General PervezMusharraf Of Pakistan
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20th October, 1999
Musharraf turned defeat to advantage
By Mahendra Ved
The Times of India News Service
NEW DELHI: General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's new chief executive, is
an artillery officer who has a reputation for firing his gun in the
right direction. Although the prime mover in the Kargil conflict, he
turned his defeat to advantage.
He first implicated the political leadership which had sought to
extricate itself, and then challenged it to assert the supermacy of the
armed forces, his principal support base.
He played ball with Nawaz Sharief, who superceded two generals to
promote him as the army chief, by setting up army courts to try MQM
activists. Two personswere hanged after speedy trials and a hundred
were awaiting the gallows till the supreme court declared the courts to
be unconstitutional.
For this act, and others aimed at the minorities, Musharraf has been
dubbed by his country's media as anti-MQM and anti-Shia. He is also
described as a Wahabi Muslim of the Deoband school. Musharraf, a
Mohajir, a migrant from India - hailing from Uttar Pradesh - is also
supposed to nurse antipathy towards the country of his birth like
nuclear scientist Abdul Qadir Khan and the first Mohajir army chief,
Gen Mirza Aslam Beg. Musharraf, who has kept aloof from his community,
is comfortable with colleagues from Punjab, who dominate the army.
Musharraf's ascendance to power is different as the Pakistan army has
obliterated the difference between the military and the militancy with
regard to Kashmir, making cross-border terorism a policy. A former
Special Service Group (SSG) chief, he used this force in Kargil to
advantage. Pakistan also got involved heavily in terms of men and
material in Afghanistan. Pakistan is a nuclear power and as military
strongman, he would undoubtedly have access to the nuclear arsenal, a
point he can use for blackmail.
His regime thus poses a threat to the entire neighbourhood, including
Iran and China.
Taking a cue from his military predecessors, Musharraf may do his
utmost to keep his hold on the Army, since he is riding a tiger he
cannot afford to get off. Even if he gives a civilian facade to his
regime, the Army's agenda would remain the core. At the top would be
his approach towards India.
This being so, Pakistan's proxy war in Kashmir is bound to escalate
under Musharraf. He has given a clear indication by announcing
unilateral withdrawalof Pakistani troops along the international border
with India, but not the line of control.
Simultaneously, in true Zia- style, he could be making peace overtures
to India to engage it in a dialogue to please the West. For, he has to
salvage his country's precarious economy.
His dealings with India and other neighbours, as also the US and
Europe, are bound to be determined by the extent to which he is
influenced by the Islamistpolitical parties and groups he is believed
to be close to. He needs their support but also cannot get too close to
them for fear of annoying the West.
Commissioned in the Pak Army on April 19, 1964, Musharraf underwent a
Gunnery Staff Course in 1973, a course at Command Staff College, Quetta
in 1974, wherehe taught subsequently, and the Royal college of Defence
Studies in the UK in 1990. He also attended the National Defence
College course at Rawalpindi.
He was brigade major of an infantry brigade, and commanding officer of
an artillery brigade before becoming G-1, a senior appointment in
Directorate of Military Operations (DGMO), which he headed in 1993.
Musharraf has the distinction of commanding an armoured division, an
artillerybrigade and an infantry brigade. As a Lt general, he commanded
1 Corps in 1995.
Decorated with Imtiaz-E-Sanad for gallantary in the 1965 war,
Musharraf's other awards include Nishan-E-Imtiaz, Tamgha-e-Basalat and
Hilal-e-Imtiaz.
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