Pakistan Crisis Could Benefit Obama Administration: a Coup in Slow-Mo? by Ramtanu Maitra
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Pakistan Crisis Could Benefit Obama Administration: A Coup in Slow-Mo? by Ramtanu Maitra June 23—For a country all too familiar with military itary. That trump card is the military hardware that takeovers under one pretext or another, it was enough Washington supplies and Rawalpindi (military head- to set alarm bells ringing: Television anchorman Far- quarters) pines for to remain “professional” and pow- rukh Pitafi reflected the exasperation of many when he erful. tweeted: “Bhai, takeover kar lo” (“You might as well In return, the Obama Administration, which has take over”). swallowed hook, line, and sinker the British policy to keep the regional countries suspicious of each other, On June 19, an already stumbling Pakistan was thrown would not like to see Pakistan develop interdependent into another crisis when its home-grown missile, the relations with Russia, India, or Iran—three important Supreme Court, evidently in alliance with the once-all- nations in the region. Such a role for Pakistan would be powerful military, struck Prime Minister Yousaf Raza “geostrategically” unacceptable to the Obama Admin- Gilani. The Court demanded and obtained his immedi- istration. ate dismissal on a contempt of court charge. After a And, in fact, because of the tense relations between couple of days of horse-trading by the diverse and Washington and Islamabad over the last few years, highly confused political forces that constitute the gov- President Zardari’s government has been moving in ernment, Pakistan’s National Assembly elected former that direction. A Pakistani military takeover, or a take- Water and Power Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf as the over which would put the World Bank-IMF-trained new Prime Minister on June 22. As of today, the new technocrats in power under the military’s shadow, Cabinet has yet to be announced. would nip that initiative in the bud. That, no doubt, The latest crisis centers around the charge of con- would please Washington, London, and Riyadh. tempt of court against Gilani. However, seemingly the real target of the Court, and, in essence, of the military, Military-Judiciary Nexus is President Asif Ali Zardari. If that is indeed what the The dirty powerplay that has become the hallmark Pakistani military is shooting for, the incoming prime of Pakistan’s establishment was in full display during minister is not standing on secure ground. It is likely the 48 hours that lapsed between Gilani’s dismissal and that he will be forced by the judicial/military combina- Ashraf’s election. On June 21, President Zardari and tion to make the choice: “Give us the head of Zardari on his coalition partners had selected as Prime Minister, a platter, or else, you will be history.” Makhdoom Shahabuddin, who had served as Minister It is also a certainty that the Zardari government, of Finance during the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) whose relationship with the United States is presently government from 1993 to 1996, under the assassinated at its worst ever, will get no help from Washington. In Pakistani Premier Benazir Bhutto; he is now Minister fact, Washington, whose bonhomie with the Pakistani for Textiles. Things changed dramatically within 24 military is now a thing of the past, would like to see hours when the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF), headed by Zardari go, for its own geostrategic reasons. It will not Maj.-Gen. Shakeel Hussain, and a federal executive embrace Pakistan’s military rule with open arms, bureau of the Government of Pakistan, issued warrants unlike in days of yore; instead, a military takeover will for Shahabuddin’s arrest on the day he filed his nomina- be considered as the best of a bad bargain. Moreover, tion paper for the prime minstership. Again, the brass Washington believes that it holds the trump card on knuckles of the military were out in the open to convey Pakistan’s much-weakened, and presently hostile, mil- the knuckle-owner’s message. 30 International EIR June 29, 2012 to the Pakistani military, was re-elected as prime minister; he initiated the case in Switzerland which accused Benazir and Zardari of embezzlement of $60 million in kick- backs and the deposit of the funds in Swiss bank accounts. In August 2003, both Benazir and Zardari were found guilty of the scam. However, the penal- ties—a $100,000 fine, and the order that they return some $2 million to the government—were sus- Creative Commons/Harvard Law Record pended on appeal. In Pakistani Prime Minister Gilani (right) was sacked on orders of the Supreme Court, led by Chief 2009, soon after his rein- Justice Chaudhry (left), in an apparent alliance with the all-powerful military; but the real target statement, Chief Justice is President Zardari. Chaudhry ordered the Swiss case reopened. In Gilani’s dismissal was no surprise since the Su- 2011, the Supreme Court ordered Prime Minister preme Court, under Chief Justice Iftikhar Ahmed Gilani to send a letter to Swiss authorities to reopen the Chaudhry, had earlier convicted the premier of con- graft case against the head of state. However, Gilani tempt of court. On June 19, a three-judge panel, headed did not comply with Court’s orders because he was of by Chaudhry, disqualified Gilani as prime minister and the view that Zardari enjoyed immunity as head of as a member of the lower house based on the earlier state. conviction. Although some experts said the judge’s dis- missal of Gilani was legally contentious, the PPP re- Get Gilani, To Get Zardari sponded meekly, and party secretary general Qamar It is evident that Gilani crossed swords with Zaman Kaira urged supporters to show “patience and Chaudhry over the issue that brought him down, but restraint,” indicating that the government did not want years before that he became a target of the Pakistani a head-on clash with the Supreme Court. military. In February 2001, when Pakistan was under What exactly transpired behind the scenes is un- the military rule of Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who later clear, and the jury is out on who told the Chief Justice became Washington’s most prized “ally” in its vague to pull the trigger at this juncture. What is available for “war on terror,” Gilani was arrested by the military the consumption of the Pakistani people is that police functioning under the military-controlled Na- Chaudhry and Zardari had been at loggerheads since tional Accountability Bureau (NAB)—an anti-corrup- 2009, when Zardari opposed Chaudhry’s reinstate- tion agency set up by the military government in 1999. ment as Chief Justice. They have engaged in proxy The charge was that he had, along with other politi- combat through the courts ever since; indeed, Gilani’s cians, misused his authority while he was Speaker of dismissal stemmed directly from his refusal to heed the National Assembly in 1993-97. He was convicted court orders to pursue a corruption inquiry against the by an anti-corruption court headed by an active-duty President. military officer appointed by General Musharraf, and Briefly, the contempt of court charge emanates from spent nearly six years in prison. a case filed in 1998 against Benazir Bhutto and her hus- Although Musharraf left the country, and remains band, Asif Ali Zardari, now President of Pakistan. In in-self-imposed exile in Britain, Gilani remained a 1998, Nawaz Sharif, whose political career is owed fully target of Pakistan’s military brass. When Gilani became June 29, 2012 EIR International 31 Pakistan’s prime minister in March 2008, after the PPP from the U.S.-U.K.-Saudi clients of Pakistan’s mili- took power in the post-Musharraf era, the development tary, the people also would welcome the military re- did not please Rawalpindi. Gilani continued to chal- moval of ineffective, corruption-laced civilian govern- lenge the unconstitutional power that the Pakistani mil- ments. itary had exercised over the years and which it now But those halcyon days of the Pakistani military are took for granted. As prime minister, Gilani accused history. Although it serves the Saudis without a whim- Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and per, its image in Pakistan is that of an outfit out to sat- the then-head of Pakistan’s principal intelligence isfy the much-hated United States and other Western agency, ISI, Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, of acting un- nations. Its “go-along, get-along” policy to support the constitutionally when they expressed their disapproval U.S. and NATO in the so-called “war on terror” had led of the government. the military to killing thousands of Pakistanis and ren- The rift became more evident last January when dering many other thousands homeless. Gilani sacked Defense Secretary Gen. Khalid Naeem These killings, carried out by the Pakistani military Lodhi (ret.), a confidant of Kayani. Gilani accused over the last five years, in particular, did not satisfy Lodhi, who acted as the liaison between the military Washington or Brussels, which wanted even more kill- and the government, of “gross misconduct and illegal ings. In addition, Rawalpindi quietly allowed the Amer- action” and of “creating misunderstanding between the icans to base their drones at the Shamsi airbase in Balo- state institutions.” chistan, to target whomever Washington chose to target. Following his dismissal on June 19 from the prime This did not go down well in Pakistan, where the Is- ministerial post, on June 23, Gilani moved his residence lamic jihadis have grown massively, and Pakistani mil- to the sixth floor of the President House where he has itary ranks are now infested with the British-controlled been allotted three rooms for himself and his family.