"Army No. 2 could succeed Musharraf; US appears to be grooming deputy" by Emily Wax/Washington Post November 21, 2007
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - When Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte visited Pakistan last weekend, he met once with President Pervez Musharraf, for two hours. But before he left town, he held three meetings with a lesser-known figure: General Ashfaq Kiyani, the deputy army chief.
The two shared a Saturday night dinner.
The attention paid to Kiyani has affirmed speculation here that he will soon be chosen as Musharraf's successor as head of the army, and, as such, will be a vital ally for the Bush administration during a time of crisis.
"Use your influence. You can help save Pakistan," Negroponte told Kiyani during the visit, according to a Western diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity.
If Kiyani is named his successor, he will command Pakistan's 600,000 troops and lead the country's most important institution.
Power in Pakistan flows from the uniform, as a popular saying here goes. Half of the country's rulers have been sons of the military.
"To understand the power of Pakistan, you have to understand that it's the military that matters. And they are kingmakers here," said Shireen Mazari of the Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad.
Yesterday, Musharraf's government released more than 3,000 political prisoners who had been held under emergency rule, many of them lawyers.
But the Interior Ministry said 2,000 people remain detained. And in Lahore, a group of lawyers was briefly released and then arrested again.
Isn't that step six?
Meanwhile, police arrested 150 journalists in the southern city of Karachi, where violence broke out after police sprayed tear gas, used batons to beat protesters, and chased them through the streets. Several journalists were shown on television injured.
Musharraf yesterday flew to Saudi Arabia. With the political uncertainty continuing in Pakistan, analysts say Kiyani is key to Musharraf's future.
Few say Kiyani would attempt a coup because, for now at least, top military leaders would not support it. And Kiyani, 55, has his own reasons not to press Musharraf to lift emergency rule or resign as president.
Talat Masood, a former Pakistani general who is now a political analyst:
"He won't risk his own job since time is on his side. They have to cultivate him and make sure they get along well with each other. Because if, down the road, the army feels their reputation is sinking along with Musharraf, well, that is when you have seen a change of power in Pakistan throughout history."
Before being the armed forces' No. 2, the general was head of the Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan's spy agency, where he worked closely with senior CIA and Pentagon officials.
Oh! So the general is ONE of OUR BOYS!!!!
He was given that post after investigating two assassination attempts against Musharraf in 2003, an appointment seen as a reward.
CUI BONO?
Kiyani has working-class roots, having been raised in farming communities in the Punjab, sometimes called the country's "martial belt" because many teenage boys from the province enter the military, lacking other economic opportunities. He was educated at the US Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan."
Is she talking about Pakistan or AmeriKa?
"Musharraf Meets With Saudis to Discuss What to Do With One of His Rivals" by JANE PERLEZ
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 20 — In his first trip out of the country since declaring emergency rule, the Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to discuss the future of one of his main political rivals, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who lives in exile there.
Saudi Arabia, one of Pakistan’s closest allies, has indicated that Mr. Sharif should be allowed to return to his homeland to take part in parliamentary elections, Pakistani officials and Western diplomats said.
The Saudis have argued, diplomats said, that since Pakistan allowed a secular female leader, Benazir Bhutto, to return from self-imposed exile, then Mr. Sharif, a more conservative and religiously inclined leader, should be permitted to come back, too.
General Musharraf toppled Mr. Sharif in a bloodless coup in October 1999 and sent him into exile soon afterward. Mr. Sharif has become one of the general’s fiercest critics, and his return to Pakistan could present a strong political challenge to the party that backs the president and to Ms. Bhutto’s party.
As the Musharraf government prepared for the elections, the Interior Ministry announced that 3,416 detainees arrested under the emergency rule had been released. That figure could not be verified. However, a Western diplomat said Tuesday that the Pakistani government had indicated that about 1,000 detainees out of 4,500 had been released.
In Sindh Province, the home secretary, Ghulam Mohammad Mohatarem, said 650 people had been released. Diplomats said there seemed to be a revolving door; as detainees were let go, other opponents were arrested.
Playing shit games!
In Karachi, the police arrested about 200 journalists on Tuesday as they marched from the press club to the governor’s house to protest the closure of Geo TV. The television station has refused to sign a new code of conduct introduced by the government since emergency rule was imposed on Nov. 3.
Speaking in Karachi from a police station where he was being held with 35 other journalists, Zarar Khan, a reporter with The Associated Press, said two journalists had been beaten severely by police officers as they were rounded up and had suffered head wounds.
In an example of the government’s failing to follow through on its promised releases, 45 lawyers were ordered released on Monday by the High Court in Lahore, said Iqbal Haider, the secretary general of the Pakistan Human Rights Commission. But then the government immediately issued new detention orders for the lawyers, and they were kept in prison, he said.
In Karachi, a lawyer, Naim Queresh, was removed from the bar association headquarters on Monday as he was addressing his colleagues, Mr. Haider said.
They just came in and got him, huh?
The most prominent government opponents remain detained. Among them are the four leaders of the lawyers’ movement, including Aitzaz Ahsan, the chairman of the Supreme Court Bar Association, and leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League, the political party led by Mr. Sharif. The judges on the Supreme Court who were dismissed by General Musharraf are also still under house arrest.
The role of Mr. Sharif has come to the fore since the return of Ms. Bhutto, who also is a former prime minister. Mr. Sharif tried to return to Pakistan a few months ago after the Supreme Court ruled that he should be permitted to do so. But soon after landing at Islamabad in September, Mr. Sharif was unceremoniously sent back to Saudi Arabia.
Since then, supporters of Mr. Sharif have protested, asserting that it was unfair of the Saudis to keep Mr. Sharif and effectively prevent him from taking part in Pakistani politics. The demonstrations against Saudi Arabia, an ally that contributes financially to Islamic schools and sells oil to Pakistan at favorable rates, are deeply embarrassing to the Saudi royal family, diplomats and Pakistani officials said.
Funding the "terror" schools are the Saudis!!
How come those guys are never criticized here?
In an interview in Tuesday’s issue of the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, Mr. Sharif said that he would not meet with General Musharraf in Saudi Arabia, and that he wanted emergency rule lifted before he would return. Ahsan Iqbal, a spokesman for Mr. Sharif’s party, said General Musharraf would try to dissuade the Saudis from releasing Mr. Sharif.
Mr. Iqbal: “From the Saudi point of view, Benazir Bhutto is here, but Sharif is not allowed. By having him in Saudi Arabia, they become involved in party politics here, and they don’t like that."
Here is another interesting take on the whole affair:
The truth about Benazir Bhutto
Fatima Bhutto is the niece of Benazir Bhutto.
Fatima’s father (Murtaza Bhutto) was Benazir’s younger brother.
Fatima’s mother is Lebanese.
Fatima says the so-called clash between Benazir and Musharraf is a "farce.” She says both share power, both are working to crush democracy, and both are supported by Bush.
Fatima (age 25) says Benazir wants to "to sell out the country to the United States.” She says Benazir and Musharraf are helping each other, and are working together to keep out exiled former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Fatima described Benazir's four-day house arrest as a joke. "Have you ever seen anyone under house arrest released continually to give interviews, and even receive an American consul? Musharaff silences all true opponents, but lets Benazir give constant interviews and say whatever Benazir likes. He even gives her police protection for this.”
In an interview to CNN Late Edition, Benazir twice avoided criticizing Musharraf when asked to do so, telling the interviewer instead: “I know where you want to take me.” (http://www.dawn.com/2007/11/19/top6.htm)
Fatima, a poet and writer, is actively involved in politics. She plans to run as a candidate for the breakaway Pakistan People's Party Shaheed Bhutto (PPP-SB), which wants a return to Pakistan's Constitution of 1973. The PPP-SB is led by Fatima’s mother, Ghinwa Bhutto, who is Lebanese
Fatima is now a columnist for The News in Pakistan. She took an undergraduate degree at Columbia University, and a Master’s degree at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.
"Benazir’s second term was characterized by several acts of state violence against opponents. She created the conditions for the violence in which my father was a victim, and then helped cover it up at the inquest.”
Fatima’s father, Murtaza Bhutto, was a left-wing activist who spent much time in Lebanon. He was a member of Pakistan’s Parliament, and a vocal critic of his sister's (Benazir’s) politics.
“He was killed outside our home in 1996 in a carefully planned police assassination, while his sister Benazir was prime minister. There were 70 to 100 policemen on the scene when it happened. All the streetlights had been shut off, and the roads were cordoned off. They killed six men along with my father, shooting them repeatedly at point blank range, and leaving them to bleed on the streets. A tribunal of three respected judges concluded that the assassinations could not have taken place without approval from a ‘much higher’ political authority. Did my aunt Benazir murder my father, who was her younger brother?”
“Perhaps the most bizarre part of this circus has been Benazir’s hijacking of the democratic cause. Last month while she was hashing out a deal to share power with the dictator Musharraf, she repeatedly insisted that democracy in Pakistan would be a lost cause without her. What a pathetic joke.
“Benazir is now exploiting the emergency rule, which has been imposed 13 times in Pakistan’s 60-year history -- an average of once every 4 ½ years. She fled Pakistan in 1999 because of her massive corruption, and lived comfortably in Dubai and London. Benazir and her husband, a man who came to be known in Pakistan as ‘Mr. 10%,’ have been accused of stealing more than $1 billion from Pakistan's treasury. Benazir is appealing a money-laundering conviction by the Swiss courts involving about $11 million. Corruption cases in Britain and Spain are ongoing. She came back on 18 October 07 when Musharaff imprisoned all the judges, and dropped all corruption charges against Benazir. People on the streets now call her party (the Pakistan People's Party) the Pervez (Musharaff ) People's Party.
“While she was supposedly under a four-day house arrest at her chic Islamabad residence last week, 50 or so of her party members were comfortably allowed to join her. She addressed the media twice from her garden, protected by Musharraf police. Any other politician who gives an interview goes straight to prison.
“Her political posturing is all for show. She praises Bush’s war on terror, yet when she was Prime Minister she recognized the Taliban -- making Pakistan one of only three governments in the world to do so.”
On 18 October 07, Benazir returned to Karachi, Pakistan after a "self-imposed exile” of eight years. As a crowd of 150,00 turned out to welcome her, two bombs killed 140 people and wounded 450. The blasts completely destroyed three police vans and killed at least 20 policemen in the vehicles.
Musharraf called the attacks a "conspiracy against democracy".
Australian Prime Minister John Howard called them the work of al-Qaeda.
Fatima calls them a false flag operation, possibly done by Benazir’s own party.
“The last thing we need is to be tied to a neocon agenda through a puppet like Benazir.”
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-bhutto14nov14,0,2482408.story?...
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Politics/?id=1.0.1563631120"
