Bloody Saturday

Bloody Saturday

The blood of journalists and lawyers staining the ground became the worst example ever of police brutality in the country's capital

 

By Naveed Ahmad

http://jang.com.pk/thenews/oct2007-weekly/nos-07-10-2007/dia.htm#5

September 29 will be remembered as a day when the authorities opted for mindless violence against protesting lawyers and other members of civil society as General Musharraf's loyalists drove towards the Election Commission.

Upset by the live coverage of events, the print and electronic media-persons were accorded special treatment starting with verbal assaults to teargas shelling and baton attack on their heads. The cables of TV cameras were snapped to deny the people second-by-second coverage of a gory drama happening on the Constitution Avenue, all in the name of gradual transition to democracy.

PEMRA ensured that the news channels remain blacked out for telephonic beepers of their correspondents from the scene.

This unprecedented lawlessness against lawyers as well as media persons was being unleashed on the direct instructions of Inspector General of Police Syed Marvat Shah. Efficient assistance came from DIG (operations) Shahid Nadeem Baloch but he escaped the camera lens. The entire capital administration was being assisted by brutally notorious contingents of the Punjab Police besides hundreds of plain-clothed men for security and intelligence agencies.

Ironically, the police rampage coincided with the presence of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, his cabinet members and the Punjab chief minister inside the Election Commission for scrutiny of presidential candidates nomination papers.

The government might cast doubt over the lawyers struggle for the restoration of the rule of law, but there can be no defence for thrashing journalists and blacking out the news coverage.

The journalist fraternity was being punished for exposing the farce that this exercise in 'self-righteousness' by a general in uniform was not resulting through much-trumpeted transition of power.

As unquestioned leaders of opportunists -- Benazir Bhutto and Fazlur Rahman -- continue to roll the dice with the devil and pray alongside the faithful, the resignations from the APDM platform deprive the presidential election of any moral basis whatsoever.

In an exceptionally pro-active move on Sunday, Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry issued notices to the interior secretary, Punjab additional advocate general, IG police, chief commissioner, deputy commissioner and senior superintendent of police, Islamabad, to appear before court in connection with police violence against lawyers, the media and representatives of human rights and civil society organisations.

The Supreme court also directed private TV channels, including Geo, ARY and Aaj, to produce recordings of the incidents, especially any occurrences of violence, that were telecast live on these channels.

Appearing before Chief Justice of Supreme Court Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on his judicial notice, the top officials of two Islamabad hospitals -- PIMS and Poly Clinic -- admitted that the intelligence agencies have been harassing their staff, forcing them not only to amend the medical record of the hospitalised journalists and lawyers but also to prematurely discharge ones with serious injuries.

None other than the chief justice had to order re-hospitalisation of seriously injured lawyers and journalists and the expenses to be paid by the government.

The chief justice had to force his orders on a reluctant interior secretary (a former IG police), Syed Kamal Shah, to issue suspension orders of recently promoted and appointed IG Marvat Shah. The SSP and deputy commissioner too received suspension orders while the chief commissioner could miraculously escape any reprimand.

Though the hearing has been adjourned with scores of issues to be settled in the Supreme Court on October 23, the civil society is in high spirits despite the most depressing times in recent history. The media organisations of TV channel and newspaper owners, editors and journalists have all expressed unprecedented unison against the last Saturday's state terrorism.

Though September 29 clearly reminded the journalist fraternity of General Zia's repressive martial law days, General Musharraf cannot put the genie back into the bottle. The electronic and print media freedom cannot be curtailed anymore as there is immense public appetite for live and objective real-time coverage of unfolding stories.

Email: navid.rana@gmail.com

 

Pakistani madrassas under attack

The Pakistani leader’s hard-hitting crackdown on Islamic religious schools has sparked public outcry and criticism from analysts and politicians who say that not all madrassas are spreading extremism.

By Naveed Ahmad in Pakistan for ISN Security Watch (10/08/05)

Opposition politicians in Pakistan have expressed concern that the government’s harsh crackdown on Islamic religious schools (madrassas) could lead to nationwide protests and set back reform efforts that had finally begun to make some headway after four long years.

On Sunday, the government got its first taste of what critics warn could end in nationwide demonstrations when madrassa students in Peshawar protested against orders to expel all foreign students from the religious schools.

General Pervez Musharraf, the country’s president and military chief, ordered the expulsion of all foreign students as part of his crackdown on madrassas in the wake of the 7 July bombings of London’s transport system and British investigators’ claims that two of the suspected suicide bombers had attended madrassas in Pakistan - a claim that is not supported with concrete evidence.

Since then, accusations that madrassas are fostering extremism and in some cases even providing students with “terrorism” training have made the schools a target for indiscriminate Pakistani security forces.

In late July, Pakistani security forces arrested some 300 Islamic clerics and students from madrassas across the country for allegedly preaching extremism and disseminating hate material. It was the third such crackdown in as many years - and the most hard-hitting.

Musharraf set a deadline of 31 December for the religious schools to register with the Interior Ministry and to send hundreds of foreign students packing - even those holding dual citizenship in Pakistan.

Pakistani officials estimate that there are about 1,400 Muslims, mostly from Arab and African countries, but some also from Britain and the US, among an estimated one million students attending madrassas in Pakistan. Nongovernmental sources estimate that there are around 10,000 madrassas in Pakistan.

There is no lack of critics of the crackdown. Human rights groups say the government is indiscriminately attacking madrassas without investigating whether they are indeed training “terrorists” and spreading extremism, or actually providing much-needed education in the country’s remote and isolated regions. Opposition politicians say the crackdown was conducted hastily and under international pressure, pointing out that Musharraf has drawn most of his current political power from “terrorism” and “terrorists”, having enthusiastically joined the US-led “war on terror”.

Recently, Musharraf himself has admitted that the security forces might have gotten a bit out of hand in their anti-madrassa operations.

During one of their raids in mid-July, police wounded 23 female students at a Muslim school for women, prompting Musharraf to issue an order to Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao, saying: “The crackdown must be restricted to seminaries promoting militancy and religious intolerance because all seminaries are not drawn into terror activities.”

Madrassas and the anti-Soviet jihad

After the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, large sums of money flowed into Pakistan to educate Afghan children growing up in refugee camps. Most of the money came from Saudi Arabia and the US.

The schools established with that money served the twin purposes of imparting religious education in accordance with the strict Wahhabi version of Sunni Islam and preparing students to fight against the Soviets.

Today, many madrassas are portrayed as frightening, dreary places, where children memorize the Muslim holy book, the Koran, by rote and the curriculum is sometimes a recipe for fanaticism. But many others provide a much-needed education and create opportunities for students in the country’s remote, isolated tribal regions.

Hafiz Moazzam Shah, 20, says his dream is to become a banker.

Hailing from an underdeveloped, remote village in Pakistan’s Northwestern Batagram district, Shah says his father gave him his only chance for a decent future by sending him to the Idara Uloom-i-Islami madrassa. There, his education is free, from books to lodging.

Shah says that coming from a village with no electricity, no hospital, and no proper roads, a chance to study at the madrassa is a Godsend.

While many madrassas offer instruction only in religion, ignoring other academic fields, the Idara Uloom-i-Islam madrassa is well-known for offering a quality education not only in Islamic subjects but also in the humanities.

Amid the atmosphere of insecurity, the Idara Uloom-i-Islami confidently continues with its work, offering its students sports and access to newspapers and even the internet.

While Shah is making a name for himself as one of the country’s top science students, his relatives back home are struggling to make ends meet in hard labor jobs.

“I have been very lucky, thanks to The Almighty,” says Shah.

In another remote town of Pind Daden Khan, in the historic Jhelum district, Maulana Anwar Qureshi runs a similar madrassa - Jamia Muhammadia Rizvia - which has become renowned for offering a quality, well-rounded education.

“We look after the children 24 hours a day and guide them in religion and contemporary subjects,” Maulana Anwar told ISN Security Watch in July.

Some 275 students are enrolled in the madrassa’s humanities and general science department, while another 75 are registered in classes focused on memorizing the Koran..

“We are one of those competing with the modern schools, but to a great extent, madrassa students across the country have been taking exams in mainstream educational institutions since the mid-1980s,” Anwar says.

The shrinking job market is one reason for the madrassas shift in academic focus from purely religious to more practical, contemporary subjects that could help their students find gainful employment, says Shah.

Knocking down the wrong doors?

American scholars Peter Bergen and Swati Pandey, writing for the New York Times, say that while today’s madrassas “may breed fundamentalists who have learned to recite the Koran in Arabic by rote, such schools do not teach the technical or linguistic skills necessary to be an effective terrorist”.

For their study, Bergen and Pandey examined the educational backgrounds of 75 “terrorists” believed to have been responsible for the largest attacks against Westerners in recent history. They found that a majority of them were not educated at madrassas, but at universities, and that most of them had studied technical subjects, like engineering.

The study, titled “The Madrassa Myth”, found that in the four attacks for which the most complete information about the perpetrators’ educational levels is available - the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1998 attacks on the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US, and the 2002 Bali bombings - 53 per cent of the “terrorists” had either attended college or had received a college degree.

“The terrorists in our study thus appear, on average, to be as well educated as many Americans,” Bergen and Pandey wrote.

Moreover, the 9/11 pilots, as well as the secondary planners identified by the 9/11 commission, all attended Western universities. The lead 9/11 pilot, Mohamed Atta, had a degree in urban preservation from a German university, while another pilot, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, studied engineering in North Carolina, according to the study.

Pakistan’s religious politicians largely agree with the US study.

“Without thinking for a second as he heard [British Prime Minister] Tony Blair warn against Pakistani madrassas, the general [Musharraf] launched an assault, putting four years of bridge-building at stake,” Maulana Rasheed Ghazi, a respected Islamic scholar, told ISN Security Watch.

“They have picked up some extremely docile ulemas who have never said a word beyond prayers,” Ghazi said.

The religio-political leadership of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) rejects allegations that Pakistan’s madrassas have played any sort of role in terrorism.

Professor Tahir Andrabi of California’s Pomona College and co-author of a World Bank-funded study finds that madrassa attendance accounts for less than 1 per cent of school enrollment in Pakistan and that there is no evidence of a dramatic increase in recent years. The enrollment is less than 7.5 per cent in areas close to Afghanistan.

Pakistani religious institutions are respected within the Muslim world for their standard of education, says Syed Rashid Bukhari, a researcher on madrassa reforms at the Islamabad-based Institute of Policy Studies.

He agrees with Bergen and Pandey that Pakistan’s madrassas are ill-equipped to provide “terrorism” training to their students.

“Since 9/11, every madrassa I have visited to discuss change and reform seems to [be willing to] transform while protecting their core values and specializations,” he said.

Reforming the madrassas

The government’s failure to devise a framework to manage the madrassas is largely to blame, say many critics.

Musharraf recently appointed his former intelligence chief and current education minister, Lieutenant General (retd) Ashraf Jehangir Qazi as chairman of the Madrassa Reform Board. He appointed Religious Affairs Minister Ijaz-ul-Haq as vice-chairman of the board. But these appointments only came after months of squabbling over who would win control over the Islamic schools, from their financial matters to their educational agendas.

“The whole process will be completed in two phases,” Federal Secretary for Religious Affairs Vakil Ahmed Khan told ISN Security Watch, adding that the Interior Ministry would complete the registration of all formal and informal madrassas in the first phase and then the newly formed commission would “streamline their curriculum and look into financial matters”.

As of 2 August, some 6,148 madrassas were registered with provincial governments, but the daunting task of registering the remaining 5,073 madrassas lies ahead.

Many observers believe that the government’s proposed madrassa reforms are not necessarily the answer to the problem.

Shahid Hafeez Kardar, a former finance minister for the Punjab provincial government, says the answer to the problem lies in improving the country’s education system as a whole.

“The reforms mean little if the government schools fail to offer good and cheap education to the poor,” he told ISN Security Watch.

Experts say that millions of dollars in international aid for education reform remain unused because of the government’s inability to plan their disbursement.

But while the government seems incapable of handling the reforms, some analysts also believe that the West lacks the cultural sensitivity to step in and help.

Wali Zahid, a social scientist and former editor of The News, recalled an incident in which a Western donor fielded female teachers who were “too Western, even for ordinary folks” to teach English to ulemas in Peshawar and Multan. “If it was deliberate, it was crass,” he says, “if it was by error, it was simply naïve”.

Maulana Faiz-ur-Rahman, the principal of the Uloom-i-Islami madrassa who introduced computer science and mathematics to his students long before the 11 September 2001 attacks, says the madrassas stand to face even tougher challenges thanks to the “war on terror”. However, he says: “They want to transform, but let it be gradual and homegrown.”

“The government can only succeed if it comes with good intentions to help us and does not attempt to alter our identity or force a Western agenda on us,” says Qari Hanif Jalandhary, a madrassa spokesman.

He says the madrassas refused to accept any financial assistance from Western donors or the government “that may compromise our autonomy”.

Rashid agrees with Jalandhary that the government cannot introduce any change without first earning the confidence of the madrassas, whose tradition dates back to the birth of Islam.

Naveed Ahmad is ISN Security Watch’s senior correspondent in Pakistan. He is an investigative journalist and broadcaster whose work regularly appears in the Pakistani daily newspaper, The News, and the monthly magazine, Newsline. Mr Ahmad also hosts a 30-minute current affairs talk show, Insight, for Radio Pakistan’s News & Current Affairs Channel.

Pakistan: Democracy disappointed

Pakistan: Democracy disappointed

 

http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details_print.cfm?id=18180

 

The hopes of an independent Supreme Court are dashed with a verdict allowing President Musharraf to continue his military rule and run for re-election as president, while state forces turn violent on protesters.

 

By Naveed Ahmad in Islamabad for ISN Security Watch (01/10/07)

 

Three days after winning a Supreme Court verdict to continue his military rule, the regime of Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf faces heightened political agitation.

Brute use of force against the protesting lawyers and journalists covering the political drama live on television from Islamabad's Constitution Avenue has pushed the media fraternity into the fray.

Nationwide, businesses were closed and courts remained abandoned as masses donned black stripes on their shoulders in protest against the controversial Supreme Court verdict and an Election Commission that is clearly pro-Musharraf.

After a fortnight of marathon hearings, the Supreme Court overruled half a dozen pleas seeking to disqualify General Musharraf from running in the upcoming presidential race while continuing to serve as the chief of the army. In a 6-3 verdict, the nine-member bench turned down the petitions as "non-maintainable," passing the buck to the explicitly pro-Musharraf Election Commission.

Shortly afterward, the Election Commission cleared the path for Musharraf to contest the 6 October presidential election, which will see the president elected by a parliamentary vote.

A fraternity of lawmakers expressed outrage at the decision of the Supreme Court, which they had thought become independent with the restoration of popular Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Musharraf had earlier this year suspended Chaudhry on dubious allegations in a move that led to mass country-wide protests and culminated in the Supreme Court's reinstatement of the popular justice. The Chaudhry-led court appeared of late to be emboldened against Musharraf, and many had predicted that it would not allow the general to run for another term as president without first shedding his military uniform.

"It is not a verdict but a presidential order prepared in the Army House," said Ali Ahmed Kurd, a top lawyer who had led a mass protest in support of the chief justice since 9 March. Kurd was rendered unconscious after being beaten by police on Saturday at the gates of the Supreme Court during an impressive lawyers' rally against the Election Commission.

A few meters away, Aitzaz Ahsan - the country's most respected lawyer and a vehement supporter of Chaudhry - was being mishandled by police for opposing Musharraf's candidacy for president.

Fearing a backlash in other parts of the country, the government blacked out private TV channels as they showed riot police brutally thrashing journalists covering the protests.

The prime minister and half of his cabinet present inside the Election Commission looked the other way while over 30 journalists were hospitalized, some with head injuries and even dislocated limbs.

Despite what the protesters view as a very disappointing ruling, Chief Justice Chaudhry has pledged to investigate the abuse of state power during the protests, and has summoned top government officials and requested video footage of all televised coverage of the protests, as well as hospital records. Regardless of his efforts to this end, it is unclear where the judge stands.

Back to the judiciary

Musharraf has sent out a blunt message to the entire nation, said Rashid Mafzool Zaka, an Islamabad-based political analyst and academic.

"Here is a regime with zero tolerance for opposition, judicial and political both," he told ISN Security Watch, pointing out that this entire crisis has unfolded on the doorstep of the Supreme Court.

However, another presidential candidate, Wajihuddin Ahmad, a Supreme Court judge who refused to validate Musharraf's military rule and stepped down in January 2000, still hopes to block the general's march to the presidential office.

The country's constitution does not allow the outgoing legislatures to elect a president for a fresh term. It also does not permit a serving government officer to contest a political office.

Though Musharraf has indicated his willingness to quit his post as army chief by 15 November, he would have to wait for two years to become eligible - in accordance with the constitution - to contest for a public office.

Thanks to a weak and subservient Election Commission, the presidential polls are set to be held on 6 October, and Musharraf is clearly set to win.

In a bid to deprive the process of credibility, the opposition political parties have decided to resign en masse from the legislature, while the Islamist-dominated Frontier province assembly is being dissolved.

"If one of the federation units does not participate in the presidential election, the whole exercise becomes meaningless," constitutional lawyer Shaukat Siddiqui told local media.

However, Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP) remains the only non-government party to refuse to resign before the presidential elections. Instead, it has fielded a candidate to ensure "legitimacy" of the process.

Though Bhutto maintains that she could not agree to Musharraf's power-sharing formula, secret talks and soft statements remain, and it is unclear if she will effectively prevent the rest of the opposition's attempt to thwart what is widely viewed as an illegal election.

Federal Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmad, for one, has high hopes for the Musharraf-Benazir power-sharing deal. "The secret contacts have never severed between the two of us [...] It is a matter of days and not weeks," he told ISN Security Watch in a telephone interview.

Bhutto has been shuttling between London and Washington over the past few weeks, and the mediation role being played by US State Department official Richard Boucher and British politician Jack Straw is no secret. The US would like to see Bhutto and Musharraf reach a power-sharing deal, as they view both as figures Washington can work with, despite mass protests in Pakistan for a return to democracy.

A senior PPP leader close to Bhutto believes the deal will become a reality once Musharraf sheds his military uniform as promised in November. Requesting anonymity, he claimed that both Bhutto and Musharraf were in direct telephone contact with each other.

Interestingly, Bhutto's planned return to the country in November after a decade of self-exile due to major corruption charges against her speaks volumes of her understanding with the military junta. She is clearly giving way for Musharraf to smoothly take over as president for another term. In return, she will expect the corruption charges against her to be eased and is banking on the post of prime minister.

Defining moment for democracy

In the words of Munir A Malik, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, after completing the first phase of Chief Justice Chaudhry's restoration, the lawyers' movement has entered its second crucial phase - the removal of General Musharraf. And despite this most recent major setback, the lawyers remained determined.

"It is set to be a long, drawn out battle, and we are prepared for one," he told ISN Security Watch. "Though it shocked the nation badly, Friday's verdict speaks volumes about the degree of the Supreme Court's independence."

Soon after the shocking verdict, civil society activists marched in Supreme Court premises carrying a casket meant to symbolize the death of the independent judiciary.

"The judges have let us down while we had much greater hopes from them," one disappointed voter, Zain Qureshi, a grocery shop-owner in neighboring Rawalpindi, told ISN Security Watch.

And many others echo his sentiments.

But analysts recognize that it is not only the judiciary that has dropped the ball here, but politicians as well.

Ayesha Siddiqa Agha, author of the book Military Inc: Inside Pakistan's Military Economy, writes: "The judges are clearly not willing to take the pressure of filling the gap created due to the absence of a popular political movement."

With journalists and lawyers joining hands after Saturday's open state violence, the politicians finally seem to be pulling their act together. The likely resignations from the legislature and dissolution of a provincial assembly would have far-reaching consequences for Musharraf's credibility.

"We will be able to sustain our movement at any cost but much depends on the Supreme Court, which has always validated the military takeovers," Imran Khan, from the partyTehrik-i-Insaf, told ISN Security Watch.

Undoubtedly, the US remains a crucial player in Pakistan's political crisis, and without Washington's backing, Musharraf could not have survived this long.

Ironically, both Pakistan and Burma (Myanmar) have captured mainstream media headlines over the past two weeks for the same reasons: The ruling Myanmar military junta is drawing Washington's ire for drowning democracy under military dictatorship, while the same situation in Pakistan is being supported by the Bush administration.

 

 

Naveed Ahmad is ISN Security Watch's senior correspondent in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Besides reporting for Pakistani TV channel, Geo News and Germany's DW-TV, he is also a special correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers group in the US.

 

Musharraf's new game plan

 

As the time for general elections draws near, Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf struggles to stay in-charge by compromising with rival Benazir Bhutto who still enjoys Washington's confidence.

By Naveed Ahmad in Islamabad for ISN Security Watch (02/08/07)

Despite some recent serious setbacks, Pakistani military ruler General Musharraf's quest for power is still going strong. After eight years of dictatorship, the general is now mulling strategic adjustments to secure another term as president and as a key American ally in the "war on terror."

At a recent meeting with newspaper editors, Musharraf trotted out the stale doctrine of "unity of command," which critics say is a cover for authoritarianism. Saying he was "a true democrat at heart," he described his controversial army fatigues as "his second skin."

With general elections due in October, Musharraf is carefully weighing his options for remaining in power.

Over the weekend, the general met with exiled former prime minister Benazir Bhutto to talk about a power-sharing agreement. Though deliberations of this interaction have been kept under tight wraps, Musharraf's political allies have expressed shock at not having been consulted over the issue.

Sources privy to the meeting in both the camps suggest that Musharraf may quit the Chief of Army Staff office by December after being prematurely re-elected as president for another term by the outgoing parliament, an act with no constitutional justification.

"We are practicing politics of pragmatism […] He [Musharraf] needs a way out and the country requires a liberal and courageous leadership," said a senior leader of Benazir's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) from London.

In a quid pro quo, the corruption-tainted Bhutto is seeking to become a third-time prime minister. However, Musharraf would knock down the clause of the 17th Amendment that prevents an individual from becoming prime minister for the third time.

The 27 July meeting in Abu Dhabi followed a year's worth of exhaustive ground work by emissaries as the Musharraf camp not only softened rhetoric against the liberal-minded PPP but also eased off pressure against its leader by withdrawing corruption cases.

The military regime has already made significant "conciliatory" moves, withdrawing a corruption case against her from prosecution in Swiss and Spanish courts, unfreezing her bank accounts and not perusing corruption cases in the Pakistani courts.

Last year, the government released her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, on bail after some nine years in prison.

Benazir told Germany's Focus magazine that extremists were plotting to overthrow Musharraf and the religious seminaries had been converted "into military headquarters with well-stocked arsenals."

She has no differences with Musharraf regime over foreign and defense policies, should she has blamed the military for following a policy of appeasing the Islamists since 1999.

"Another meeting between Musharraf and Bhutto is likely by September in the US or any other western capital to seal the power-sharing deal in the presence of guarantors," a key interlocutor between the two camps told ISN Security Watch on condition of anonymity.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Niazi told ISN Security Watch in a telephone interview that "Both the leaders need more time to reach a mutually acceptable pact as they have not gone beyond agreeing in principle to share power in the next dispensation."

The minister also confirmed the likelihood of Musharraf doffing his military fatigues by December after winning the next presidential term.

Changed realities

Since the restoration of Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry by the Supreme Court and the flawed and bloody military operation against hardline clerics in Islamabad's Lal Masjid, Musharraf has been weakened beyond doubt.

For the first time in its checkered history, the Supreme Court has refused to bow down before a sitting military ruler. Thanks to a well organized lawyers' movement and massive public backing of the chief justice, Musharraf's plan to re-elect himself as president from the sitting parliament, supervise the elections due in October and cut a deal with Bhutto, all remain vulnerable to the scrutiny of the apex court.

Musharraf and his regime have been upset over the judicial activism exercised by Chief Justice Chaudhry for many months. Chaudhry would initiate judicial proceedings on any matter of public importance ranging from abuse of power reported in a newspaper or the murky privatization deals of huge industrial units by the government.

The Supreme Court is already hearing a petition by Qazi Hussain Ahmad, president of the Islamist MMA alliance, challenging Musharraf's claim over the army chief office.

The key opposition party, the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), PML(N), has also appealed to the apex court for the return of its leader and two-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who was exiled to Saudi Arabia after Musharraf overthrew his elected government through a bloodless coup in October 1999.

"We are confident that the Supreme Court would permit the return of PML(N) President Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif with dignity and honor to their homeland," Khawaja Asif, a senior party leader, told ISN Security Watch.

The fissures among the ruling coalition are now making it to the headlines. Various key cabinet members complain of being left out in the cold when it came to meeting Bhutto for a power-sharing deal.

The president of the pro-Musharraf Muslim League, Chaudhry Shujaat, refuses to accept that a deal has been reached with the rival PPP.

"There is no need to go into an alliance with any other party including the PPP because we have both strength in the parliament and a vote bank in the streets," he told reporters at a press conference.

In 2002, the military established a political party of its own, the PML(Q), meant as a mainstay for Musharraf. However, the party has not worked out as planned, and Musharraf has failed to win its total loyalty. Many PML(Q) leaders - former PPP and PML(N) lawmakers - chose to accept prison terms on dubious corruption charges rather than to support Musharraf. Today, the league is plagued with numerous internal leadership battles.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) is another key but smaller coalition partner in the government. The MQM is by far Musharraf's favorite for a number of reasons. MQM leaders hail from the coastal areas of Sindh province and their vote bank comprises migrants from southern India to Pakistan after 1947. Musharraf's family shares cultural and ethnic ties with the MQM.

"We favor political contacts but the talk of a deal with PPP is too farfetched," said Farooq Sattar, a key MQM leader.

The president wants all leaders on board to deal with the threat of religious extremism while holding free and fair elections on schedule," he explained. The MQM leader was upset over the prospects of Benazir's return to Pakistan. "She can come to face the courts but cannot enter parliament under the constitution."

Qazi Hussain Ahmad, the most vocal of Musharraf's critics, says the time is up for military rule and "the talk of a deal with Benazir Bhutto sheds light on the fairness of the forthcoming elections," referring to indications that Musharraf feels he could not win a free and fair election without joining Bhutto's camp.

Walking a tightrope

Washington too has clearly distanced itself from Musharraf. The US Congress recently linked aid to Pakistan with success in the "war on terror" and the holding of free and fair elections. At home, the Islamist backlash to a bloody military operation is claiming the lives of security officials across the country in suicide attack or bomb explosions.

The Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) has already opposed Musharraf's re-election for another term before elections to the new assemblies. And Musharraf's approval ratings have plummeted significantly, according to a poll conducted by the International Republican Institute.

"By any objective standard, General Musharraf has not been much of a leader in war or peace […] As his time comes to an end, he can do the nation a favor by realizing that the play is up and the curtains have come down […] Let him not go raging into the night […] For once Pakistan can do with a gentle transition," says Ayaz Amir, a renowned columnist with Dawn newspaper.

---

Naveed Ahmad is a senior correspondent in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Besides reporting for Pakistani TV channel, Geo News and Germany DW-TV, he is also a special correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers group in the United States

An ISN Security Watch article

Musharraf finds friends in West, foes at home
The West's support for Pakistan's military dictator, General Pervez Musharraf, will not be enough to keep him above water at home, where political and militant opposition against him is growing. Commentary by Naveed Ahmad in Islamabad for ISN Security Watch (03/02/05)

In the West, Pakistan's military president, General Pervez Musharraf, has been praised as a staunch ally in the "war on terror", but at home he is better known as a dictatorial leader who has kept democracy at bay by ensuring that the military controls every aspect of political life. And while there is no sign that his support in the West is waning, there have been indications that his days could be numbered, as the opposition picks up momentum. The Pakistani military dictator's decision to stay on as army chief, while at the same time controlling the all-powerful office of the presidency, came as no real surprise to most Pakistanis. On 30 December 2004, Musharraf reneged on his promise made the year before to shed his military uniform in order to legitimize the presidency. Musharraf already has the power to appoint all three chiefs of the armed forces and the chief justices of the courts, sack an elected government, and even dissolve the parliament. And while he has made a good show before the Western world of targeting corruption, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and various opposition leaders say that Musharraf is only blackmailing parliamentarians with the threat of corruption charges if they should go against his policies. Musharraf will remain the head of the military until 2007, unless fate ordains otherwise, which it very well could in the face of growing opposition to his rule and increasing Islamist militancy - not to mention the three known assassination attempts he has survived since September 2001 alone.

Consolidating power

After the October 1999 bloodless military coup against prime minister Nawaz Sharif, the political forces' immediate reaction was to seek a fast transition back to civilian rule. The question for politicians all along has been how to get the army back in the barracks, and how to get on with politics as usual - one of the ultimate goals of which would be to put the military in its rightful place as the government department responsible for defending the country's geographical frontiers. Musharraf's view, on the other hand, is a divergent one, which is entrenched within the military. He has established a military-dominated National Security Council and consolidated his position within the armed forces. He has the power to choose the commanders of both the air force and the navy, with no checks and balances. Musharraf is on his third extension as general since 1998. Since 1999, he has reshuffled and pre-maturely retired 38 lieutenant and major generals, amongst whom nine were commanding the army corps - and six alone in the most critical Rawalpindi Corps, the closest to the nerve and power center of Islamabad.

Growing opposition
But opposition to Musharraf - both in the government and among militant forces - is growing, and there is always the fear of another assassination attempt. Those fears are especially prevalent since the suspected mastermind of the attempts on his life escaped from custody at Rawalpindi's Chaklala air base and is still on the run. Opposition parties are growing bolder. Ditched and left in the cold, the religio-political alliance Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (the United Action Front, MMA), has already begun mobilizing its street power by launching an "oust Musharraf campaign". The outspoken opposition leader, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, has repeatedly branded the general as "a security threat" to Pakistan, for siding with the US in killing innocent Muslims. At the same time, the pro-Western liberal and democratic Pakistan Peoples Party has half-heartedly joined the staunch, anti-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League of deposed prime minister Sharif, and is set to launch a resistance campaign from a common platform called the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD). While the influential MMA has already embarked on a hard-hitting protest campaign, the ARD has yet to chalk out its own plans. Sooner or later, though, the two groups are bound to join forces.

The threat of Islamist militancy
Musharraf's greatest worry is the growing political appeal for Islamists and militancy. The unchecked military operations targeting the country's tribal region of South Waziristan have created much anger and discontent among Muslims in the area. The result has been a groundswell of support for Islamists. While the fractious political opposition may lack the required shrewdness to bring down the most powerful dictator in the country's 57-year history, the militants will prove more of a challenge. Musharraf's fate depends less on support from foreign capitals and loyal subordinates in fatigues, and more on how smartly he manages to limit opposition to his person and policies from political and militant opponents. And the line between his political and militant opponents is becoming increasingly blurred, with six mainstream Islamist parties united under the MMA umbrella to form a powerful opposition that holds much influence in the restive Frontier and Balochistan provinces neighboring Afghanistan.

Signs of reconciliation
Despite the backing of the army and the US, Musharraf is floundering. So far, the military's backing has provided the system with a semblance of stability, but it is crumbling under its own contradictions. The parliament and the cabinet are almost dysfunctional. In a space of just three months, Musharraf has sacked one prime minister, pushed aside a second, and appointed a third. It is widely understood that he has initiated a reconciliation process with the pro-Western People's Party of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. That move in itself demonstrates Musharraf's own insecurity. Bringing Bhutto's pro-Western party back onto the scene would leave less room for Islamist parties, like the influential MMA, to maneuver. In the restive and resource-rich province of Balochistan, where military forces are battling almost daily rocket attacks from tribal militants, there are also signs that Musharraf is rethinking his strategy. On Wednesday, he called for a peace resolution to the conflict in lieu of direct military action.

Friends in high places
While the general thrives on military support at home, abroad he thrives on support from Washington, London, Paris, and other power centers. He has cleverly played his cards as a frontline ally of US President George Bush in the "war on terror", while at the same time crushing the last vestiges of democracy in Pakistan and luring Pakistani citizens with promises of "good governance" and economic development. Former US secretary of state Colin Powell certainly recognized Musharraf's usefulness in the "war on terror", stating publicly that it was necessary for the general to hold on to his dual position as president and army chief in order to continue fighting terrorism. "We've got the Pakistanis playing a much more aggressive role in their frontier areas to go after Taliban and al-Qaida remnants and I am personally aware that General Musharraf has made a tremendous difference in helping us achieve our objectives," Powell told reporters in October 2004. Musharraf has deployed 70'000 troops along the Pakistan-Afghan border and has reportedly handed over 500 al-Qaida-linked suspects to the US. "General Musharraf has done for Pakistani what was needed the most over the past many, many years," he said. In another talk with reporters, he said: "Three years ago this month, Pakistan was certainly tolerating if not directly supporting in many ways the Taliban. We had a very strained, difficult relationship with Pakistan and in a bold, strategic move, President Musharraf decided - in a phone call I will never forget on about the 13th or 14th of September [2001] - that he would move Pakistan in an entirely new direction. "And he has done that," Powell said. Indeed, few in Pakistan would argue against that: Musharraf has certainly taken Pakistan in an "entirely new direction" - but towards democracy it is not.

Washington's priorities
But democracy is not what Washington is primarily concerned with here. Musharraf used his latest tour of Washington, London, and Paris to convey to his domestic opponents that the world was siding with him. Powell rejected suggestions that Musharraf had breached any laws in wanting to retain his position as the chief of his country's powerful army, despite the unconstitutionality of holding that post along with the presidency. "The parliament provided for means for him to do this. He has exercised that option and it is now a matter for the Pakistan people and the Pakistan parliament, which has already judged this, to make any other judgments they wish to make," said Powell. British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac were no less generous in their support for their Pakistani ally. Staunch support from the Bush administration has further boosted Musharraf's morale. Musharraf was the second leader, after British Prime Minister Tony Blair, to be received at the White House after Bush's November re-election. There is a clear indication that Washington wants Musharraf to stay in uniform as long as Bush's "war on terror" continues. And a Pakistani leader in military uniform can certainly deliver far more than a democratically elected one. In a December editorial, the Los Angeles Times, noted: "The general's opponents, it seems, now have no option but to concede that their adversary has returned from the US as a powerful military leader who will remain in control despite what it may mean for the future of democracy in Pakistan." However, the latest Freedom House study lists Pakistan in the "Not Free" category. It is not included among the countries that grant political rights and civil liberties to their citizens, but is instead ranked with the world's worst rights violators, such as Rwanda, Angola, Cambodia, and others.

The price for approval

But Washington's continued support is not without conditions. In return for turning a blind eye to the crushing of democracy in Pakistan, Washington will continue to twist Musharraf's arm over a nuclear proliferation scandal involving one of its top scientists, who sold nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya, and North Korea. Last February, top Pakistani scientist Dr Qadeer Khan confessed to having leaked nuclear weapons secrets to the three "rogue" nations. Musharraf pardoned Khan for his sins. But the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, said Khan's revelations were likely just the "tip of the iceberg" of nuclear black market dealings. Both the UN and Washington are eager to get their hands on Khan to find out more. What it comes down to is this: Pakistan is the key to finding out about Iran's nuclear capabilities, and a compliant Musharraf is making this much easier. According to an article in The New Yorker in late January by veteran journalist Seymour Hersh, the Bush administration has been conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran since last summer, if not before. Citing sources "with close ties to the Pentagon", Hersh said an American commando task force had been working closely with Pakistani scientists and technicians who had had previously dealings with Iranian scientists. That task force, he said, was using information from Pakistani experts to infiltrate eastern Iran from Afghanistan in order to locate Iranian nuclear installations for a possible US attack. Pakistan has denied any "government-to-government contact" or cooperation between Pakistan and the US on the nuclear issue. But if Hersh's reporting is correct, Washington is likely to want to hold on to these valuable Pakistani ties. In the meantime, it is willing to turn a blind eye to Pakistan's own nuclear development, which Musharraf is seeking to expand.

 

Naveed Ahmad is an investigative correspondent for newspaper The News and monthly Newsline. He often contributes to reputed foreign publications. He is a visiting faculty on conflict resolution and civil-military relations at Iqra University. He was awarded the Hawaii-based East-West Center's Jefferson Fellowship in fall 2000 and the Washington Press Center's "Conflict Resolution and Nuclear Non-proliferation" fellowship in 2004. He can be reached at naveed@islamabad.net

ISN Security Watch - Your daily security check on the Euro-Atlantic region. For our full news service visit our website, http://www.isn.ethz.ch

Mysterious disappearances in Pakistan

Musharraf's Pakistan and his unchecked intelligence agencies reek havoc on human rights, as over 400 families struggle for information about their missing loved ones.

By Naveed Ahmad in Islamabad for ISN Security Watch (15/08/07)

In the early days of June 2004, a few unidentified persons were seen inquiring about Atiq-ur-Rahman, a young scientist from the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), near his home in Abbotabad city, some 110 kilometers north of the capital Islamabad. Atiq went missing under mysterious circumstances on the morning of 23 June while his family and friends waited desperately for his wedding party.

Since then, Atiq's parents, his brother and five sisters, have been awaiting his return. "I believe my son will come home safe and sound," Siddiq-ur-Rahman, holding a framed picture of Atiq receiving a gold medal from none other than General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, tells ISN Security Watch.

Because of Atiq's position in the country's Atomic Energy Commission, his friends and family have logically assumed that he has been taken away by one of the country's intelligence agencies, but there has been no official word from anyone and the disappearance remains a mystery.

Three years later, on 16 July this year, Atiq's father-in-law finally said the engagement with his daughter Irum was no longer on.

Though the local police registered Atiq as missing, a formal investigation was never launched, and the family was soon asked to stop visiting the police station, saying one of the intelligence agencies had picked him up and there was nothing the local police could do.

To the utter surprise of the family, the PAEC did not panic over the development and instead kept dispatching warning letters asking Atiq to report to the office or lose his job. Eventually they stopped sending his salary.

"As a standard operating procedure, such cases are reported to our security department who are meant to handle them," a top PAEC official told ISN Security Watch.

Imran, Atiq's brother, recalls that a neighbor told him about several individuals who had been inquiring about his brother shortly before he disappeared. However, there are no witnesses to testify as to whether they saw Atiq being taken away.

More mysterious disappearances

Since 2002, over 400 families have claimed that their loved ones were picked up by the intelligence agencies under mysterious conditions. A few lucky families received briefed phone calls from the detention centers, but the majority have not been so lucky.

Despite the high profile coverage these cases were given in Pakistan's popular daily newspaper, The News, not a single human rights group had taken up the cause.

Realizing the void, Amina Masood, the wife of a missing philanthropist and businessman Masood Ahmed Janjua, has taken her case to the streets. Her actions have led other families in similar situations to join her and set up the nongovernmental Defense of Human Rights group.

Masood Janjua, now 45, disappeared on 30 July 2005 while on his way to catch a bus to Peshawar for an Islamic study group with Tablighi Jamaat, which describes itself as a peaceful movement. His young friend, Faisal Faraz, also went missing the same day from the very same place.

Amina braved intimidation from the intelligence corps and persistently demanded that the government speak up about her missing husband and dozens of others.

Her efforts moved Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry who took up the missing persons cases, forcing the government to trace around 100 missing persons - over half of whom have been released by the intelligence agencies.

The Defense Ministry, which controls Inter-Services Intelligence and Military Intelligence, finally has been summoned to the Supreme Court following the restoration of the chief justice in July after General Musharraf failed to prove severe allegations against the country’s top judge.

Some of the missing persons are Islamic militants and possibly criminals but the country's law opposes detention of any citizen without official charges followed by legal proceedings.

Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a mother of three children, disappeared from her Karachi residence in 2001. Unconfirmed reports suggest that she has been sent to Guantanamo Bay prison. Pakistani Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier General Javed Iqbal Cheema denies any knowledge of the whereabouts of Dr Aafia or Amina Masood's husband.

"We are doing our best to trace the missing persons and duly share the available information with the Supreme Court," he told ISN Security Watch via telephone.

Amina Masood does not accept the government's version. She says some of those released on orders from the Supreme Court orders have filed affidavits claiming to have seen her husband in the detention centers.

She says her family received a phone call from General Musharraf's military secretary last year promising that her husband would be freed soon.

Amina refers to a letter from Dr Imran Munir, who clearly stated he had met Masood Janjua in a detention center in the Mangla cantonment, around 90 kilometers from Islamabad. Imran has been sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of espionage and the Supreme Court has ordered authorities to bring him before the court.

Dr Imran Munir's family claims that he is being punished for falling in love with the daughter of a brigadier who had invited him over for dinner on the same night that the 24-year-old went missing.

Charged or released

Lawyers for the missing argue that all of them should be charged and tried in open court or released.

In its annual report on human rights, the US State Department has acknowledged the disappearances. "There was an increase of politically motivated disappearances. Police and security forces held prisoners incommunicado and refused to provide information on their whereabouts, particularly in terrorism and national security cases."

Amnesty, Asia Watch and Human Rights Watch have been far more critical of forced disappearances during the Musharraf regime.

Many of the missing persons belong to nationalist outfits, fighting for the rights of under-developed areas such as Sindh and Balochistan. The government accuses these nationalists of receiving funding and training from Afghanistan and India.

The nationalist groups base their politics on ethnicity and regionalism. Historians use the term nationalism to refer to this historical transition and to the emergence and predominance of nationalist ideology. Prominent among these in Pakistan are the Balochistan Liberation Army and Mahajar Qaumi Movement (MQM).

Due to Amina Masood's relentless courage and humiliating revelations in the wake of a major judicial crisis, the country's Inter-Services Intelligence and Military Intelligence have faced the worst blows ever.

The death of Saud Memon, a Karachi cloth merchant, two weeks after being dumped near his house after four years of detention, further exposed the spy agencies' dubious activities.

Memon was picked up in Pretoria, South Africa, by US forces after the remains of Daniel Pearl were found on his barren land along the Super Highway. After US investigators failed to find any link between Memon and Pearl's killers, he was handed over to the Pakistani security agencies in January 2006 in Karachi.</>

The 44-year-old was brought before a Supreme Court bench on 4 May that year on a stretcher, his eyes looking blank and saliva spilling out of his mouth.

Weighing only 18 kilograms, Memon met a tragic death in a hospital in Karachi at the hands of alleged mental and physical torture.

Affidavits submitted in the Supreme Court by Pakistani citizens released by the intelligence agencies suggest that Saud was physically weak but had no mental or psychological problem after returning from US detention.

Mehmood Memon, Saud's younger brother, told ISN Security Watch via telephone from Karachi, "We are extremely terrified … Saud was dumped on the roadside with an implicit message: keep your mouth shut or else..."

In Rawalpindi, Amina Masood says she is receiving abusive telephonic calls and SMS messages threatening her life should she further pursue the release of missing persons.

"More recently, we are being informed through friends that Masood has been sent to Guantanamo Bay, but no such statement is furnished before the Supreme Court," Amina tells ISN Security Watch.

Around 100 Pakistanis are thought to be still detained in Guantanamo Bay, even after the release of some 90 Pakistanis over the past few months.

"Musharraf himself … has a son, Bilal, a daughter and grandchildren. He should be able to feel our agony and pain," pleads Atiq's semi-illiterate, bewildered mother.

"The least that can suffice is a word about our dear one's life and health," she speaks for herself and many others sitting beside her outside the Parliament building in a silent protest.

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Naveed Ahmad is a senior correspondent in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Besides reporting for Pakistani TV channel, Geo News and Germany’s DW-TV, he is also a special correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers group in the US.

Pakistan: Defining moment for democracy

 

Political maneuvering, manipulation and deals intensify as general and presidential elections draw near and Musharraf's time and options run out.

http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=18126

By Naveed Ahmad in Islamabad for ISN Security Watch (17/09/07)

Pakistani military President General Pervez Musharraf's political foes on Sunday reacted sharply to his desperate desire to manipulate a fresh presidential term by unanimously vowing to quit the legislatures.

The move followed a fresh backdoor change in Election Commission regulations for the eligibility of presidential candidates in the form of what the opposition is calling an "illegal" amendment aimed at facilitating Musharraf's candidature and his dual role as army chief.

The newly amended election rules exempt General Musharraf from an Article 63 disqualification, which otherwise prevents a government servant from participating in elections unless retired for at least two years while also denying the candidature to someone who holds an office of profit in the government service.

Presidential elections are due to be held in the first week of November. The president's supporters have indicated he will quit as army chief if elected to another five-year term.

"We will resign from the assemblies and quit the provincial governments as soon as the nomination papers of General Musharraf are accepted, allowing him to contest the presidential election," Raja Zafarul Haq of the All Parties Democratic Alliance and chairman of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Muslim League, said in a Sunday statement following an urgent meeting of the 32-party conglomerate.

The fresh amendment changing the rules for presidential candidates puts the Election Commission directly in conflict with the Supreme Court where a nine-member panel of judges resumes hearing on Monday regarding Musharraf's claim to the presidency and army chief offices for another term.

Devoid of any neutrality, the Election Commission of Pakistan has been acting in a partisan manner since Musharraf overthrew Sharif’s elected government in October 1999.

Over half a dozen petitions by political parties as well as individual citizens are before the Supreme Court, seeking a permanent end to military rule.

"The Supreme Court is our biggest hope and Musharraf's worst nightmare," says lawyer Shaukat Siddiqui, who too took to streets for the restoration of popular Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who was suspended in May after refusing to bow to the general's dictates but later restored to his position by the Supreme Court.

Despite hectic efforts after Chaudhry's reinstatement on 20 July, the Pakistani military ruler has failed to mend fences.

Zafarul Haq said the opposition would use every constitutional and political option to resist and block the re-election of Musharraf.

Growing power-sharing woes

Though all mainstream political parties attended the opposition meeting in Islamabad, Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) stayed away.

Thanks to the diplomatic maneuverings of British politician Jack Straw and US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, General Musharraf's aides have covered much ground in power-sharing talks with the liberal-minded Bhutto. However, she does not seem happy with the outcome so far.

"Our talks are going nowhere. We cannot accept Musharraf in the presidency with his uniform on and he has been refusing to doff it," Bhutto told party workers in a telephonic address from Abu Dhabi on Saturday.

In the next breath, the two-time prime minister finally announced she would end her self exile and return to Pakistan on 18 October.

Her party spokesman, Farhatullah Babar, told ISN Security Watch that the doors of talks with Musharraf would remain open until Bhutto returned home.

Babar accuses Musharraf's political advisers of scuttling the talks. "Certain political opportunists want power at the cost of the democratic transition of the country."

The PPP, for its part, denies compromising over democracy for the removal of corruption cases against Bhutto and her spouse, Asif Zardari.