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General Or President Musharraf.. May Be Both
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Musharraf fears to drink from 'military' glass!
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By
Asif Farooqi, IOL Correspondent
ISLAMABAD,
May 14 (IslamOnline.net) – Faced with the dilemma of having to
decide on only one post of the two he currently holds, Pakistani
President Pervez Musharraf is apparently headed towards the
unexpected; holding on to both.
Under
an agreement reached with his political allies early this year,
Musharraf would have to choose between being chief of the powerful
Pakistani army (top military post) or head of the state (top civilian
post), by the end of this year.
Simultaneously
holding both posts is a violation of the Pakistani constitution.
However,
as the clock tickles down to
December 31, 2004
, many analysts and political leaders in
Pakistan
believe the General is apparently having second thoughts.
A
number of recent events in this direction could be observed. For one,
General Musharraf has refused to categorically state that he will
retire from the army at the end of the year.
Musharraf
has been shying away from the question about his meeting uniform
deadline for months now. But last week when a reporter asked him this
direct question during a televised interview, Musharraf’s response
was, “I don’t want to answer this question at this moment”.
This
answer left many of his political opponents wandering whether
Musharraf was ever serious in his promise.
“General
Pervez Mushharraf is backing away from his promise. He wants to keep
all the powers to himself and we will not allow this to happen”
senator Farhatullah Babar of opposition party PPP, told
Islamonline.net.
He
further added that Musharraf has made mockery of every institution in
the country, including the parliament by making the National Security
Council.
Babar
said nowhere in the world in a democracy, a military chief is also
President.
Another
move - many of the President’s critics see as a carefully-managed
campaign – came when a number of senior politicians, allied with the
government, began to call for General Musharraf not to step down as
chief of the army.
Analysts
believe that bottom line of it all is the perception that real
authority in
Pakistan
lies with the army. So, by shedding his military uniform, Musharraf
will become politically vulnerable.
“Perhaps
General Pervez Musharraf does not trust his successor in the army,”
said Muhammah Zia Uddin, editor of Pakistani daily Dawn, to IOL.
He
said Mushrraf fears his successor might have the same ambition as he
had, of toppling a civilian government. “That’s the sole reason,
Musharraf doesn’t want to become a civilian ruler,” Zia concluded.
Other
moves monitored seem designed to guarantee the position of the army in
the future power politics of
Pakistan
.
Recently,
Musharraf’s allies pushed through parliament a bill that allows the
creation of National Security Council that will in effect allow the
military to oversee parliament itself.
The
opposition openly labels these political developments as manipulative
‘tricks’ to subvert democracy.
“The
National Security Council would have an upper hand over the
parliament” senator Babar said.
He
added that it would be so unfortunate that a body of non-elected
persons is being made to dictate the parliament.
While
such political wrangling goes on, many in Pakistan believe Musharraf
is only gaining time so that he can make a choice out of a junior lot
of military generals as most of his senior colleagues who were with
him during the 1999 coup, would be retired from the army.
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