Promises, promises..., Syed Saleem Shahzad, Humayun Gohar

Promises, promises...: ISLAMABAD: The federal government on Tuesday tabled the ‘Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan’ package – based on 39 points – at a joint sitting of parliament proposing the facilitation of the return of political exiles, the immediate release of political workers and political dialogue with major stakeholders in the province. The package also proposes setting up of a fact-finding commission to investigate the circumstances that led to the death of Nawab Akbar Bugti, a judicial inquiry into the killing of three Baloch nationalist leaders, stopping the construction of cantonments in Sui and Kohlu, withdrawing the armed forces from these areas, limiting federal agencies’ operations to terrorists and tracing the missing citizens.

Syed Saleem Shahzad - A perception of this wavering has also influenced the Pakistani military. An armed forces spokesperson claimed recently that the army had reached the headquarters of the Pakistani Taliban in South Waziristan after a month-long campaign, and taken control of all key positions. The next step, under pressure from the US, was to have been to move into neighboring North Waziristan, the purported headquarters of al-Qaeda and the largest Taliban-led group, the Haqqani network. However, the military, given the signals coming out of Britain, Italy, France and Canada, and the dithering of US President Barack Obama over sending more troops to Afghanistan, is not prepared at this point to extend its operations.

Humayun Gauhar dispelled the public impression that Musharraf’s ouster was managed through an understanding between the new regime and foreign powers. He said the PPP couldn’t impeach Musharraf due to lack of solid evidence required for this. And National Assembly speaker Fehmida Mirza would make repeated calls to Musharraf’s military secretary, advising him to ask his boss to step down. Humayun said it was finally the Army’s high command that wanted Musharraf out in such circumstances and he finally nodded in agreement. There was no foreign power involved in the transfer of power agreement, nor even the PPP leadership. It was between the Army and Musharraf, he said.