& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Military’s New Man on the Unofficial Troika

Tariq Butt writes from Islamabad
***The military has played a major political role tn Pakistan since Independence, either ruling directly or influencing civilian governments. In view of this speculation has been rife about the appointment of a new army chiefA change of army chief/ always makes big news in Pakistan, where the military has ruled for 23 of the years since independence In 1947.,
The holder of the post is a pivot in the power structure and his appointment is often considered a key to a civilian government's stability.
The army chief Is a' mem ber of the informal ruling troika — together with the President and Prime Minister — which makes all important national decisions, local and thtematlonal.
Such a trio, says Husain Naqi. a noted columnist, "can be nothing else but a supra-.constitutional aberration.
Such a body, if in existence in any form, negates demo-•cratic norms and can only promote dyarchy."
So there was intense speculation before General Jehangir Karamat was named Chief of Army Staff in midJanuary in succession to the retiring General Abdul Waheed.
The potential importance of the post is cleat from his predecessors' records:
• General Zlaul Haq (army chief from 1977 until ne was killed in an air crash in 1988) was hand-picket by President Zulfikar All Bhutto — father of current Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto —
but turned out to be a coupmaker and Bhutto's hangman.
• General Aslam Beg (1988-91) forced the dismissal of the first Benazir government.
• General Asif Nawaz (1991-93) was the architect of Benazir Bhutto's "long march" on Islamabad against the Nawaz Sharif Government.
• General Abdul Waheed (1993-96) presided over the removal of 10 leading civilian office-holders including the President, the Prime Minister and all four provincial governors and chief minis-Ters. The 1993 election he helped bring about brought Benazir Bhutto back to ppwer.
Since the return of democracy in 1985 after an eight-year break, all three civilian governments have been sent packing when the Chief of Staff decided they had to go.
All politicians — in opposition as well as in government — clearly have an interest in keeping on friendly terms with the Chief of Staff.
That is why opposition .leader' Sharif became edgy when It looked as though Bhutto was considering keeping Waheed for another year. He considered Waheed proBhutto and anti-opposition.
"If the government wants to take more work from General Waheed," he said openly
before Karamat was named. It should give him some assignment after his retirement."
In the event. Waheed refused an extension and retired on cue.
Sharif is happier with
Karamat who. he saya. "deserves the office due to his professional capability, competence and merit."
Indeed, the soft-spoken, apparently non-political Karamat. wfro was chosen above four more senior generals. has won across-the-board support.
He has plenty of military matters to occupy him. starting with the courts martial of four officers for an attempted coup in September 1995. The would-be coup makers were reportedly motivated by a desire to replace democratic civilian government with a regime based on Islamic principles.
Defence analyst Mushahld Hussain points out that Karamat takes office at a time when the armed forces relationship with the United States military — which "for a-little over 40 years has been central to Its worldvlev). training and equipment" — is undergoing major change. The days when the Pakistan Army was the Pentagon's favourite in south Asia are gone."
However complex the military issues facing the new man, it will be hard to steer completely clear of politics.
"Politicians are intent on stoking the fires of confrontation? said in an editorial commentary inUhe daily newspaper Frontier Post. "Things in the days ahead
might hot up to an extent where some restraining action might be required.
If that proved accessary counselled the paper, intervention should be from the President not the Chief of Staff: "Surely, with someone . like General Karamat in the saddle, we know it wouldn't happen."
Another newspaper. The Nation. also appealed to the army to turn a deaf ear to the voices of people such as former air force chief Asghar Khan, now a politician, who has urged Karamat to do what Waheed had "failed" to do and bring about a change in the system of government.
Former' Chief of Staff Aslam Beg has also been arguing for a constitutional role for the armed forces.
The Nation's view was that military interference "is guaranteed to cause even greater problems than those sought to be resolved through such a course." The paper described advocates of Interventionism as "adventurers hawking their shoddy Wares which, thankfully, have yet to find a buyer in Pakistan's changed circumstances since democracy, with all its warts and blemishes, was restored."
— GEMINI NEWS
TARIQ BUTT is chief reporter of "The News." Islamabad.