Army officers privately advise President Musharraf to resign

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Pervez Musharraf is very much angry with his friend George W Bush and some of his old friends in uniform. He tried to speak his American friend many times in last few days but the President of USA is not available to President of Pakistan on phone this time.

Why Bush is not responding? He knows that Musharraf doesn’t have the good news of arresting Osama bin Ladin or Mullah Omer. He only has some bad news about himself. Musharraf wants to tell Bush that look Al Qaida, Taliban and ruling coalition in Pakistan have united against him and USA must help him in the name of war against terror but he is unable to speak with Bush despite the repeated efforts made by his telephone operator.

On the side, ruling coalition leaders Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif are determined to turn the most trusted friend of America into a horrible example because they are sure that Army is no more supporting Musharraf.

When Army is claiming to be neutral, nobody except Bush is in a position to save Musharraf. Bush is told that his interference in the politics of Pakistan will spread more anti-Americanism in the only Muslim nuclear power of the world so he should not call anyone in Pakistan for saving Musharraf.

The top leaders of the new ruling coalition in Islamabad have informed some Western diplomats that they have solid evidence of corruption and embezzlements against the President of Pakistan and some of his close family members. A big number of PPP members want to investigate Musharraf for his alleged role in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. One PPP member of the national assembly is ready to show an email of late Benazir Bhutto sent to American journalist Wolf Blitzer that if anything happen to her, then Musharraf will be responsible.

Coalition leaders have cautioned Western capitals that any effort or appeal from their governments in favour of a dictator would not be welcomed. Musharraf still have one safe option. He must resign from his office before 5 o’clock in the evening of Monday (August 11th 2008). In that case the media and civil society will not press much to produce him in a court of law. If he is not willing to resign and the proceedings of the parliament will be started at 5 o’clock Monday then he will face not only the impeachment motion but he will also face trials in many criminal charges.

Coalition leaders have sent an urgent message to US President through diplomatic channels that the name of Musharraf will be put on the exit control list immediately after the impeachment and the new elected government will not be in a position to provide safe exit to a person once declared “the only non-terrorist in a terrorist country” by an American newspaper. A prominent leader of pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q disclosed that Musharraf is disappointed not only with US President but he is also disappointed with the leadership of Pakistan Army which is not coming out openly to rescue their “supreme commander” from the “dirty hands of bloody civilians”.

PML-Q sources claimed that initially Musharraf was thinking to resign from the office of country’s President and wanted to become the President of PML-Q. A lady member of the National Assembly started campaigning within the party three days ago that Chuadhry Shujaat Hussain should resign from the presidentship of the PML-Q and offer Musharraf to become head of the party which was actually created in 2002 by Musharraf with the help of ISI. A big majority of the PML-Q leaders rejected this proposal and asked Shujaat Hussain to stay away from Musharraf who is no more an asset but a liability now.

Another friend of Musharraf recently proposed him to join Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) of Altaf Hussain. This party is very much capable of providing him some political cover. Some of his close relatives are already members of MQM. Once Benazir Bhutto wrote in her autobiography that “I first encountered Musharraf when he acted as Turkish interpreter during visits by Turkey military. I declined to make him my military secretary. We initially refused his promotion his promotion because of his suspected links with MQM. The final time I recall meeting with him was the most important, when in 1996 he presented to me a war scenario for Kashmir”.

Musharraf has an entirely different story which he mentioned in his memoir “In the line of fire”. He said “a friend of Benazir Bhutto’s husband Asif Zardari came to call on me. His name was Javed Pasha. I had never seen him before. Pasha suggested that I become Benazir’s military secretary but I rejected Pasha’s suggestion. Had I become her military secretary I would have gone down with her and her government”.

The spokesman of Sharif’s Muslim League, Saddiqual Farooq have another story. He was press secretary of Nawaz Sharif during his premiership from 1997 to 1999. He claims that Musharraf was about to retire in 1996 as Brigadier due to his bad record but Javed Pasha helped him. Pasha pursued Asif Ali Zardari for the promotion of Musharraf from Brigadier to Major General. According to Saddiqul Farooq, Asif Ali Zardari requested Benazir to speak with the then Army Chief General Wahid Kakar for the promotion of Musharraf in 1996 and that was how his military career was saved. Asif Ali Zardari has denied this whole episode narrated by an important leader of his ruling coalition.

One thing is clear that the main strength of Musharraf was not his enlightened moderation but his military uniform and after taking off this uniform he is now a burden for everyone. It was Musharraf who assigned General Ashfaq Pervez Kyani to get in touch with Benazir Bhutto two years ago when Kyani was DG of ISI. Kyani realised soon that involvement of Army officers in politics is not good for the institution and for the country. Musharraf always said the same thing that Army should stay away from politics but his actions are always different from his words. He is no more Army Chief but he is still living in Army House of Rawalpindi. He declared Army House as the President’s camp office. He is continuously meeting leaders of PML-Q in Army House even after their humiliating defeat in general election on February 18th. He never respected the verdict of the people expressed through ballot power. His “forced” stay in the Army House is generally not liked by many Army officers. Many officers think that Musharraf meet anti-government politicians in Army House just to give an impression that Army is still with him which is not a fact.

According to reliable sources, Army circles have informally sent messages to Musharraf that his time is over and he must resign now in the “supreme national interest.” Many Army officers support the non-political approach their new Chief and think that Musharraf was their leader for eight years due to his rank and position not because of respect. Now Musharraf has lost the rank of Army Chief and he must leave the position of President now. One of his very close friends who is also a serving Lt General recently advised him privately that Musharraf is still very popular in Washington and Delhi but he is no more popular in his own country and now is the time that he must resign because Army cannot support him for another five years. Army officers want total depoliticisation of their institute and want to contribute for the making of a new democratic Pakistan.

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