Asia Times: US rules out 'business as usual' with Pakistan



	October 14, 1999	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

US rules out 'business as usual' with Pakistan
By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON - The United States says there will be no ''business as usual'' with any new government installed in Pakistan after the military coup d'etat. US officials, however, declined to comment extensively on the ouster of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by Gen Pervez Musharraf.

In the first official comment from Washington, State Department spokesman James Rubion said that ''if there has been a coup, we would seek the earliest possible restoration of democracy in Pakistan. ''Clearly we would not be in a position to carry on business as usual with Pakistani authorities, as our laws indicate.

''We believe, as we have stated before, and let me reiterate very strongly today, that Pakistan's constitution should be respected in the spirit, as well as its letter.'' Rubin noted that Sharif had the authority under the constitution to dismiss Musharaff, the action which precipitated the coup.

The military move ended what was recently described by the Washington Post as Sharif's ''worst crisis'' since he won the 1997 elections. Already battered by a collapsing economy, Sharif's order to the army to evacuate positions that Pakistani-backed guerrillas had occupied on the Indian side of the disputed territory of Kashmir reportedly created great resentment in the military.

The order followed a July 4 meeting here with President Bill Clinton who pressed Sharif to withdraw the Pakistani military and its proxies in what had become the worst outbreak of fighting between nuclear-armed Pakistan and India since the 1971 war.

Sharif issued the order without consulting the army in advance, according to knowledgeable Pakistani sources who said the upper ranks of the military had come to the conclusion that Islamabad has received nothing in return from the Clinton administration.

Indeed, over the months that followed, the army repeatedly had been disappointed with the failure of Washington to reward Islamabad for unilaterally giving up what the army regards as its most important military victory over India in decades.

When, in early August, an Indian fighter jet shot down a Pakistani naval surveillance plane on the southern border, Washington expressed regret but did not condemn or take any other action against New Delhi to protest the action.

In September, the United States began working with Russia to push a resolution in the UN Security Council that would cut air links to Afganistan and freeze the assets of that country's ruling Taliban militia, which has long been sponsored by the Pakistani military.

At the same time, the Clinton administration still has not repealed all the economic and other sanctions it imposed against Pakistan after Islamabad exploded a nuclear device in May 1998. That test followed one by India, against which Washington also imposed sanctions but whose economy is much stronger and more self-reliant than Pakistan's.

''Democracy in Pakistan was based on the army's belief that military ties with the US were paramount and that Washington wanted a democratically-elected government,'' said one Pakistani political expert. ''But the army concluded it was getting nothing from Clinton, so the incentive to go along with [Washington's] rules of the game had ended.''

The administration did, in fact, ease some sanctions against Pakistan, which it pressed hard to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Working with Congress, it also succeeded in getting language attached to the 2000 defense appropriations bill that would have permitted Clinton to restore military ties with Pakistan.

But, in light of Tuesday's events, that now seems unlikely. ''Today's news regarding Pakistan only reinforces my view that the Congress should not provide authority to the President which allows for the resumption of military assistance to Pakistan,'' said Ben Gilman, the chairman of the House International Relations Committee.

Washington has been keenly aware of the army's unhappiness with Sharif since the Kargil retreat. In September, just a few days before the Pakistani leader was scheduled to address the UN General Assembly in New York, the State Department said the administration would ''strongly oppose any attempt to change the government through extra-constitutional means''.

The statement apparently only added to the Pakistani army's resentment toward Washington. ''At first, I thought it was a misquote,'' said the Pakistani spokesman at the time. ''There was absolutely no reason for it.''

Rubin insisted Tuesday that Washington had no advance notice of the coup but he confirmed that Gen Ziauddin, who was named by Sharif to replace Musharraf just before the coup, consulted with US officials here two weeks ago.

He also disclosed that Washington had invited Musharraf to an Asian-Pacific defense commanders' conference in Hawaii this month, but that he had declined the invitation ''because of scheduling conflicts''.

During most of the Cold War, the Pakistani military was a steadfast US ally and Washington was its most important supplier of military equipment. After the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, however, Washington began distancing itself from Islamabad.

In 1990, then-President George Bush concluded that Pakistan had obtained the capability to explode a nuclear device and, as a result, cut off military aid and sales as required by Congress.

(Inter Press Service)

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