Islamists
are heartbeat away from Jihadi nukes?
For Aziz,
it's Heads I win, Tails Musharraf Loses
By
Arnaud de Borchgrave
WASHINGTON:
While Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was in the US last
month to reassure his interlocutors about his pro-American bona
fides, his own chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Committee,
Gen. Mohammed Aziz Khan, said, at a public meeting, "America
is the No. 1 enemy of the Muslim world and is conspiring against
Muslim nations all over the world."
As the Army Chief of Staff, Mr. Musharraf outranks Gen. Aziz Khan.
Backed as he is by other Islamist generals in the army, Gen. Aziz
Khan must have felt sufficiently secure to, in effect, challenge
the president for his pro-American policies.
Clearly
referring to his chief of army staff, Gen. Aziz Khan said politics
should not be practiced while in "uniform."
Sensing
Mr. Musharraf, with President Bush's financial sweetener, is looking
for a way out of the Kashmir morass, he added that even with a
solution to the long-running dispute, India and Pakistan could
never be friends.
Reporters
were stunned by Gen. Aziz Khan's salvo. Before the newspapers
went to press, the Inter-Services Public Relations of the military
sent out advisories to kill the story. Editors were reminded Gen.
Aziz Khan's position is largely ceremonial. Still, the general
never would have taken on Mr. Musharraf unless convinced he had
the support of some of the 10 corps commanders who control the
country.
As
a member of the fundamentalist Islami-e-Talaba (the youth wing
of Jamaat-e-Islami) in his college days, Kashmir-born Gen. Aziz
Khan was known as a zealous Islamic radical. Throughout his career,
he kept in close touch with militant groups outside the army while
developing a wide following among junior officers. He always addressed
them as "son."
Mr.
Musharraf owes his life and his job to Gen. Aziz Khan. When word
spread that then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was about to replace
army Chief of Staff Musharraf — who was flying back from
Sri Lanka in Oct. 1999 — with a general junior to both of
them, Gen. Aziz Khan, then chief of general staff, decided to
mount a rebellion. He convinced the Islamabad corps commander,
who, like him, had been passed over, that this would be the end
of their careers.
The
bloodless coup that followed not only kept Mr. Musharraf in place,
but also elevated him to chief executive and then president.
Following September 11, 2001, and the abrupt about-turn of Pakistan's
foreign policy, when Mr. Musharraf — "either you're
with us or against us," Mr. Bush had told him on the phone
— ditched Taliban in Afghanistan and backed the US unconditionally,
Gen. Aziz Khan and his following among politico-extremist groups
became security risks.
So
Mr. Musharraf kicked him upstairs where he was neutralized. At
least so Mr. Musharraf thought. He has used his ceremonial job
— and loyal following among field-grade officers in the
Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) — to organize army
opposition to Mr. Musharraf.
This demonstrates yet again that Pakistan is still a heartbeat
away from becoming the world's first Islamist nuclear power. Pakistan's
arsenal is variously estimated at between 35 and 60 nuclear weapons.
Mr. Musharraf has survived at least six assassination plots. His
support for the US war against terrorism is unpopular in many
segments of society. Some 500 al Qaeda suspects have been arrested
in Pakistan and most have been handed to the US, according to
the government.
Mr. Musharraf also put the squeeze on the army's support for the
anti-Indian guerrillas in Kashmir. For Pakistan, they're "freedom
fighters"; for the Islamist clergy, "jihadis
(holy warriors); and for India, "terrorists."
Fact
is many of them are terrorists who were trained in al Qaeda's
Afghan camps. They switched to the Kashmir front after Taliban's
defeat in November 2001. ISI organized their transfer from Afghanistan
to Kashmir.
Kashmir
is the Pakistan army's principal raison d'etre, as a former Pakistani
ambassador to the US put it. "Demonstrate that your support
for the liberation of Kashmir is waning, and you automatically
curry disfavor among senior officers," the ex-envoy explained.
And Mr. Musharraf has done just that. Infiltrations from Pakistan-held
Kashmir into the Indian side continue, but are much reduced.
Mr.
Musharraf also is preparing his public opinion for Pakistan's
recognition of Israel if the Bush peace plan becomes reality.
"If Arab nations can recognize Israel, why not Pakistan?"
he asked. By acquiescing to US wishes and sending troops into
the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) for the first time
since independence half a century ago, where they are not allowed
to go by treaty commitment, Mr. Musharraf triggered much grumbling
in the ranks.
Some tribal leaders in FATA-land have told government troops to
butt out. They like Taliban and admire al Qaeda. The recent sectarian
carnage in a Shi'ite mosque in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan,
killed 50 and wounded more than 300, and was immediately exploited
by another redoubtable Musharraf opponent.
In
a July 9 interview with Nawa-e-Waqt, an Urdu daily, retired
Gen. Hamid Gul, a former ISI chief and now "strategic adviser"
to politico-religious leaders, said: "America is directly
involved in all terrorist attacks in Pakistan, including the Quetta
bloodbath."
Gen.
Gul's calcinatory rhetoric accused the US, India and Israel —
the three archvillains in the Islamist lexicon — of establishing
"more than 20 base camps in Afghanistan from where these
powers foment civil unrest in Pakistan. Their aim is to crush
jihad."
MMA
— the extremist coalition that governs the Northwest Frontier
Province, shares power in Baluchistan, and has 20 percent of the
seats in the federal assembly — is staging countrywide demos
to protest Mr. Musharraf's legal challenge to disqualify national
and regional assembly members who do not have the required bachelor's
degree. The government contends degrees awarded by madrassas
(Koranic schools where religion is the only discipline taught)
do not meet the same standards.
If the Supreme Court rules against MMA, religious extremists will
lose control of the regional government in NWFP, and mob violence
will return with a vengeance. And if the court rules against Mr.
Musharraf, Muslim extremism will consolidate its power along the
entire length of the Afghan frontier and enforce the recently
introduced Sharia (Islamic law) in NWFP.
For
the general with the ceremonial position of chairman of the joint
chiefs of staff, it's heads his Islamist cronies win, tails Mr.
Musharraf loses.
The
Pakistani president's fight to stay in power does not necessarily
conjugate with America's war on terror. Broken so many times in
the past, no one trusts US pledges and promises. Mr. Musharraf
can still dissolve parliament and declare martial law or call
new elections.
The
billing and cooing between the two presidents at the Camp David
Summit in June is already a faint warble in July.
The writer is editor at large of The Washington Times and
of United Press International.- Courtesy The Washington Times
