Musharraf's Last Stand

Category: Articles/Opinion
Written by: Mohammed Ali (on January 18, 2008 - 02:43 PM)

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A Very Interesting and thought provoking Interview came in the recent edition of NEWSWEEK. It was our very own President being interview by Fareed Zakaria. Below are some excerpts which i think everyone should read:

Tagline: By Clinging to Power, Musharraf is making Pakistan fight the wrong enemy -- Him.

Since Benazir Bhutto's assassination weeks ago, Pakistan has been plunged into one of the worst crises in its history. President Pervez Musharraf, having recently given up control of the nation's army, remains firmly in charge and as reluctant as ever to share power, despite a rising tide of criticism. He spoke to NEWSWEEK's Fareed Zakaria from his camp office in Rawalpindi. Excerpts:


NEWSWEEK: What do you make of reports that the United States is thinking about launching CIA operations in Pakistan with or without Pakistan's approval?

Pervez Musharraf: We are totally in cooperation on the intelligence side. But we are totally against [a military operation]. We are a sovereign country. We will ask for assistance from outsiders. They won't impose their will
on us.

How do you take Hillary Clinton's suggestion that the United States and Britain help Pakistan secure its nuclear weapons?

Does she know how secure [the weapons] are and what we are doing to keep them so? They are very secure. We will ask if we need assistance. Nobody should tell us what to do. And I'd ask anyone who says such things, do you know how our strategic assets are handled, stored and developed—do you know it?

Have you told the American government that?

No, why should we? We have said we are totally under control.
Graham Allison of Harvard says that these weapons must be disbursed for them to have survivability, which means that they could also fall into the wrong hands, because there might be a local command structure that is weak.
He doesn't know anything—how disbursed they are, and he shouldn't think that we don't know these things. We are from the military, we understand how to handle things, whether they need to be disbursed or concentrated.

But you understand that due to past episodes there is concern.

Yes, the past has [caused] some concern, but we must understand the difference between past and now. Before we were a declared and overt nuclear state, we had to hide everything. Everything was covert. Only the scientists and the president of Pakistan knew what was going on. Now there is a national command authority. It is the top body, headed by the president and the prime minister, and there are members from the military and the civilian side. And there's a huge strategic planning division, a full secretariat headed by now-retired [Lt. General Khalid] Kidwai. He is in charge of this Strategic Planning Division that is the secretarial arm of the National Command, responsible for development and employment. Then we have army, navy, air force, the strategic force command. If anything happens, indeed it's a failure of everyone from myself to SPD to the Army Strategic Force Command.

 
You've said that Benazir Bhutto took risks. Surely it's normal for a politician to stand in a car's sunroof. If this is taking a risk, then politics is impossible in Pakistan.

This gathering she addressed was maybe 25,000-to-30,000 people. I have addressed gatherings of hundreds of thousands. She was given security. [But] you have to be conscious of security. The man in charge of security should be conscious. The man in charge of her security was her own handpicked superintendent of police. This area was known to be dangerous. There was a death threat, intelligence that there would be an attack, and we told her, yet she wanted to go, she was intent about it. She went into a dangerous place, and if you get out of the vehicle, you are responsible. All the others sitting inside the vehicle were safe.


But there is a widespread view in the country—and I've talked to many, many people, including supporters of yours—that in some way the government was complicit.

I refuse to listen to such accusations. I refuse to. I am the government, OK? I am not feudal, and I am not tribal. May I ask you, would you, if you were at the head of affairs, ever think of killing somebody like that? It didn't appear in our minds. Would it appear in your mind that you could get rid of a person through a bomb blast?


What do you do to give credibility to the government at this point? Do you think your investigation will be enough? Do you think they should exhume the body and do a postmortem?

Yes, exhume it. A hundred percent. I would like it to be exhumed. Because I know for sure there is no bullet wound other than on the right side. Whether it was a bullet or a strike, I don't want to comment, I don't know.


But you've seen the X-rays …

Yes, I've seen the X-rays.

Does it appear there was a bullet entering and exiting?

I am a soldier, I've seen a lot of bullet wounds. A bullet wound is a small hole, and if the bullet goes through it makes a big hole on the other side. Now that is what I understand to be a bullet wound. This was not that, although I'm not an expert. But how does it absolve the government if it was a bullet or not? If you or anyone else were to accuse the government, the issue of the bullet [versus] explosives is not significant. The media and everyone are involved in an issue that is not very pertinent. Why would we be hiding [the cause of death]? It's ridiculous, and when I read these comments, I laugh at them.

Why not order a postmortem? You can do it; you're the chief executive.

Everything is not black and white here. It would have very big political ramifications. If I just ordered the body exhumed, that would be careless, unless [Bhutto's] people agreed. But they will not.

Why?

Because they know it's a fact there is nothing wrong.

So you think Mr. Zardari [Bhutto's husband] is playing a political game?

Everybody is trying to gain political advantage; the entire opposition is trying to take political advantage. I know what [Bhutto's opponents] used to say about her, but all of a sudden ... it makes me laugh, actually. And then there's the cultural factor. Somehow, in our culture, a postmortem of a woman is not done. When the body was at the hospital, Zardari himself said it could not be done; he didn't want the postmortem done.

Now he says if there were a United Nations investigation he would allow a postmortem.

There cannot be a U.N. investigation. There are not two or three countries involved. Why should there be a U.N. investigation? This is ridiculous.

You said in one of your comments afterwards, "I told [her] to be careful and I told her that this was not the Pakistan that you left. It's a different country." Is it fair to point out that for most of that period you have been in charge of Pakistan? Why has Pakistan gotten so much less safe under your presidency?

Because of terrorism and extremism, which we have been facing since 1979, for 30 years. We fought a war in Afghanistan in coalition with the Americans against the Soviets for 10 years. We trained the Taliban and armed them and sent them in [to Afghanistan]. Was I doing this? The West was doing it, the United States was doing it. Then what happened between 1989 and 2001? Mayhem and destruction. Did I do this?

But in the late '90s a politician in Pakistan could have addressed a rally without fear for her life. Within Pakistan there has been a rise of militancy and suicide bombings under your presidency.

You have to see it in context. How did suicide bombing [start]? Who started it? The LTTE [the militant group in Sri Lanka], and then it was taken up by the Palestinians. And then Iraq. I would say we were the last to adopt it. Even your own [U.S.] intelligence says that Al Qaeda or the Taliban—whatever you want to call them—are now moving east into settled populations. Why?

Do you know that your personal credibility is on the line with this election?

Yes. But at the same time the media is saying that I am going to rig the polls. What kind of logic is this? Why should I do this? Whoever says this, I would like to say, prove that I am going to rig it.


Who is your preferred prime minister?
I can't say, I'm not going to say that at all.

But you must have some preference.

No.

But are you willing to accept a kind of diminished role as part of a troika?

My constitutional powers have been the same since 2002. But what I am fortunate to have is my influence over everyone, over the political leaders, over the coalition. My influence is not [the result of] constitutional powers I have. If somebody listens to what I am saying, don't grudge me that. I am not using any force.

 

Doesnt Our President Rock? He has the Answers to everything. I mean the jounalist interviewing him would be 
laughing after he left. This is such a mishap what Musharraf has done. Reminds me of King Louis the 14th when 
he, like Musharraf, said " Im the State ". And then we saw the French Revolution. Haha    

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