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Musharraf main obstacle, say ex-servicemen

ISLAMABAD: A hundred or so of Pakistan’s ex-servicemen, including former service chiefs and retired Generals, Air Marshals and Admirals, came together in an extraordinary spectacle here on Thursday.

In the banquet hall of a small hotel, and before an invited media audience, the retired servicemen stood up one by one to denounce President Pervez Musharraf, describing him as the “main obstacle” to democracy in Pakistan, and asking that he step down immediately before causing more “damage” to the country.

Speaker after speaker said free and fair elections were impossible under General Musharraf, and the “only remedy” was for him to step down before February 18, the date of the elections.

Many of those in the hall were once part of Pakistan’s military regimes, including that of General (retd.) Musharraf’s when he first took over in 1999. Some of them are seen as having played pivotal roles in toppling elected civilian governments.

Air Marshal Asghar Khan’s letter to the Chief of the Army Staff in 1977 to “save Pakistan” from Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s “illegal regime” is considered by many to have brought on the Zia dictatorship. As the Chief of the Army Staff, General Mirza Aslam Beg, reportedly drew red lines for Benazir Bhutto’s first government, and is said to have played an important role in engineering a premature end to her rule.

The 89-year-old General Majid Malik was Field Marshal Ayub Khan’s staff officer and drafted Prime Minister Iskander Mirza’s resignation letter. Until 2005, he was in the Pakistan Muslim League (Q), an ally of General Musharraf. The main mover behind the Pakistan Ex-Servicemen’s Society is Lieutenant General Faiz Ali Chisti, who was one of the prime players in General Zia’s dictatorial regime.

But undeterred by their past, these speakers demanded that the Pakistan Army must not play a role in the politics of the country any more.

“The main issue is to restore the image of the Pakistan Army. After 17th August 1988 [the day General Zia ul-Haq was killed in a plane crash] had I wanted I could have continued to rule. But I held elections within 90 days,” said General Aslam Beg, who succeeded General Zia as the Army chief.

Demanding that President Musharraf step down, he predicted that there would be “good news” on February 18, when “our democracy will speak, and when the role played by our civil society, media, lawyers, will come to fruition.”

“We are lakhs and lakhs of ex-servicemen, and if we put our minds to it, we can get the word out to the people of Pakistan that they must use their votes to strengthen democracy,” General Beg said.

Cries of “Go Musharraf go” punctuated the speeches, and there were some unmentionable references to him. One speaker thumped down a packet of bangles on the table, asking those who did not have the courage to stand up to General Musharraf to wear them.

Another advised that the ex-servicemen should get together to prevent the holding of elections. “Once the elections are held, politicians will be bought, they will be sold, a government favourable to Musharraf will be formed and he will consolidate his hold,” said a Major.

Another ex-officer wanted General Musharraf to be given “safe passage.” There were also occasional admissions that the military had committed mistakes. An Admiral rose to say that the Pakistan armed forces were “professional, but only until 1958,” when “we started playing a part-time role, having taken on the job of running the country.” But, he said, while the responsibility for the mess had to be shared by all, “this does not mean we should not speak out now.”

The gathering was a mixture of political moderates such as Lieutenant General Talat Masood, who supports the peace process with India, as well as hardliners such as Lieutenant General Hamid Gul, a former Director-General of the ISI, who appealed to the ex-servicemen to show their opposition to President Musharraf by joining the anti-India rallies on February 5, which is observed here as Kashmir Solidarity Day.

The gathering was also bristling under General Musharraf’s remarks during his Europe tour that the ex-servicemen were an “insignificant” bunch, and many of them held a grouse against him because he had “kicked them out.” “This is one of the worst things I have heard. With this he insulted everyone who wears the uniform. He has insulted the entire armed forces,” said General Aslam Beg.

Air Marshal Asghar Khan said had politicians been allowed to rule, “in 60 years, we would have learnt some lessons.”

But each time there was dissatisfaction with the politician, the Army stepped in and did not allow democracy to take root. “This must not happen. Politicians should be tried, and if they fail, let them be rejected, let other politicians take their place. The Army must not come in.”

But the desire of the retired officers to form a “pressure group” against President Musharraf is being looked at with scepticism and suspicion, and their statements as too glib for those who held high offices in Pakistan’s military dispensations.

At a heated press conference after the meeting, a retired officer and a journalist nearly came to blows when the latter sarcastically complimented Air Marshal Khan for “finally discovering his conscience” and asked why it had taken him all these years.

The Air Marshal replied that initially, there was some faith in General Musharraf but when he started veering from his promises, disillusionment set in. Another journalist asked why the gathered ex-servicemen had not decided to offer a “collective apology” to the people of Pakistan for their wrongdoings of the last 60 years. To this, Air Marshal Khan replied: “Sit down. There is no need for us to ask any forgiveness. Ex-servicemen have sacrificed with their blood for this country. Some have made mistakes, we do not deny it, but the real need of the hour is to save the country.”

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