Musharraf Reshuffles His Trump Cards

Musharraf Reshuffles His Trump Cards

by John Zubrzycki
The Australian
October 10, 2001

Ever since the attacks of September 11 turned Pakistan into a frontline state, President Pervez Musharraf has been working behind the scenes to shore up support within Pakistan while courting the US and its allies.

Now the soft-spoken general has himself gone on a war footing, arresting religious hardliners and masterminding a reshuffle in his senior military ranks that analysts say will strengthen his hand inside Pakistan and in his dealings with the West.

Just hours before US and British planes crossed Pakistani airspace on Sunday night to hit targets in Afghanistan, three senior officers who helped General Musharraf seize power in a bloodless coup two years ago were side-lined as pro-Taliban. "The reshuffle is a combination of Musharraf trying to consolidate his hold on power and remove all those directly or indirectly involved with previous Afghan policy," says Rifaat Hussain of Islamabad's Quaid-i-Azam University.

General Musharraf's gamble will be welcomed in the US, which fears fundamentalist elements within the Pakistani military getting too close to the country's nuclear weapons arsenal and whipping up anti-US sentiment in the streets.

The main casualty was Lieutenant-General Mahmud Ahmed, chief of Pakistan's military intelligence agency and the man who went to General Musharraf's aid in the 1999 coup by seizing control of Pakistan's main television outlet.

General Ahmed, who was in Washington on September 11, was considered untrustworthy because of his links with the Taliban. After the terrorist strikes he led two delegations to Afghanistan to try to convince the Taliban to hand over Osama bin Laden.

India has told the US General Ahmed also has links with Sheik Sayed, a religious leader who was freed by the Taliban after an Indian Airlines plane was hijacked in 1999.

Sheik Sayed is alleged to have wired $US100,000 ($197,000) to Mohammed Atta, one of the suicide pilots involved in the September 11 attacks.

General Ahmed's replacement, General Ehsanul Haq, is seen as a dove in an organisation that is credited with funding and arming the Taliban.

Other prominent losers in the reshuffle were Deputy Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant Usmani and Lieutenant-General Mohammed Aziz, the most senior general after Musharraf.

Lieutenant Usmani was corps commander of Karachi and took control of the city's airport when then prime minister Nawaz Sharif tried to prevent General Musharraf's plane from landing just before the coup. General Aziz was chief of general staff.

Analysts say that General Musharraf now has made the changes he needs to see his policies implemented through the ranks while keeping the military united behind him.

"If Musharraf issues an order, he can now be sure it is followed," Dr Hussain said.

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