03-13-2007, 03:49 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>US ready to dump Mush; successors identified </b>
Pioneer.com
S Rajagopalan | Washington
Who after Musharraf? And what?
US intelligence is now apparently veering round to the view that if General Pervez Musharraf were to fall to an assassin's bullet, it need not be mass uprisings in Lahore and Karachi or the much-feared takeover of Pakistan by a group of nuclear-armed extremists or Islamist radicals.
Citing US diplomatic and intelligence officials, a report in the New York Times talks of a<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'> succession plan under which Vice-Chief Gen Ahsan Saleem Hyat would take over as the Army Chief and Mohammedmian Soomro, a former banker, would become president.  </span>
<b>"Hyat, who is secular like Musharraf, would hold the real power. But it is unclear whether Hyat would be as adept as Musharraf at keeping various interest groups in the military in line," </b>the paper said.
It also quotes unnamed American officials as saying that Pakistan's intelligence service, the<b> ISI, continues to play a direct role in arming and financing the Taliban's re-emergence in western Pakistan</b>, and that there are worries about the relationships between some senior military leaders and Islamist groups.
The new assessment of a post-Musharraf Pakistan contrasts with the American intelligence's earlier line that the General's departure could spell chaos and a scary scenario in which nuclear-armed mullahs could take over.
<b>It has made some analysts wonder if Washington is slowly getting ready to dump its "trusted ally" Musharraf,</b> who has lately come under mounting American pressure to go the whole hog against the Al-Qaeda-Taliban elements in Pakistan's lawless tribal tracts close to the Afghan border.
Interestingly, former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has sought to blast Musharraf's record in the war on terror by saying that terrorism is on the increase, despite the talk of the General being a key western ally in the war on terror.
"Why is it that all terrorist plots - from the September 11 attacks, to Madrid, to London, to Mumbai - seem to have roots in Islamabad," she quizzed in a signed article in the Washington Post on Monday, just a day after the NYT's revelations.
Training her guns on both Musharraf and the western powers supporting him, she wrote: "For too long, the international perception has been that Musharraf's regime is the only thing standing between the West and nuclear-armed fundamentalists. Nothing could be further from the truth."
"The notion of Musharraf's regime as the only non-Islamist option is disingenuous and the worst type of fear-mongering," she commented, adding: "Pakistan's military and intelligence services have, for decades, used religious parties for recruits. Political madarsas -- religious schools that preach terrorism by perverting the faith of Islam -- have spread by the tens of thousands,"
Asserting that the Pakistani military regime has "given up trying to establish order on the Afghan border", Bhutto went on to suggest that it would be prudent for the US to tie the disbursement of its proposed $785 million aid for Pakistan to genuine political reforms on the part of Musharraf.
"A democratic Pakistan, free from the yoke of military dictatorship, would cease to be a breeding ground for international terrorism," she wrote.
The New York Times report focused on the hype about Islamic radicals overthrowing Musharraf, saying the fear has been "stoked in part by Musharraf himself".
"Some analysts say his warnings are used to maintain a steady flow of US aid and to keep at bay demands from Washington for democratic reforms," it said and pointed out that in the last Pakistani polls in 2002, the religious political parties received just 11 per cent of the votes, while Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party got more than 28 per cent. Islamist politicians also received a drubbing in local elections in 2005.
The paper also took pot-shots at Musharraf for speaking ominously about the Islamists' rising power, yet regularly brokering agreements with them in the provinces as a way to gain allies amid the growing support nationally for civilian challengers like Nawaz Sharief and Bhutto.
"In the United States, he is considered the voice of moderation, but he has also navigated the often brutal world of Pakistani politics by keeping his friends close and his enemies closer," it commented.Â
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Deliver OBL or go. US message to Mushy <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Pioneer.com
S Rajagopalan | Washington
Who after Musharraf? And what?
US intelligence is now apparently veering round to the view that if General Pervez Musharraf were to fall to an assassin's bullet, it need not be mass uprisings in Lahore and Karachi or the much-feared takeover of Pakistan by a group of nuclear-armed extremists or Islamist radicals.
Citing US diplomatic and intelligence officials, a report in the New York Times talks of a<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'> succession plan under which Vice-Chief Gen Ahsan Saleem Hyat would take over as the Army Chief and Mohammedmian Soomro, a former banker, would become president.  </span>
<b>"Hyat, who is secular like Musharraf, would hold the real power. But it is unclear whether Hyat would be as adept as Musharraf at keeping various interest groups in the military in line," </b>the paper said.
It also quotes unnamed American officials as saying that Pakistan's intelligence service, the<b> ISI, continues to play a direct role in arming and financing the Taliban's re-emergence in western Pakistan</b>, and that there are worries about the relationships between some senior military leaders and Islamist groups.
The new assessment of a post-Musharraf Pakistan contrasts with the American intelligence's earlier line that the General's departure could spell chaos and a scary scenario in which nuclear-armed mullahs could take over.
<b>It has made some analysts wonder if Washington is slowly getting ready to dump its "trusted ally" Musharraf,</b> who has lately come under mounting American pressure to go the whole hog against the Al-Qaeda-Taliban elements in Pakistan's lawless tribal tracts close to the Afghan border.
Interestingly, former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has sought to blast Musharraf's record in the war on terror by saying that terrorism is on the increase, despite the talk of the General being a key western ally in the war on terror.
"Why is it that all terrorist plots - from the September 11 attacks, to Madrid, to London, to Mumbai - seem to have roots in Islamabad," she quizzed in a signed article in the Washington Post on Monday, just a day after the NYT's revelations.
Training her guns on both Musharraf and the western powers supporting him, she wrote: "For too long, the international perception has been that Musharraf's regime is the only thing standing between the West and nuclear-armed fundamentalists. Nothing could be further from the truth."
"The notion of Musharraf's regime as the only non-Islamist option is disingenuous and the worst type of fear-mongering," she commented, adding: "Pakistan's military and intelligence services have, for decades, used religious parties for recruits. Political madarsas -- religious schools that preach terrorism by perverting the faith of Islam -- have spread by the tens of thousands,"
Asserting that the Pakistani military regime has "given up trying to establish order on the Afghan border", Bhutto went on to suggest that it would be prudent for the US to tie the disbursement of its proposed $785 million aid for Pakistan to genuine political reforms on the part of Musharraf.
"A democratic Pakistan, free from the yoke of military dictatorship, would cease to be a breeding ground for international terrorism," she wrote.
The New York Times report focused on the hype about Islamic radicals overthrowing Musharraf, saying the fear has been "stoked in part by Musharraf himself".
"Some analysts say his warnings are used to maintain a steady flow of US aid and to keep at bay demands from Washington for democratic reforms," it said and pointed out that in the last Pakistani polls in 2002, the religious political parties received just 11 per cent of the votes, while Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party got more than 28 per cent. Islamist politicians also received a drubbing in local elections in 2005.
The paper also took pot-shots at Musharraf for speaking ominously about the Islamists' rising power, yet regularly brokering agreements with them in the provinces as a way to gain allies amid the growing support nationally for civilian challengers like Nawaz Sharief and Bhutto.
"In the United States, he is considered the voice of moderation, but he has also navigated the often brutal world of Pakistani politics by keeping his friends close and his enemies closer," it commented.Â
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Deliver OBL or go. US message to Mushy <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->