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NEWS ANALYSIS
Will Musharraf face up to clerics?
P.N. Jalali

PAKISTAN'S Chief Executive Pervez Musharraf’s challenge to clerics and militant Islamists in his country, urging them to show restraint in anti-Indian utterances, and to keep their hands off politics in Pakistan, has received less attention than it deserved, both in Media and political circles in India.

The Prime Minister has no doubts extended a full-throated welcome to the General’s statement, as also the media, but a deeper probe to unravel what prompted the General to snub the clerics is needed. To be frank, the General’s statement has come as a surprise to many in this country, because of a prevailing mindset, which painted Musharraf as prisoner of the extremists, who decisively influenced the course of Pakistan’s proxy war in Kashmir.

Such an image of Pakistan’s Chief Executive was strengthened by his constant harping on extending ‘moral and material support’ to militants operating in Kashmir, and by his refusal to end cross-border terrorism, before New Delhi could invite him for bilateral discussions.

Now that Pakistan’s military ruler has thrown the gauntlet to Jehadis, what are the options. Will General Musharraf choose to keep up the militants’ pressure on India in Kashmir? Will he take the challenge thrown to Jehadis to its logical end or will he retract and sue for a compromise, as he did last time, when his Interior Minister threatened action against ‘Madrasa’ network of Islamists, only to end in a compromise, allowing Jehadis a free run of politics and religion in Pakistan?

The moot point is whether General Musharraf’s clash with clerics will encourage the evolution of more streamlined course of action to check the unbridled campaign of violence unleashed in Kashmir? More precisely, does it mark the beginning of a process of disentanglement of the Pakistan army from the Jehadi network, which extends to Afghanistan on the one end and Kashmir on the other?

A precise answer to these questions may not be available in the immediate future, but the way Jehadi leaders reacted to the General’s admonishment, threatening him with dire consequences, indicates that Musharraf’s chastisement of clerics is not mere cosmetics, but a serious step aimed at curbing the power and influence of Jehadis in the politics of Pakistan. At least one point can be made with confidence, and that is Pakistan’s Chief Executive has served notice to Jehadi extremists that they are an unwelcome party in the decision-making level in Islamabad.

If such a reading of Musharraf’s statement is correct, it augers well for the forthcoming summit level talks between the Prime Minister of India and Pakistan’s military ruler.

Significantly, Musharraf chose the holy prophet’s birthday for his chastisement of the clerics and Islamic organisations, which have come out openly against the proposed summit between him and the Indian Prime Minister.

General Musharraf’s statement therefore cannot be construed merely as an expression of distress with a regressive and intolerant religious trend in Pakistan, but a positive signal to the outside world, more precisely to New Delhi, that clerics would have little influence in deciding Islamabad’s policy approach to issues to be taken up at the New Delhi’s summit.

General Musharraf’s backers in Pakistan are also not unaware of the fact that Washington was closely monitoring the mechanism being evolved by military rulers of Islamabad to distance themselves from the Jehadis who form an integral part of the Taliban network. United Nations organisation with strong American backing is forging a new strategy to close in on Taliban and terrorist training camps, which also provide recruits for the Jehadi campaign in Kashmir.

Washington wants an effective tightening of arms flow to Afghanistan, and a tight ban on such flows to Kabul exempting humanitarian aid. This cannot be done without curbing the power and influence of Jehadi outfits, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, which are behind the sectarian riots in Pakistan, and campaign of violence in Kashmir.

Hitherto, Islamabad had been directing and coordinating the activity of militant groups, including Jehadi groups, operating in Kashmir, with the objective of finally bringing them on the bilateral peace-table as a third party along with the Hurriyat.

With General Musharraf’s move to jettison Jehadi groups from the high ground they occupied in Pakistan’s strategic map, a new and healthier phase is bound to surface in the chequered history of Pakistan. IPA