As President General Pervez Musharraf attempts to reform Pakistan to bring it more in line with its status as a key United States ally and a bulwark against Muslim extremism and militancy, Thursday’s assassination attempt on Lieutenant-General Ahsan Saleem Hayat, commander V Corps (Karachi), serves as a sharp reminder that there are those who resist such change. The attack on Hayat’s convoy in Karachi, which left at least 10 people dead, is widely seen as an internal backlash to a new military operation in the South Waziristan tribal area to root out insurgents, and moves to clamp down on those with "Islamic tendencies" in the armed forces. Hayat is also one of Musharraf’s most trusted aides, and is tipped to be promoted to full general before the year is out. "The immediate response from Musharraf to Thursday’s events will be to roll back the reform program, whether it is in the ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence], foreign policies, in the army or in society," a retired army officer who is close to Musharraf commented to Asia Times Online.
| That may make sense in the Byzantine politix of Pakland. To the rational world it doesn't. |
One of the first rethinks could be on the Afghan resistance, which has been left in the lurch by the Pakistani army establishment. In April last year, at a convention in Peshawar of the Hizb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA), led by veteran mujahideen Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a plan was thrashed out - with key Pakistani support pledged - to intensify the jihad movement in Afghanistan by revamping training camps for the Taliban. Subsequently, major attacks were to be launched in urban Afghan centers. However, under US pressure, Pakistan was forced to withdraw all support, and it shut down all HIA offices and militant training camps. Then in April, it launched a major military operation against the Taliban and al-Qaeda suspects believed to be sheltering in Pakistan’s tribal areas. This proved unsuccessful, with few people rounded up and the army sustaining high casualties at the hands of tribals. A second operation is now under way.
| We'll see what the results are. They were pretty thoroughly laughed at after the first one... |
With Thursday’s attack in Karachi, a clear message has been sent to all units in the Pakistani armed forces that in future Musharraf’s decisions will not go unchallenged. This is not the news that high command wants communicated, though, and all local electronic channels as well as the print media have been sent advice not to highlight the attack as one on the corps commander, but rather to portray it as a simple act of terror that his motorcade chanced upon. The highly professional manner in which the attack was undertaken, in a what should have been a secure area, knowledge of the convoy’s movements and the ease with which the attackers escaped strongly suggest, however, some form of complicity in the army.
| I'd say so. So would the two attacks on Perv last year. How's this different? |
By the mid-1980s, President Zia ul-Haq’s "Islamization" of the country was under way. This spilled over into the military. Musharraf was well aware of this and banned such functions as millad (a program in which the qualities of the Prophet Mohammed are explained) in the cantonments. The purpose was to curtail unnecessary interaction among the ranks, which he believed undermined the general professional behavior of officers. However, many religious groups are now well established in the armed forces, for instance the al-Iqwan organization headed by Maulana Akram Awan from Chakwal. Chakwal is near Rawalpindi, the twin capital with Islamabad, and about 70% of the armed forces have hailed from the Chakwal area since British India days. Awan preaches radical Islam, and he has thousands of followers among non-commissioned officers, while dozens of commissioned officers are known to have become his disciples. Similar other "circles" exist in the army. All disciples of a pir (spiritual master) become pir bhai or brother to the master. In connection with this, in 2003 several officers simply disappeared. Their families have filed a petition for information on their whereabouts, but the government has yet to respond. As a result, underground pamphlets have started circulating, questioning these matters. April’s operation in South Waziristan raised further questions about discipline in the army when several officers and soldiers refused to attack on their own people (tribal residents). Several officers were arrested and moved to Rawalpindi and Islamabad to be taken to the task. A major army reshuffle is expected soon, and with Musharraf expected to favor his relatives and friends over those next in line, further dissatisfaction is assured.
| That's traditional subcontinental politix, isn't it? |
The selection of Hayat as a target in Karachi’s attack on Thursday has raised several questions. He comes from a middle-class Karachi family, like Musharraf. He is known to be a down-to-earth but absolutely professional officer and he has never indulged in activity other than his military duties, and he has not dabbled in politics. There was absolutely no ground to target Hayat on personal grounds. He was simply chosen as a potential sacrificial offering by the perpetrators to get their message across to Musharraf that not everyone is marching in time with him. |