Re: Benazir softens her attitude: The visit of US envoy may bring postive change in h
I think BB’s double dealings are going to hurt her more than anyone else.
http://nation.com.pk/daily/nov-2007/19/index6.php
US envoy was tougher on BB than Musharraf
Afzal khan
ISLAMABAD - US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte had arrived here Thursday amid a vicious anti-Musharraf media blitzkrieg in US and Europe. Everybody was reporting that he had brought a ‘tough’ message from President Bush to lift the emergency, take off uniform, free thousands of political prisoners and hold free and fair elections on time.
Negroponte has gone and has apparently further cemented Musharraf’s resolve to continue on the path he has chosen. As is the case of the officials in Washington, John made all the correct noises about emergency, uniform, political prisoners and media freedom. That was public posture directed more to placate home audience, particularly the media which has become extremely hostile to the steps taken by Gen Musharraf.
If Negroponte was tough, it was to Ms Benazir Bhutto and not to Musharraf. He talked to her on telephone and dropped plans to meet her, ostensibly at Musharraf’s urgings who feared it would convey wrong message to home audience, according to knowledgeable sources. His counsel to Benazir was to give up the path of confrontation and restart negotiations with Musharraf.
He parried question on key issues like restoration of the judiciary purged by Musharraf. While the General is willing to shed uniform once he takes oath as president, he was reluctant to give any date for ending emergency saying he has to do many things before that. It only means he must secure a seal of approval from the tamed judiciary to his election plans, the emergency, gagging the media and the recasting of superior courts. The Bush administration seems willing to buy his arguments that emergency was inevitable to combat terrorism, save nuclear assets from falling into wrong hands and checking the judicial activism that had encouraged extremists.
The gullible PPP leadership which had pinned unrealistic hopes on Negroponte’s visit has, understandably, been greatly disappointed by its outcome. Negroponte came to Pakistan declaring Musharraf an ‘indispensable ally’. His affinity with Central American military rulers is well known. His boss George Bush emphatically stated that he was not going to abandon his valued ally. Bush sidelined Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as Musharraf was unhappy with her phone calls and instead sent Negroponte to Islamabad. Rice had taken tough stance on emergency and Musharraf’s reluctance to take off uniform. She made a very categorical statement on November 9 that fair and free elections were not possible under emergency. Musharraf was clearly annoyed.
In contrast, Negroponte was all praise for Musharraf in remarks to newsmen before departure. He, however, wanted Ms Bhutto to restart negotiations and abandon the path of confrontation she had recently adopted.
“If steps were taken by both sides to move back towards the kind of reconciliation discussions they had been having, we think that would be very positive,” Negroponte said adding that such talks would ‘help improve the political environment’.
Apparently referring to public rift between Ms Bhutto and Musharraf, Negroponte reminded them that reconciliation between moderate political forces was ‘very desirable’.
However, the punch line in his written statement and later at news briefing prior to departure in the small hours of Sunday morning should be an eye-opener for Ms Bhutto, to whom these were really directed. “Engagement and dialogue - not brinkmanship and confrontation, should be the order of the day for all parties,” he said.
A reliable source privy to the US official’s talks here said he did tell Musharraf that President Bush was unhappy over the rupture between him and Ms Bhutto after all that the US had done to broker the Musharraf-Benazir deal that facilitated Musharraf’s election on October 6 and addressed Ms Bhutto’s concern regarding her cases.
But the turn of events in the aftermath of October 18 blasts on Ms Bhutto’s tumultuous procession in Karachi, has upset Washington’s calculations regarding future power-sharing arrangement between Musharraf and Benazir. Though Negroponte said the verbal sparring between the two sides was unfortunate and had vitiated the atmosphere, Musharraf was able to convince him that Ms Bhutto was more to blame for this confrontational atmosphere.
“Musharraf argued that Ms Bhutto’s abrasive statements against him and his coalition partners were nothing but brinkmanship to exert pressure on him and wrest certain advantages in the run-up to the elections,” the source told this correspondent. Negroponte apparently bought much of that argument.
Both Musharraf and his guest were concerned that Ms Bhutto might actually team up with exiled premier Nawaz Sharif to wreck Musharraf’s game plan. Musharraf’s trouble-shooters and US diplomats have been impressing upon Ms Bhutto that Nawaz’ return would impinge on her political interests. He is certain to sway masses and sweep the polls, seriously undermining the prospects of her return to power.
“It struck me that the Americans are least enthusiastic about Nawaz,” the official said.
Ms Bhutto’s recent statements indicate she is convinced Musharraf and the Chaudhry cousins would massively manipulate elections to rout her party. Musharraf can then tell the Americans that he was not off the mark when telling them that her public standing has gone ‘down and down’. When he says she will lose miserably in elections, it betrays the game plan to deal her a crushing defeat.
Both the Americans and Musharraf are keen to persuade Ms Bhutto not to boycott. But if she reads the current situation correctly, it would be apparent that odds are badly stacked against her and other opposition parties. With emergency in place, judiciary and media badly mauled, the Election Commission greatly tamed, her access to the electorate seriously curtailed and entire civil and military bureaucracy and the local governments fully geared up to help PML-Q win a landslide, her party stands no chance. Gen Musharraf badly needs two-thirds majority for indemnification of the emergency and other extra-constitutional acts.
A Bhutto-Nawaz link-up can upset the applecart. If they decide to boycott the polls unless level-playing field is created, the elections would lose all credibility and deepen political crisis. Other opposition parties, including even Maulana Fazlur Rehman would have to follow suit. Ms Bhutto has given a call for forging a united front of all democratic forces.
She has received positive response from all opposition parties forgetting her previous role in cutting a deal with Musharraf. Her latest stance has put her at the centre stage of national political scene. Her party has been reinvigorated and workers galvanised to again defy state terror and repression. It has suddenly politicised the atmosphere and considerably restored her pre-eminence. If she slips again and succumbs to US pressure to renegotiate with Musharraf, she would be doing incalculable harm to herself and PPP image and seriously undermine the democratic movement.