JUI backs gov`t?
also! read the new ICG report on Pakistan, very very interesting, though (as always), very unlikely to be acted on.
here is a quick primer of the parties and Pakistani politics
-PML (pakistan muslim league) refers to one of two parties, either the old party of ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif- the PML (N) or Musharrafs party- the PML (P). Centre right.
-PPP (Pakistan People`s Parlimentarians) the Bhutto family`s party (old, rich land owning shia family) secular, centre-left (technically, still adopted neo-liberal economics) rests on the laurals of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who was a democratically elected populist of socialist stripes, overthrown by the military and executed.
-the MMA a coalition of Religious parties (both Sunni and Shiite, some quite extreme) that have at times supported the government, at other time opposed it. The JUI used to be the main right wing religious party, but has been supplanted by smaller, even more extreme parties, and is now comparatively moderate.
-The MQM the `mohajir party`, representing the interests of the muslims who fled india and have been discriminated against in Pakistan by the Muslims who were there before partition. Overwhelmingly based in Karachi, alleged to have been behind violent attacks on lawyers during last months protests. Pro-gov`t.
-Nawab Akbar Bugti- Nationalist leader of the Balochi ethnic group and member of parliment murdered by the military last year (allegedly by a chemical weapon) . Also a major tribal warlord, who waged a low level insurgency against the State because of its plan to expropriate the province`s gas reserves.
” In an exclusive interview to Daily Times, the secretary general of the Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), chief of the Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI) and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, has stated that “General Pervez Musharraf should be given safe passage through his re-election as president-in-uniform to save the country from another bout of martial law”. Maulana Fazal thinks that doing this would avoid a repeat of “the East Pakistan tragedy”. This bombshell will numb the opposition leaders who gathered last month in London and have not yet finished berating the PPP for “negotiating” with President Musharraf.
The Maulana believes that President Musharraf could impose another martial law if he fails to win political support for his re-election as president-in-uniform. He suspects that support from the international community, particularly the United States, could embolden General Musharraf to go ahead with this plan. So the Maulana doesn’t want history repeated and doesn’t want another “1969-like marital law in the country”. Therefore, after all the harsh words he and his partymen have been using against the PPP, he is now voicing tacit support for a power-sharing deal between Ms Benazir Bhutto and President Musharraf, provided “it is done in all sincerity”.
It appears that unlike most clerics in the country, Maulana Rehman is knowledgeable and sensitive to the global winds blowing against Pakistan’s extremists and wants to get out of the line of fire. He says the Abdu Dhabi meeting was backed by the United Kingdom and the United States. His own change of heart — if the entire statement is not tongue-in-cheek — has grown out of his interpretation of events as “nobody from the presidency had so far contacted the MMA in this regard”. He seems to accept as a given ground reality the coming coalition government of the PPP and PML at the centre.
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More significantly, Maulana Fazal must have also been convinced that the PPP-Musharraf deal could not be easily derailed because of the strong backing it was receiving from the Pakistan army and the US, the two most powerful players in the game. But above all he must have felt more endangered by his rival within the MMA, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, who is running away with JUI’s votes through a radical agenda, than by the new combination of forces gathering behind President Musharraf. As if echoing him, the PPP MNA Nabeel Gabool told a TV channel Tuesday that Ms Bhutto too was giving General Musharraf a “safe passage” and that she was willing to work once again with the MQM.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman must also be less sanguine about the success of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the retention of his control over the Tribal Areas where Al Qaeda and its Taliban ancillaries are emerging as the real power, a situation in which Qazi Hussain Ahmad is more likely to make political inroads than Maulana Fazal can, given the responsibilities of incumbency in the NWFP and Balochistan. As for Balochistan, his party has already showed signs of not being a willing partner of the nationalist movement there. Indeed, the Baloch are cut up by his unwillingness to whole-heartedly side with them on the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti. The question in front of him is: who is more dangerous, General Musharraf or Qazi Hussain Ahmad? In Balochistan, clearly, General Musharraf is a better bet for him”
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