Is It PPP & CIA Vs. The Army In Pakistan?
The government’s feeling of helplessness on American strikes (courtesy Husain Haqqani), a botched coup against the ISI, a systematic economic meltdown and secret understandings with the IMF are issues Mr. Zardari and his selected group of cronies are responsible for. The military on the other hand seems reluctant to act overtly against the government but it is clear that General Kayani is now at complete odds with it. The army doesn’t necessarily have to take over the country; it would rather wait for some time to see how the current political quagmire unravels. If this isn’t enough to prove the sinister agenda of this government I wonder what will.
By HAMZA GULZAR
Sunday, 23 November 2008.
Ahmed Quraishi-Pakistan/Middle East politics, Iraq war, lebanon war, India Pakistan relations
LAHORE, Pakistan—As the conspiracy against Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal speeds up the country’s most powerful institution is feeling increasingly cornered and agitated with Zardari’s CIA imposed government.
Considerable blunders by Pakistan’s former President Pervez Musharraf backed up by a lethal media campaign against the Pakistani military makes it even more problematic for the world’s fifth largest military to take a decisive action against a government that is bent upon a complete sell out.
If one keeps a close eye on recent developments, President Zardari’s intentions and his agenda seem pretty clear. It all started from Zardari’s refusal to conduct an autopsy on Benazir Bhutto which then led to a suspicious looking ‘will’. Zardari then played the role of an evil genius by sidelining major Bhutto loyalists and embarked upon a vile campaign of backstabbing President Musharraf, Nawaz Sharif and other stakeholders to gain the Presidential palace.
The government’s feeling of helplessness on American strikes (courtesy Husain Haqqani), a botched coup against the ISI, a systematic economic meltdown and secret understandings with the IMF are issues he and his selected group of cronies are responsible for. Zardari’s haste in trying to ‘privatize’ the Qadirpur Gas Fields was thankfully met by fierce opposition which led to a postponement of the plan. If this isn’t enough to prove the sinister agenda of this government I wonder what will.
The military on the other hand seems reluctant to act overtly against the government but it is clear that General Kayani is now at complete odds with it. When the Americans tried to test his nerves he ordered his troops to open fire on any invading forces which caught Uncle Sam by surprise. Zardari’s attempted coup against the ISI was met by the military with fierce opposition. The game is now clear; it is the CIA and the PPP on one side and the Pakistan Army on the other.
The CIA began targeting pro-Pakistan elements in FATA and the surrounding settled areas after the CIA/RAW backed militants received a thrashing at the hands of the military. This is being done to spark off a full scale civil war inside the country in an attempt to justify its nuclear weapons as being unsafe. The army’s recent response has been smart. First General Kayani declares openly that there is no military solution for Afghanistan with his Quetta Corps Commander warning foreign elements. Then the Pakistani army’s air defense unit demonstrates its ability to shoot down unmanned aerial vehicles in an exercise near Muzaffargarh. The message therefore is clear: stop the dirty tricks or else!
The army doesn’t necessarily have to take over the country; it would rather wait for sometime to see how the current political quagmire unravels. This is because both Zardari and Nawaz Sharif are facing a dilemma. While it is clear that the war between these two has begun, Zardari wants Sharif’s services in order to complete his homework but at the same time he doesn’t want Sharif to use Punjab as a launch pad against the PPP and is therefore tightly controlling the Sharifs’ election invalidation proceedings. Nawaz on the other hand wants to launch a movement against the present government for his own skewed agenda but does not want to push the President into a tight corner which might produce an unfavorable result in the ongoing court proceedings that could wipe out PML(N)’s ‘Churchill Post’ of Punjab.
The only thing Pakistani nationalists like me can hope for is an immediate overthrow of these useless politicians who are bent upon destroying the country. Let’s keep praying.
Mr. Gulzar is a Pakistani law student based in Lahore studying LLB (Hons.). He can be reached at
[email protected]
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