Author: Wilson John
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: October 31, 2001
There is a strong possibility that
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf just might not return from New York
where he is scheduled to attend the United Nation's General Assembly next
month. Back home, in Islamabad, there is nothing much left for him to return
to any way. The Americans, who might not be averse to providing him safe
haven, are already preparing for such an eventuality. Their worry, in all
fairness, is not Musharraf but the nuclear arsenal he controls. There is
a real threat of Pakistan nuclear arsenal falling into the hands of pro-Taliban
elements within the Pakistan Army and nuclear establishment, once Musharraf
either flees the country or is locked up by his own advisers and military
commanders.
It is no less an irony that Musharraf
has fallen into his own trap. It has taken him only two years to reach
the dead-end of his career as a military dictator, all because he could
not think like a leader. All along, he remained in his bearing and attitude
and thinking, a military General cooped up in his comfortable office in
Rawalpindi playing war games, with a peg of Scotch handily set on the nearest
table.
It was in October, two seasons ago,
that an over-ambitious Chief of Army Staff took control of Pakistan in
a bloodless coup, barely two months after his Army was driven out of Kargil
by the Indian troops. He immediately sat down to plot revenge on India
by planning the hijacking of the IC-814 Indian Airlines flight from Kathmandu
to New Delhi. His allies in the hijacking were the Taliban leaders. He
extracted a prize from India in the form of the release of Maulana Masood
Azhar, a firebrand preacher for whom the only path to God is strewn with
blood and gore. Musharraf allowed Azhar to settle down in Pakistan, collect
funds, recruit unemployed, disillusioned youngsters, set up training camps,
preach venom against the US and India, and export terrorism into Kashmir.
Musharraf, like his predecessors,
had a one-point agenda-to dismember India. The entity called Pakistan draws
its identity and strength from this compulsive hatred towards India. Pakistan
has no other historical milestone, nor any yardsticks for the future except
the final annihilation of India.
Musharraf's objective has been to
keep the heat on in Kashmir. He needed the Maulana as an ally. In return
for his support, he gave Maulana Masood a training ground near Balakot
to train terrorists for Kashmir. The Maulana is a powerful man, has friends
in all other terrorist and fundamentalist organisations that Musharraf,
in the initial phase of his martial rule, wanted so desperately to befriend.
Maulana Azhar has close links with Maulana Azam Tariq, the chief of Sipah
Sahaba and Jamiat-e-Ulemai-Islam (JUI) chief Samiul Haq. All three make
a formidable group that controls most of the sectarian and terrorist elements
in Pakistan. Musharraf has been seeking their help and advice in times
of crisis. In fact, before he emplaned for Agra to talk peace with India
in July this year, Musharraf held a secret meeting with some of these leaders
and assured them that he would not be party to any concessions on Kashmir.
True to his promise, he remained his obstinate best in spoiling the atmosphere
of peace by harping on Kashmir and calling terrorists "freedom fighters".
Musharraf is a clever General, sometimes
too clever for his own comfort; he knew from the very beginning that he
would not survive without the support of religious and sectarian organisations.
He went out of his way to woo them; giving them freedom to open offices
in Rawalpindi (Sipah Sahaba, the most notorious anti-Shia organisation
involved in ethnic cleansing of Shias from Karachi, has an office there),
Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad and several other important cities. He allowed
them collect funds openly. Terrorist groups were, till just a month ago,
openly recruiting trainees for their training camps set up with the active
assistance of the Pakistan Army and ISI in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
In fact, Musharraf is so indebted
to these organisations for his survival that when the Americans sought
his help in their war against terrorism, he turned towards the maulanas
for their help and assistance.
All three maulanas have close links
with the Taliban; several of them have studied together at the madarsa
at Dar-ul Uloom Haqqania, run by Maulana Samiul Haq. They operate under
an umbrella organisation called the Defence of Pakistan and Afghanistan
Council. Upon Musharraf's pleas, they agreed to help him but wanted their
pound of flesh in the bargain. They wanted him to keep the Kashmir issue
alive and give them a free hand in their avowed policy of jihad against
the US and India. Musharraf also promised not to stop their plans to help
the Taliban fight the American forces. So while he kept himself busy talking
to President Bush, Secretary Powell and CNN (not necessarily in that order),
Haq and his allies were smuggling in arms and material to the Taliban through
clandestine routes across the borders known only to General Musharraf's
Army and the ISI. Renegade elements in the Pakistan Army and ISI passed
on the American plans to the Taliban even before the first Cruise missile
left the underbelly of a US bomber. That is the reason why the much-acclaimed
Operation Enduring Freedom has not achieved even a single mission objective
after three weeks of relentless, and often mindless, bombing of caves and
tunnels.
It was apparent, during the second
week of US bombings, that Musharraf was fast losing control of his authority,
and senses. The very sectarian and terrorist elements that he so endearingly
addressed as freedom fighters, putting them on the same pedestal as Jinnah,
lost no time in turning their collective ire on him for allowing infidels
to bomb and kill Muslims in a neighbouring country. As protests rose from
various quarters, Musharraf tried to dismiss them as minor incidents. But
he knew he was in trouble as the number of groups coming out openly against
him began to rise. Musharraf went on an overdrive, made substantial changes
in the military hierarchy, shifted Generals who were potential threats
to him, arrested leaders of various sectarian and terrorist outfits and
threatened to come down heavily on anyone creating trouble for him. He
tried the age-old trick of every Pakistani leader; he decided to vent venom
on India. He has asked India to 'lay off' and confessed that he does not
wear 'bangles'; he has also made threatening noises against an imagined
attack on his country. It was a pathetic sight for a General, who not long
ago nursed ambitious of becoming a pan-Islamic leader, to behave like a
eunuch in front of the cameras.
His fulminations betrayed his fear.
He knew he was increasingly getting isolated in his own country. His allies
are now his worst enemies. The terrorist and sectarian outfits that he
so openly promoted and assisted are today out on the roads, leading jihadi
jathas to Afghanistan to fight the US forces and threatening to oust him
if he ever dared stop them. The Americans have seen through his game. The
Generals in his own army are waiting in the wings. His gamble has failed.
He will soon be confined to the dustbin of history as a failed General-stripped
of all his glory that he had won as a soldier. Pakistan, in the bargain,
has become the most dangerous place in the world.
