Baptized
General: Burning the Evidence: Panic Time: Asif's Game plan: CM
Stuff
By
LampPost
ISLAMABAD:
There is a sense of real panic in the President's House in Islamabad
as General Musharraf has told his close associates he would not
be going to inaugurate the new Parliament any time soon, fearing
a "Go Baba Go" situation in which the Opposition hounded
President Ghulam Ishaq Khan almost into running away.
The
panic stems from the performance of the King's Party in the National
Assembly so far when none of the pro-Musharraf politicians actually
stood up to defend the President when he was being attacked by
the fiery Opposition.
LampPost
has learnt that a strategy is being pursued by the Musharraf camp
to somehow rope in the PPP of Benazir Bhutto, through the turncoats
of her party led by Faisal Saleh Hayat, now Interior Minister.
If BB's party could be somehow placated, then Musharraf can face
the Mullahs head on and go ahead with confidence to inaugurate
the Parliament. Otherwise he will stay away for as long as is
possible. As a commando, he cannot afford to be bruised and battered
on national TV.
But
Benazir is playing a hide and seek game as she has made her unavailable
even to her own senior party men, specially when they needed key
advice on Sindh matters where PPP could form a government with
a cogent strategy. She was said to be somewhere in United States
as Assistant Secretary Christina Rocca once again prepared to
travel to Islamabad to sort out some judicial problem created
for American companies by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
As
Benazir disappeared in the US, husband Asif was being treated
kindly in anticipation of some progress. LampPost has, however,
learnt that Asif was in no mood of any compromise with the Musharraf
regime or the political set up led by Mir Jamali.
LampPost
can reveal on good authority that Asif Zardari had done his own
calculations about the new political set up and he was of the
firm opinion that this 'controlled democracy' will not last for
long, thus providing the present Opposition a much better opportunity,
and very soon, to improve its popular power base.
According
to the Asif theory, General Musharraf was almost on the brink
of being overthrown and either he will have to surrender power
to the politicians or he would be thrown out by another set of
Generals, with whom the PPP would be able to make a dignified
and stable arrangement to return to power.
Whatever
his political goals and strategies LampPost has learnt that Zardari
surprised his long time friend, and a bitter critic, the Editor
of this newspaper, Shaheen Sehbai, when he called him in Washington
from Nawabshah last week. The call was a surprise because in their
last meeting, Sehbai and Zardari had a bitter argument in August
of 1996, when at a dinner hosted by late journalist and Editor,
Farooq Mazhar, Sehbai predicted that soon Asif would land in jail.
No one of the many Islamabad luminaries present could imagine
that the prediction would become so real that for years, and despite
many changes of government, Asif would still be in jail.
That
may be an old prediction come true, but pundits are now making
new ones in Islamabad and are looking forward to Mir Jamali and
his upcoming confrontation with his present boss, President Musharraf.
Many
in Pakistan are interpreting the announcement of cut in power
rates by PM Jamali as an act of defiance to the Musharraf rule
as it militates against the macro-economic policy unleashed by
Citibank's Shaukat Aziz under IMF dictat. But similar Jamali orders
are not going to be easily being implemented, so LampPost learns
the seeds of a confrontation have already been sowed and as the
political system takes roots, with the setting up of provincial
governments and the Upper House, the battle lines will get sharper
and clearer.
Jamali's
order to restore a handout of Rs 10 million to each member of
the National Assembly also goes against the spirit of the three-year
old policy of General Musharraf. But if the money is delivered,
the old wines of corruption would be uncorked again, Musharraf
or no Musharraf. But can he stop all this and still have a democratic
facade? LampPost has learnt that Musharraf has gone through a
major re-orientation exercise in his mind and many actions and
decision which he considered as "corruption" by the
politicians, are no longer defined as such. In other words the
General has been 'baptized' by the politicians, led by the Choudhries
of Gujrat, now his sole political saviors and supporters. All
his actions now are directed at one goal -- preserve his own power,
corruption or no corruption.
This
new convert to Choudhry-style politics is now figuring out how
to escape from future accountability. This was evident in his
orders last week to burn all official records of the April referendum,
Wow, destroying evidence against himself? Can someone catch the
thief and stop this mutilation of the law? One warrior in the
legal community, Syed Zafar Ali Shah of Rawalpindi, has already
moved the courts. But what does the act mean, LampPost tried to
gather from legal and political experts. In simple words it means
the General and his men are scared of accountability and do not
want any evidence to be left for any future set up to haul them
up.
One
sharp Election Commission cookie, however, told the LampPost,
the General and his men were proving to be really naive, if they
think the record will be burnt and evidence will be destroyed.
"Do they know how many copies the baboos have already made
of all the critical pieces of paper which may be needed to prove
the fraud that the referendum was," the sharp cookie asked.
These papers include direct orders of the Generals to do certain
things and not to do others. Musharraf has already proved himself
guilty in the bar of the public opinion by ordering destruction
of the evidence. Now it is just a matter of time that he will
be convicted and sentenced by a proper court of law.
But
one sharp cookie in the new lot of politicians is Shakargarh's
young and restless, Choudhry Daniyal Aziz who, out of the blue
and working quietly, got the status of a Minister as he was named
the new head of the now baptized National Reconstruction Bureau,
once led by idealist General Naqvi.
Danny,
as he is known, will have the task of putting the novel, but recently
discarded, ideas of General Naqvi in new bottles to be presented
as reformed policies of the elected government, a hard task by
all standards of skill and trickery. His main resistance will
come from bureaucrats who now want their old power and supremacy
back. Good Luck Danny Boy!.
Signs
that the new "Reconstruction" would not be on old lines
came with the recent promotion given to a baboo, Pervez Saleem
in Grade 22. It is quite astonishing that an officer with his
reputation was promoted on the verbal orders of PM Jamali. There
are so many stories current around this bureaucrat many think
the good old days political nepotism are back with a vengeance.
Saleem is said to have four sons studying in top Canadian universities,
something no honest government servant can accomplish, unless
he has additional income, in millions.
Yet
another sign was the nomination of Ali Mohammad Maher, the same
gentleman who had
applied for a PPP ticket from PS-6 Ghotki II and NA-201. So, eager
was he for the ticket that he went from pillar to post to obtain
the ticket, and used all his means, from pressurizing the party
leadership and refraining others from applying. When he finally
was given the tickets, he did not submit the party symbol to the
Election Commission, which is mandatory and refused to surrender
the ticket back to PPP.
LampPost
learnt that he cleverly filed his nomination papers at the last
minute, when it was impossible for the PPP to repair the damage
that he had inflicted. The purpose of this clandestine act was
to ensure that the PPP was unable to put up a candidate against
him. Working with a top General and knowing the influence of the
PPP in his area, Ali Maher kept on assuring the PPP that he will
stay loyal to the party and that he will formally rejoin the PPP
after the elections. He knew that this was the best possible way
to keep the PPP out from the electoral arena of Ghotki and winning
the electoral support of the voters.
He
has already changed party affiliation from PML-F to N to PPP to
PML-Q. His education degrees have also been challenged in the
Sindh High Court where a case of impersonation is already pending
against him. The case has been filed by a certain Abdul Latif
Shah. It is alleged that the incumbent never ever appeared personally
for any examination. What a material for Chief Ministership selected
by General Musharraf. But he is not a 'corrupt politician' under
the new definitions coined by the army.
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