I think its fair to say the US will decide who rules Pakistan next and not the voters of Pakistan. We can all thank General Presedent Mushrraf for this.
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=10118
By Muhammad Saleh Zaafir
ISLAMABAD: The make or break 48-hour chronometer has started ticking. The Presidency and the Supreme Court are supposed to be the epicenter of the events that will determine the course of the country’s political future in the ongoing tug-of-war between the two embattled pillars of the state. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who is eagerly looking for an inkling of the keenly awaited verdict of the apex court, has given assurance that ‘the government will respect the court judgement’.
Highly placed diplomatic sources revealed to The News here that President General Pervez Musharraf’s interlocutor on national and international back-channel diplomacy Tariq Aziz has halted, at least for the time being, interaction with former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. The US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher has informally ‘replaced’ Tariq Aziz because the parties failed to show the desired results in their recent back-channel parleys.
The US Secretary of State Dr Condoleezza Rice has been personally monitoring the developments and obtaining reports about the progress made in the negotiations. Richard Boucher is directly reporting to the secretary of state and he has held four meetings with former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in recent weeks, first in New York and then in London and Dubai and now again in Dubai. He visited Pakistan thrice without schedule in recent days. Some quarters here call him the American counterpart of TA (Tariq Aziz). The US deputy secretary of state, John Negroponte, who visited the region last week spent about six days here, and held an important meeting with the PPP leaders including its Central Secretary Information Ms Sherri Rehman before returning home. He earlier had lengthy discussions with some stalwarts of the Shujaat Muslim League. He too is reporting about the developments to Dr Rice, the sources said. The Americans are very keen to see continuation of General Pervez Musharraf in office. They are also interested in seeing the General in place with his power intact.
Tariq Aziz who is also secretary of the powerful National Security Council (NSC) is the architect of this process and he had held a very important round of talks with Benazir Bhutto last month in London. The President’s Chief of Staff General Hamid Javed and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Chief Lt General Ashfaq Pervez Kiani assisted him in the talks. Later, TA continued the dialogue in Dubai but the two sides could not reach any conclusion.
At this stage Shujaat Muslim League threw a spanner in the works and created hurdles in the way of further talks with active assistance from some invisible faces in the establishment and leaders of the Muttahidda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA). As a result, there were no talks between the two sides for about two weeks. The Americans were concerned about the deadlock and they intervened through Richard Boucher.
The capital remained abuzz with speculation that Tariq Aziz has again left Friday morning for Dubai to clinch a deal with Benazir Bhutto at the eleventh hour, just before her announcement about her return journey. The fact of the matter is that Tariq Aziz remained in his office throughout the day and he has no plan to undertake any foreign trip in the next three days. Talking to this scribe on Friday afternoon he said, “Please correct yourself that I am here and I have no plan to leave the country in the next two days.”
Tariq Aziz made it clear that right now no one from the government is talking to Benazir Bhutto and no official has planned to go to Dubai for the purpose. “Negotiations are not taking place with Benazir Bhutto currently but it does not essentially mean that any stumbling block has come in the way of the dialogue”, he said. Tariq Aziz parried a query about the time schedule for the resumption of talks. He is unhappy with some leaders of the Shujaat League for their opposition to the talks with PPP.
In another important development, the Election Commission of Pakistan has deferred the announcement of the schedule for the election of the President. The timeframe for the holding of the election has started today (Saturday) and as per tradition the commission takes 22 to 26 days for the completion of the process. Kunwar Muhammad Khan Dilshad, secretary of the commission, announced two days back that the schedule of the election would be announced within ‘two to three days’. He has now said that he would not be able to give any hint about the schedule before Monday next and again it could be announced in the later part of the next week when 26-days will be still available. He could not prove his point but insisted that the commission will have sufficient time to complete the election process.
Talking informally to this scribe on Friday evening he said that the National Assembly could not be dissolved once the schedule is announced and the nomination papers by the candidates are filed.
In the meanwhile sources have pointed out that the discussion regarding the future strategy of the ruling alliance for the election or any other ‘venture’ has shifted to Lahore. President General Pervez Musharraf visited Lahore early this week and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz will go to Lahore tomorrow (Sunday). The prime minister rarely leaves Islamabad on Sundays. The sources indicated that the government is contemplating some drastic action to save itself from unprecedented humiliation since it cannot afford to act once the ‘disqualification’ verdict is pronounced. Something unusual is in the offing and that too within the next 48 hours.