken the country by surprise with the announcement of Gen Musharraf's replacement by the chief of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Gen Ziauddin, who has also been placed under detention by the military.

General Musharraf, the second army chief to be dismissed in the past year, was on his way back to Pakistan from the Sri Lankan capital when the announcement was made. In his speech to the nation, the general made a startling revelation that the government had tried to prevent the flight carrying him home from landing at the Karachi airport.

''This was done by the government, imperiling the lives of all the passengers of the commercial flight, which was running dangerously low on fuel and was asked to land anywhere outside the country,'' Musharraf said. ''However, this evil design was foiled by speedy action of the army.''

Leveling serious allegations against the Sharif government, he said the prime minister had failed to heed his counsel and had ''intervened in the affairs'' of the armed forces. ''The prime minister ignored all my advice. All of you look to us for stability, but the prime minister tried to politicize and destabilize the army,'' the general said, adding that ''the armed forces have been facing a clamor from all sides of the political divide'' to save the country.

''The armed forces have moved in as a last resort to prevent any destabilization of the country,'' Musharraf said.

The address to the nation began at 0246 hours Pakistan time on national radio and television. State-run TV and radio had suddenly gone off the air in the midst of a routine newscast at 1700 hours on Tuesday, interrupted by elite troops who were seen scaling the fence to enter the building.

News of the sacking of the army chief had been followed by special bulletins, showing the new army chief, Lt Gen Ziauddin, meeting Sharif. TV carried pictures of one of Sharif's military aides decorating the new army chief to mark his promotion to the rank of a four-star general.

Gen Ziauddin had recently returned from the United States after extensive meetings with the American army and intelligence officials. Reports from Washington had quoted American officials as saying that Ziauddin had asked for US assistance to combat growing religious extremism in Pakistan.

Gen Musharraf's tenure was to end by 2001. He was made chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (JCSC) late last month to quash the rumors of growing rifts between the prime minister and the army. The attempt to oust him came exactly a year after his predecessor, Gen Jehangir Karamat, resigned over his differences with Sharif.

(Inter Press Service)

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