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| Thursday,
June 21, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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PM’s invitation behind elevation New Delhi, June 20 “The rationale for General Musharraf becoming President of Pakistan after firing Rafiq Tarar is Mr Vajpayee’s invitation for talks aimed at normalising relations between the two countries,” assert experts and avid Islamabad watchers. They are emphatic that the General is trying to send unambiguous signals that he is there to stay for five years as he has the backing of the powerful military establishment in that country. The timing of General Musharraf’s much talked about elevation as President assumes importance in Pakistan’s fragile domestic environment in the wake of his upcoming three-day official visit to India from July 14 to 16. It is generally felt that formally assuming office as Pakistan’s Head of State should equip General Musharraf to arraign to himself the necessary authority and credibility in resuming the stalled dialogue with India. At the same time it is too early to visualise the contours and approaches of the institutions that the Pakistan President heads. Even though Mr Vajpayee’s invitation to General Musharraf has been widely welcomed, Pakistan continues to adopt a rigid and negative approach as evidenced by the statements made in Islamabad with pointed reference to Jammu and Kashmir that flexibility is a means and not the objective. The experts firmly believe that Pakistan is yet again trying to set the agenda for the Vajpayee-Musharraf summit unilaterally. The Prime Minister has set out New Delhi’s endeavour to move forward in promoting peace, friendship and cooperation between the two countries and it is in this context that the two leaders will retreat to Agra close to the majestic structure of immortal love. They contend that the formulation of Mr Vajpayee’s invitation to General Musharraf seeks to bring into focus efforts aimed at normalising Indo-Pak relations, despite Islamabad’s gambit of trying to concentrate attention on the protracted Kashmir tangle. In this context the experts stress that ties between countries cannot be limited to a single issue, especially as New Delhi has always kept its doors open for resolving contentious issues through peaceful means. India has been consistently articulating a position enshrined in the Constitution. Then there is the problem of cross-border terrorism and Pakistan’s battered economy. Opinion in a wide cross-section here is that the leadership in Pakistan will have to do some hard thinking about doing business with India in a fast-changing interdependent environment. General Musharraf assuming the high office of President is indicative of the Pakistan leader’s desire of putting in place the system that he has in mind. Simultaneously, a lot of questions have been raised. These pertain to returning to popular democratic rule by October, 2002, as envisaged by the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and the constitutional role that the army is pursuing in that country’s political structure. |
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In the footsteps of predecessors Islamabad, June 20 Fifty-eight-year-old Musharraf, author of Kargil, has decisively emulated Field Marshal Ayub Khan, Gen Yahya Khan and Gen Zia-ul-Haq while firmly resisting outside pressure to move quickly to restore civilian rule. General Musharraf, whose cigarette smoking and pistol totting image flashed across television screens during the Kargil crisis in 1999, took the reins of power on October 12, 1999 overthrowing democratically elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a military coup, even as he was landing on his return from Colombo. General Musharraf was little known outside Pakistan or for that matter even in his own country till he was appointed army chief by Mr Sharif and as a proverb goes, bit the hand that fed him. He superseded two generals to become the army chief in 1998 after his powerful predecessor Gen Jehangir Karamat resigned two days after calling for the army to be given a key role in the country’s decision-making process. General Musharraf, who was born in Delhi on August 14, 1943 in a diplomat’s family, has often said he was catapulted to the top of the power structure in Pakistan by a “quirk” of fate and that he came to power because of god’s wish and was determined to change the face of Pakistan. A hardboiled soldier, General Musharraf, who belongs to an Urdu-speaking family in Karachi, began his military service in 1964 and his rise through the ranks came despite the fact that he did not belong to the predominantly Punjabi officer class of the Pakistani army. While being credited as one of the principal strategists behind the Kargil crisis, General Musharraf also made it clear that he did not oppose efforts to ease tension with India. General Musharraf, who suspended the National Assembly after the coup, has consolidated his military and political base after succeeding in getting a life sentence for Mr Sharif on charges of preventing his plane from Colombo from landing in Karachi and sending the latter to exile in Saudi Arabia. Soon after the coup, relations between India and Pakistan plunged to a further low following the hijack of an Indian Airlines plane to Afghanistan in December, 1999, within months after the Kargil war. New Delhi has blamed the hijack on Pakistan-based groups. Fluent in English and Turkish on account of living with his father in the Pakistani Mission in Turkey in the 1950s, General Musharraf had two stints in the Special Service Group “commandos”. He saw action in the 1965 war with India as a young officer in the Khem Karan, Lahore and Sialkot sectors with a self-propelled artillery regiment. He also participated in the 1971 war as a company commander in a commando battalion. General Musharraf, the second of three brothers, migrated to Karachi along with his family at the age of four during partition. A graduate of Command and Staff College, Quetta and the National Defence College, General Musharraf distinguished himself at the Royal College of Defence Studies, U.K. He has served on various important staff and instructional appointments during his military career and also donned the crucial post of Director-General, Military Operations, at the General Headquarters. As a promising young Captain, he got married to Sheba Musharraf in 1968 and has two children — Ayla and Bilal, both married. They have a granddaughter Mariam from Ayla. A natural sportsman, General Musharraf has always loved the outdoors and plays squash, golf or badminton during leisure time.
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