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Pakistan Army has squandered its reputation as the nation's savior. It owns one-third of all heavy industry and around one hundred companies. When Benazir Bhutto became too strong, ISI made Nawaz Sharif her rival.
Army, Musharraf and Islamists
Bernard Imhalsy
Over the past few months, Pakistanis have frequently heard a snide comment that was once directed at Prussia: "Other states maintain an army, but, in Pakistan, the army maintains a state." The saying comes from the book Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan's Military Economy. Its author, Ayesha Siddiqa, writes that the Pakistani armed forces control a network of foundations and trusts, which today form the core of the country's economy.
The Pakistan Army owns one-third of all heavy industry and around one hundred in-house companies that produce everything from breakfast cereal to cement. It has also sold large parcels of public land to retired officers through housing cooperatives at throwaway prices.
The military see it as perfectly natural that they should have the right to profit from their status. The accumulation of economic power is based upon the ability of the army, whether through the military secret service, the ISI, or by arbitrary means, to intervene in Pakistan's political process when it deems this is in its own and the country's best interest. In fact, they regard these as being one and the same.
Link with Islamic groups
When Benazir Bhutto became too strong, the ISI built up an unknown local politician, Nawaz Sharif, to become her rival. During the 2002 elections, President Musharraf kept the main democratic parties from gaining power only through massive election fraud.
Just as they have promoted their own economic and political interests, the military has also played a hand in the creation of Islamic underground groups. With the consent of the West, these groups were employed against the Soviet occupation forces in Afghanistan. Subsequently, the ISI accomplished what must be its masterstroke - it succeeded in cultivating the Pakistani Taliban out of the lost generation of young men that grew up in refugee camps.
Musharraf's double role
The permanent control of the country's political life by the armed forces is not without its opponents. A civil protest movement was already active in the early 1980s and forced the army to at least give up the appearance of controlling power.
And earlier this year, a substantial protest movement arose once again in response to Musharraf's suspension of a critical judge in order to prolong for another term of office his unconstitutional double role as president and head of the military.
Even the Jihadists began to rebel against manipulation by the ISI, which they had previously accepted out of tactical considerations. The turning point came with September 11.
Musharraf sided with the USA, thereby becoming a traitor to Islam in the eyes of the underground - a view also promoted by al-Qaeda. The Jihadists declared war not only against the West, but also against its Islamic accomplices.
Nonetheless, the groups continued to remain on the payroll of the ISI. Under pressure from the USA, they were eventually declared illegal and could only re-emerge under a different name.
At most, their leaders were placed under house arrest. The political costs, however, for this increasingly transparent double dealing gradually became intolerable for both sides. The persistent assassination attempts against President Musharraf show that the state has definitely mutated into an enemy of the underground.
Secret link tattered
The current crisis surrounding the Red Mosque has only deepened this break. The military authorities were openly challenged right in the heart of the capital. For a whole three months, the double dealing continued - plans to storm the mosque were already completed on February 10, yet weapons and fuel continued to flow into the mosque right under the very windows of the ISI main headquarters.
And for the first time, the radical religious leader Rashid Ghazi no longer followed the orders of his ISI commanding officers. He chose not to capitulate and later be released through the backdoor.
With his "martyr's death," he forced Musharraf and the military to finally show their true colours. The storming of the mosque has abruptly tattered the secret relationship between the secret service and the Islamists. Like Pakistani civil society at one end of the spectrum, the Jihadists are also no longer prepared to accept the army in the role of arbitrator.
President Musharraf stands isolated. The demonstrations supporting Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry show that the public refuses to accept the legitimacy of the Army continuing to play its role of savior of the nation. And the most recent terrorist attack on a military convoy proves that the Islamists now have the army in their sights.
Frankenstein
This constellation is forcing Musharraf to finally honour his pledge to wage war against extremism. This is also an opportunity for him to give priority to his constitutional role as president rather than that of a dictator and rally a grand coalition of anti-Jihadist forces behind him.
This includes, first and foremost, the generals, who, as one commentator so vividly put it, can feel the "Frankenstein monster" that they have led along by the nose for so long breathing hotly down their necks.
And then there are also the democratic parties, in particular that of Benazir Bhutto, who would be prepared to sit as prime minister at the side of President Musharraf - if he was willing to quit his uniform.
Even the coalition of Islamic parties, the MMA, is a possible ally, although it would never say so publicly. This is because radical Jihadist-Islamism threatens to erode its ideological base. Finally, Musharraf could count on the silent approval of the general public, which rejects any further Islamisation of the country.
Lesser evil
If these were the plans of Musharraf, he could also count on the West, and the USA above all, as it has remained incapable of cutting him loose, yet unwilling to strengthen him. They continue to view him as the lesser evil. America does not trust the notoriously weak democratic parties to effectively deal with the militant Islamist threat.
The USA would therefore prefer if Musharraf would build a government together with the democratic opposition - all the more so, as this democratic administration would remain dependent upon the army. To date, Musharraf has pretended to be deaf when discussion turned to permitting his democratic arch-enemies back to Pakistan.
He believes that without them he is better able to deal with the challenge of the Jihadists. The present explosive situation in Pakistan offers a chance for the West to push for a true democratic opening. SAN-Feature Service /taz/Qantara.de 2007
Translated from the German by John Bergeron.
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Musharraf's compulsion for talking to Benazir
Barrister Harun ur Rashid
The days are difficult for President Musharraf of Pakistan. Since 1999 he amended the Constitution to Presidential system, ruled Pakistan with an iron hand, brought economic stability and aligned with the US President Bush in the war on terror in 2001 against the Talebans in Afghanistan.
Politics is the art of possible. Politicians can never say "never." Sometime truth is stranger than fiction in political scene.
Who could have thought that President General Musharraf would talk to one of his political foes, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in secret in Abu Dhabi? With his popularity at a low level, there is a view that outside big powers suggested him to make reconciliation efforts with one of the exiled former Prime Ministers, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif for his political life-line.
Why is he in trouble?
President General Pervez Musharraf became too sure of himself in his position because of country's economic stability. He brought an international banker as the Prime Minister. Both of them ran the country well within their limits.
Often military Presidents do not understand that economic stability does not equate with freedom and liberty. There is a saying that fish cannot survive in very clean water and they need algae. Economic stability leads to greater desire of political freedom and some say there is a symbiotic relation-ship between the two. Economic stability is not an end itself for an individual who after a certain time craves for freedom and liberty that may not create a situation that the military President likes.
Although the President is secular in his attitude, for political power, he is known to have compromised with some Islamic parties and allowed the province, North West Frontier Province, next to Afghanistan under Islamic clerics. Groups friendly to Taleban in the province are fighting with government forces for some time. The agreement with militants in Tribal area, South Waziristan, reportedly demonstrated that the government had some limits how far they could go in Tribal areas.
The suspension of the Chief Justice of Pakistan by President Musharraf had been unwise and a great political blunder. It has manifested the President of being too sure of himself in the exercise of his power. It is reported that the wily lawyer Sharifuddin Pirzada (a former Attorney General and former foreign Minister during President Ayub's rule) advised both the President and the Prime Minister to take action against the independent-minded Chief Justice.
Both the President and the Prime Minister appeared to have failed to gauge the current simmering dissatisfaction among the civil society including human rights activists of President Musharraf's iron-handed rule. Now the Chief Justice has been reinstated by his peers and it has been a severe blow to the President.
If the military administra-tion is too tight for a long time, it bursts just like heavy flow of water bursts dam. People forget the good things and remember only the negative things. Eight year rule is a long time for General Musharraf in Pakistan which is a multi-lingual and multi-ethnic state. As a federal state Pakistan has yet to take firm roots with greater autonomy for its provinces. For example Balochistan has become a political problem for the President as the province has yet to reconcile with Islamabad rule.
The Red Mosque demolition incident demonstrates how far the extremist Islamic armed militants have spread in Pakistan. Serious questions are already raised why the government has tolerated so long the extremist Islamic clerics right under the eye of the President in the capital where young extremists are breeding to support Talebans. The Red Mosque drama is a symptom of a deeper malaise.
President Musharraf's authority has been dwindling because of the rising popularity of two former Prime Ministers-Bezanir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif in the country- who live abroad in exile. The Bush administration reportedly supports their return and participation in the next election. The support of the US seems to be a political setback for the President.
At the Abu Dhabi meeting, it is reported that Benazir Bhutto insisted that Musharraf should quit the army chief post as one of the conditions of the political deal. Musharraf is hesitant as he knows once he gives up the army post, his position will be tenuous as the new chief of army is likely to hold the most important position in Pakistan.
A great leader is one who retires voluntarily when he/she feels that time has come for him to retire gracefully and at the peak of his time. In South Asia we hardly witness it. Such political culture emanates from maturity and wisdom of leaders.
The author is former Bangladesh Ambassador to UN, Geneva.
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Iraqi refugees languish in Kurdish camps
Rezheen Ibraheem in Sulaimaniyah
Some Iraqi Arabs who fled to Iraqi Kurdistan to escape intimidation and violence have received little official help. About eight kilometres outside the city of Sulaimaniyah, improvised tents, made up of blankets, protect displaced Iraqis from the blazing sun.
The impoverished inhabitants of the Qawala internally-displaced persons' camp are families who've escaped threats and violence in the rest of the country for the relative stability of the north. The north is increasingly becoming a refuge for Iraqis from Baghdad and elsewhere, according to a report released last week by the International Organisation for Migration, IOM.
And Sulaimaniyah province has more displaced people than any of the three provinces in Iraqi Kurdistan. Approximately 62,370 Iraqis have sought refuge here, with about eight per cent of IDPs living in makeshift camps such as the one in Qawala, according to the agency
Some Arabs who fled to Iraqi Kurdistan to escape intimidation and violence have received little official help.
About eight kilometres outside of the city of Sulaimaniyah, improvised tents, made up of blankets, protect displaced Iraqis from the blazing sun.
The impoverished inhabitants of the Qawala internally-displaced persons' camp are families who've escaped threats and violence in the rest of the country for the relative stability of the north.
The north is increasingly becoming a refuge for Iraqis from Baghdad and elsewhere, according to a report released last week by the International Organisation for Migration, IOM.
And Sulaimaniyah province has more displaced people than any of the three provinces in Iraqi Kurdistan. Approximately 62,370 Iraqis have sought refuge here, with about eight per cent of IDPs living in makeshift camps such as the one in Qawala, according to the agency
Food, shelter and employment are the greatest needs of Iraq's 2.2 million internally displaced people, who also require better healthcare, education, water and sanitation services, according to humanitarian and refugee agencies.
There are more than 100 families living in the Qawala camp, which they set up themselves. Dehydration, poor sanitation, diarrhoea and rashes are common in the camp, which does not have toilets or running water. The Kurdistan Health Foundation warned that hygiene is poor in the camp and conditions are worsening because of the summer heat.
Food, shelter and employment are the greatest needs of Iraq's 2.2 million internally displaced people, who also require better healthcare, education, water and sanitation services, according to humanitarian and refugee agencies.
There are more than 100 families living in the Qawala camp, which they set up themselves. Dehydration, poor sanitation, diarrhoea and rashes are common in the camp, which does not have toilets or running water. The Kurdistan Health Foundation warned that hygiene is poor in the camp and conditions are worsening because of the summer heat.
Nibras Wadiy, 12, suffers from a skin rash and has been told by the foundation - which provides drinking water and sends a mobile medical team every two weeks - that he needs to see a specialist. "My brothers don't have work," he said, tears welling up in his eyes. "So how can I pay for a specialist?"
Iraqi president and Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani has given each family in the camp 200 US dollars, but the Kurdish and Iraqi authorities have done little to help impoverished IDPs. Aid agencies say they are stretched too thin to properly serve all of Iraq's displaced citizens.
Jalal Mahmood, head of the Iraqi Red Crescent, which has provided the camp with food and cooking utensils, said the agency has asked the Kurdish authorities to relocate the camp to an area that has public services, but they have not responded.
Unemployment is one of the major problems for IDPs, who compete with one another and local residents for jobs. Unlike many of the displaced in Sulaimaniyah, who are professionals and have rented homes in the province, those in the camps are poor and came north with next to nothing. Every morning most of the men in the camp set off to find day-labour jobs in the city, but not all are successful.
Under one of the tents, Hadya, a seven-day-old baby, cried from the heat as her parents waved a ripped carton to cool her. Temperatures in Sulaimaniyah often rise to 45 degrees Celsius in summer.
Hadya's parents, Hamid Najim, a Shia, and Fatima Alawy, a Sunni, were expelled from the al-Saydya neighbourhood in Baghdad a few months ago.
Najim said he received a letter from al-Husseinia, a Shia mosque, telling him he had three options, "Leave al-Saydya, divorce your wife or you will be killed." The couple fled north.
"What did this baby ever do?" asked Alawi. "We can't go back. My husband goes out every day to find a job, but he comes back empty-handed."
Lami'a Kareem Sha'lani, a 48-year-old Sunni mother, lives with her seven-member family in one of the tents. The family sold its store to pay a 60,000 dollars ransom when Sha'lani's ten-year-old daughter was kidnapped. She left Baghdad's al-Dora neighbourhood after her sons were repeatedly threatened by Mahdi Army militiamen loyal to the radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
"We have a difficult life, but the most important thing is we have security and no one can harm us," said Sha'lani. Glancing at her tent, she added, "I wouldn't exchange it for our house in al-Dora."
Institute of Peace and War Reporting
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Taking war from east to north
High level of insecurity persists
Jehan Perera in Colombo
When confronted face to face with the ground reality in the east the high cost of war and the purpose of war become agonizing questions. In the abstract, as powerfully articulated by President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his government, the reason for the war is to bring security and democracy by getting rid of the LTTE which has been banned internationally on account of its terrorist practices. But on the ground, the reality is different as I saw in the company of other journalists from the mass media during a five-day visit to the three districts of the east.
As a substitute for security and democracy, I saw a continuing high level of insecurity, little democracy and no evidence at all of economic development. Belying the government claims on political platforms and in the government controlled media that normalcy and reconstruction are, and will soon be, the features of the liberated east, I saw a present picture of utter misery that spread through at least two of the three districts in the east, the only exception being Ampara at the bottom of the Eastern Province and farthest from the north.
At Kilivetti, near Muttur, where fierce battles raged between the government forces and LTTE, and lines of control shifted with the rapidity of blitzkriegs, I saw a scene that I had previously associated with the civil war stricken areas of Africa. There was a vast grassless and treeless tract of land on which there were sheds made of corrugated metal, including both walls and roof. I saw about two thousand people, all of them citizens of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, many of them infants and toddlers, baking in the tropical sun at high noon under a cloudless sky. Some of the mothers who held these infants looked like children themselves, physically stunted by years of malnutrition and married off young to escape the forced child recruitment of the LTTE and the government-supported Karuna group against whom there are at least 175 outstanding cases of this evil practice.
It was a sight that could even bring tears to the eyes of hardened and experienced leaders such as President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and even LTTE leader Velupillai Pirapaharan, who are well known for the love of their children, whom they have sent abroad to the best academies of the world for their education. But the continuing tragedy is that these desperately situated refugee populations are not seen by such leaders who decide on the fate of these people like gods from afar, and who therefore make plans for the country and its suffering people in the abstract.
Made worse
In a perverse way the liberation of the east by the government forces has made life even worse for some sectors of the liberated people of the east. The people in the welfare centre in Kilivetti were those displaced from East Muttur, which after the liberation has been declared a High Security Zone by the government, and so those people can never go back to their homes. They may have lived there for generations, on ancestral lands, but now they are thrown out by the liberators on the grounds of national security. These miserable people are being resettled in stages at a location called Eechalampattu, but I was also told that no suitable infrastructure had been laid for them by the government, and it was as if they were being dumped there and left to fend for themselves.
The plight of anyone who gets displaced and the inability of the government to effectively cope with the refugee situation can be seen by the fact that in the east there still continue to be tsunami refugees.
There are other sections of the population also who are suffering as a result of the liberation. The fishermen of Muttur complained that after the liberation of the east the restrictions on their fishing had increased and they were no longer permitted to use their mechanized boats, but had to use canoes for shallow sea fishing alone. The denial of livelihood is not limited to these fishermen alone.
Although the recent military operations in the east have successfully eliminated the LTTE's presence as an administrative and governing entity, it has not eliminated the fear of their capacity as a guerilla force. The capital of the Eastern Province, Trincomalee town, is like a garrison city with military personnel at virtually every street corner. Travelling becomes difficult with physical checks on vehicles taking place at intervals of a few hundred meters. The transport of goods becomes difficult, driving up the cost of living to people who have no stable means of earning an income. It is evident that the security forces fear either one of two things or both.
Moving experience
In these circumstances, the military logic will be to seek to ensure the security of the east by neutralising the LTTE threat from the north. This will mean that the war cannot end with the liberation of the east, but must continue to the north. It is this logic that appears to be driving the government's military machine at this point of time. Virtually every day there are reports of skirmishes and military confrontations taking place in the north, and these could possibly build up into a major conflagration in the near future. An escalation of war in the north could also serve another useful purpose to the government of diverting the concern of the masses of people away from the economic crisis they are experiencing and towards the military battlefields.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa is presently stomping the rich electoral grounds of the south affirming his government's determination to continue with the war and militarily vanquish the LTTE in the north, as it has done in the east. On the other hand, the costs of this war are bound to be much higher in the north than in the east. The north has always been the stronghold of the LTTE.
One of the most moving experiences for myself and the team of journalists came when we stopped for a few minutes at a refugee camp on the side of the road to take photographs of the tents. Children who were playing nearby immediately stopped their games and came dashing to the scene. They were wide eyed and smiling with eagerness to be a part of the photographs. They were no different from children elsewhere in the country, in our own homes and towns. It was evident that their parents, who had lost their homes, had not told their children to hold grudges against those who were not of their community and from other parts of the country. The trust, the love and the fate of these fellow citizens in the liberated east is a clarion call against a repeat performance in the north.
War in the north should only be a last resort. The country is not an abstract idea to be fought for, but a living organism comprising all of its citizens. Any government that deliberately pursues a military solution as its first option that leads to the eviction of hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankan citizens from their homes, and to the loss of their ancestral properties, will jeopardize its moral right to govern the country. Before taking the drastic step of stepping up the war in the north, the Rajapaksa government has a duty to present a reasonable political package that could be the basis for a just solution to the ethnic conflict, and is acceptable to moderate Tamil opinion. Only if such a political package is rejected by the LTTE should an offensive military campaign on the lines of the eastern campaign be contemplated for the north.
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Manipur media faces both insurgents and govt
Nava Thakuria in Guwahati
The media in Manipur of Northeast is trapped between the diktats from insurgents and the orders of the government. While the media has been threatened by a banned armed group, Okram Ibobi Singh-led Manipur government imposes restriction on publishing insurgency related news.
It started with an attempted bombing of The Sangai Express, an English daily published from Manipur's capital Imphal on July 31 by the militants belonging to the People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK). Wrapped as a gift package and addressed to the editor, the bomb was delivered to the office of the daily. However, before it was delivered to the editor, a journalist identified it as a mortar bomb and immediately alerted the police. Finally, a bomb expert of the government defused the mortar shell successfully.
Meanwhile, threatening calls of unidentified intruders continued in the office of other daily newspapers named Huyen Lanpao and Naharolgi Thoudang. It is learnt that two opposing factions of PREPAK had threatened the media houses with dire consequences if they publish the statements adorning rivals' point of views.
The journalists of the state under the banner of the All Manipur Working Journalists' Union (AMWJU) and Editor's Forum Manipur (EFM) had protested against the diktat and organized demonstration in Imphal. Meanwhile, two organizations had resolved to cease publications of daily newspapers since August 1. Cable news channels of the state also joined the agitation. The agitating media persons had met the state chief minister Mr Singh and he reportedly pledged to ensure the safety of Manipuri journalists.
Attempt condemned
The International Federation of Journalists has meanwhile condemned the attempted attack on Manipur media. "Journalists have to be able to work free from fear of violence," asserted the IFJ Asia Pacific Director Jacqueline Park. In an e-mailed press statement, Ms Park also argued that the media should be left to do their work freely. "By reporting the situation factually and fairly the media will help build understanding between rival groups, and hopefully help facilitate peace" she added. Reporters Sans Frontiers (Reporters Without Borders) also came with strong resentment. In a press statement from Paris, RSF said, "We deplore the violence and threats by armed separatists."
"In fact, what happened to The Sangai Express, a daily published from Imphal, last week is a reminder of factionalism that marks most of the militant outfits in the Northeast", said in an editorial of The Sentinel, a prominent English daily of Northeast.
It also added, "We would make two observations on the latest Manipur media episode. One, the trend of militants trying to silence the scribes is visible not just in Manipur but also in the rest of the militancy-infested Northeast, as and when the media seems to be running counter to militant ideologies or when the media remains neutral so as to give coverage to all the militant groups without any prejudice. Two, it is only when the scribes stand up in solidarity with the common cause of journalism in such situations that the militants will realize that in a democracy it is not so easy to arm-twist or cripple the honest and intrepid breed of scribes. The Manipuri journalists sent out that message last week. It is another matter that the militants would just not heed any such message."
20 insurgent outfits
Manipur is home to nearly 20 insurgent outfits, which are fighting New Delhi for demands ranging from sovereignty to autonomy. "Journalists in Manipur has been working under severe threats and pressure for the last few years. Last year, separatist rebels shot and seriously injured the bureau chief of a Manipuri daily, Ratan Luwangcha. Later in the year, another rebel group kidnapped six editors of local dailies and released them only after extracting a promise that the rebel statements would be published as it is. Editors stopped publication of newspapers in protest against the abductions and the threats, only to resume printing after the rebels backed off," said Subir Bhaumik, a senior journalist from Northeast.
Meanwhile, the Manipur government has enforced a ban on the publication of news and articles with militant's propaganda. The state Home department issued the orders on August 3 preventing publication of news items those may pose 'threats to the country's integrity'. It also forbids publications of articles smelling threats from the banned outfits to any individual.
The Journalists' Forum, Assam (JFA) has strongly condemned the combined threats to the media in Manipur from both official and unofficial quarters. The forum of working journalists in neighbouring Assam, expressed its whole-hearted support to the Manipur media which is in the line of fire from both the militants and the government.
"This is exactly why, the attempted July 31 bomb attack on The Sangai Express and the August 3 Manipur Government order banning publication of what it calls any propaganda of unlawful or militant groups, are simply a move to throttle democracy itself," added a statement.
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ISLAMABAD DIARY
Jonaid Iqbal
Political landscape here changes rapidly, and the media presents a new icon every day. The stock market at Karachi dipped 600 points Thursday morning after strong rumours early Thursday morinng that Presidnt Musharraf was thinking of slapping emergency in the country. PML-Q President confirmed Thursday morning that in principle decision to that effect had been taken, although the official state television and some ministers denied the rumour. Heavy security patrols paraded Islamabad on midnight. Some analysts say the emergency will deny fundamental rights to citizens.
Last week it was the release of rebel leader Javed Hashmi from Lahore's Kot Lakhpat prison. Javed Hashmi remained in prison for four years after circulating a letter against the army, but set free on appeal by the Supreme Court in another exercise of judicial activism. His victory procession from Lahore to Islamabad took 17 hours - normally it should take four.
Pakistan's Mandela
Some analysts have described him as a Nelson Mandela. On Monday, he arrived at the Parliament House to be received by his leading opposition colleagues -- except the ruling party - who showed very little emotion at the homecoming of a parliamentary colleague, including Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain, while prime minister also stayed away in his chamber. From there he listened to the speech of Javed Hashmi, wishing that he should have been released on the orders of a sovereign parliament. On the other hand he won his freedom from the new found supremacy of the Supreme Court.
Mr Javed Hasmi is awaiting the judgement of his leader (Nawaz Sharif)'s case, in which Nawaz Sharif has appealed that he should be allowed to return home after remaining in exile for four years, during which he was exiled to Saudi Arabia, after conviction from anti- terrorist court at Karachi
Nawaz Sharif, Benzir
However, President Musharraf has spoken recently that neither of the two (Nawaz Sharif and Benzir Bhutto) can return before the election, even though it is a good guess that Benzir would come home soon, as she called a meeting of her party at Dubai on 31 August to discuss her return agenda. Only on Tuesday the Sindh Chief Justice cancelled the red alert notice that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had sent to Interpol against the PPP chairperson. One cannot guess whether the NAB was lukewarm in pleading its case, because it looks that BB is suddenly winning a number of too many court cases these days, after the scheduled meeting with President Musharraf at Abu Dhabi, two weeks ago.
This meeting shot BB once again into prominence in the international media, though her workers at home questioned her wisdom in meeting a general who did not speak kindly about her in the past, often remembering her as corrupt. Nor did the meeting gladden the hearts of the ruling PML-Q party. It looked like Musharraf abandoning the party that had given him a government to rule for about five years now. One hears that the President had to explain his reasons before the PM caucus.
In the changing political landscape only President Musharraf remains constant. He has now announced that he would seek election as President in uniform on or after Sept 15, and this is as expected from him.
The PML-Q party has assured him of its support, and his victory would come as no surprise to any one, given the way in which elections are conducted. The opposition parties are crying from house top for an autonomous Chief Election Commissioner and the President, too, has spoken several times about free and fair elections to the international media.
There should be little doubt that he would win the election. He would gain abut 500 votes from the National Assembly, the Senate and the Punjab Assembly. Assuming that the Opposition does not resign - they are keen to resign their seats if Musharraf seeks election from the present assemblies -- all they were capable of mustering combined over 300 votes from all the six assemblies.
However, it remains to be seen whether, after winning the votes, Musharraf would still gain the legitimacy.
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