And now who is Iqbal Z ahmad?
Deal done, sealed
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Deal done, sealed**
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Musharraf to quit as COAS by year-end after re-election from present assemblies; two more generals to retire; Benazir to be PM for third time
Absar Alam
ISLAMABAD: After months of a bumpy ride due to the judicial and Lal Masjid crises, when Musharraf’s plane lands back at Chaklala he will heave a sigh of relief.
Returning from a two-day dash to UAE and Saudi Arabia, he will arrive holding a ‘done deal’ with Benazir Bhutto who, finally, has agreed to play ball with him.
The News has learnt through reliable sources that the deal has been sealed between the two and the meeting in Abu Dhabi was actually a ‘kind of signing ceremony’ which is conducted at the end of a long, tedious talks process.
The news of the Musharraf-Benazir meeting was tactfully leaked to the media as if negotiations had just started taking place. All details of the deal had already been thrashed out and agreed upon by the ‘helpers’ and facilitators and this meeting between the two leaders was just a ritual. The report that there was a ‘deadlock’ is “rubbish,” the sources claimed.
According to the deal, Musharraf will leave the post of Chief of Army Staff by the year-end to give the countrymen a “New Year gift”, a close Musharraf aide, who is privy to the deal process, said.
The uniform is not an issue for Benazir Bhutto, whose party will support Musharraf’s re-election as president whilst he is still the COAS. After his re-election he will take off his uniform. According to the understanding, Musharraf will be re-elected by the sitting assemblies.
“The quid pro quo is allowing her to be a third-time prime minister by striking down the current legislation that prohibits a third term,” said a top-level source.
Musharraf, however, will not be alone in the top Army brass to bow out in the next few months. At least two more four star generals will bid adieu to the Army making way for a new chief of Army staff to take over the reins.
“She has been given the sop of Musharraf’s uniform,” a top People’s Party leader said, adding, “This way she can sell the deal to her party in a better way.”
In addition to that, Benazir will also have a mutually agreed caretaker prime minister and so-called free and fair elections supervised by a neutral election commissioner.
Mark Lyall Grant, the former high commissioner of the UK to Pakistan, came to Pakistan as part of new British foreign secretary’s entourage. Grant, who has been very instrumental during the last few years in making this deal possible, is in Abu Dhabi now.
It was during Grant’s tenure here when a secret poll was conducted by the British High Commission. The poll threw up the figures showing Musharraf and Benazir being the two most popular leaders in Pakistan.
The outcome of the poll triggered a marathon talks process both with Benazir and Nawaz Sharif. However, Grants’ efforts met a Waterloo in the beginning as Nawaz Sharif in his first meeting with Grant in London told him he would not strike a deal with Musharraf.
On the second track, talks with Benazir continued and concluded in February this year. The most difficult part in the talks came when Benazir demanded a concrete, positive step by Musharraf to show his sincerity with the deal.
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To build trust between Musharraf and Benazir, a Lahore-based businessman, Iqbal Z Ahmed, played a key role. Ahmed, son of a known film director WZ Ahmed, is one of the biggest LPG quota holders in Pakistan – a fortune that he earned primarily when Bhutto was in power. **
After October 1999, he was arrested by the NAB and put behind bars in Thana Sarwar Road along with a number of politicians and businessmen. Unlike others, lady luck smiled on him and he was released within two weeks on the personal intervention of General Pervez Musharraf who, incidentally, is a very close friend of Ahmed’s.
The first step that Musharraf took to meet Benazir’s demand was the sacking of Waseem Afzal and closure of the NAB wing dealing with Benazir’s cases. At that time, Benazir had agreed even to accept Musharraf in uniform.
Within two weeks after the finalisation of the deal with Benazir, Musharraf moved against the chief justice. Benazir, of course, obliged Musharraf by not supporting the movement enthusiastically.
Being a shrewd politician, Benazir, however, sensed the masses mood and started demanding more pounds of flesh from Musharraf — take off the uniform, appoint a caretaker prime minister of her choice, neutral election commissioner, etc. The decision of the Supreme Court to restore the chief justice, however, gave a kaleidoscopic turn to the events and Benazir sought a definite date from Musharraf to leave the post of Chief of Army Staff.
Musharraf, whose writ has been much weakened, had no other way but to nod. Hence, the U-turn to Abu Dhabi to meet a person whom he never wanted to return to Pakistan.
What Musharraf failed to achieve through this visit is that he has not been able to convince the rulers of the UAE and Saudi Arabia to block the return of Nawaz Sharif.
A senior politician told The News that Musharraf had taken up the issue of Sharif’s return to Pakistan with the UAE rulers through a royal family emissary. The royal family member conveyed Musharraf’s message to the Sharifs who turned down the request, saying they have a role to play in Pakistani politics. Hence they would return to Pakistan.
A similar fate awaited Musharraf’s request in Saudi Arabia as the Sharif family is no mood to back-pedal on their decision to return. Anticipating such a move by Musharraf, the Sharifs were in contact with the royal family of Saudi Arabia to explain the political situation in Pakistan and their party’s role in it.
When Shahbaz Sharif had decided to return to Pakistan a few years ago, he also had written a letter to the Saudi King informing him that he was going back to Pakistan. Shahbaz took his flight only after he did not receive any ‘No’ from Riyadh.
The decision to file a constitutional petition by the Sharifs next week in the Supreme Court under Article 25 of the constitution, was taken after considering all strings tied to their return.
It was also learnt that Benazir is not alone in striking a deal with Musharraf, but Maulana Fazlur Rehman is also on board with the establishment.
“Both these leaders, including the Maulana, have been declared moderate forces,” the Musharraf aide claimed. He did not disclose who has made this declaration. It was clear, however, that the UK, which brokered and guaranteed the deal, has approved this alliance of political rivals.
The Musharraf aide also claimed that pre-elections battle lines have been drawn between the moderate and extremist forces. What he meant was that the political parties which would have Musharraf and the establishment’s covert and overt blessings in the next elections are the moderate forces which include the PML-Q, PPP, and the JUI. The rest are the extremist forces.
However, a number of PPP leaders, particularly in Punjab, are averse to any deal with Musharraf and are unlikely to take Benazir’s move lying low.