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Gen rounds up liberals, not jehadis

Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf is known for shifting the goal posts, for saying one thing while meaning something else.

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NEW DELHI: Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf is known for shifting the goal posts, for saying one thing while meaning something else. The General justified the emergency on the grounds that his country was under grave threat from jehadis and that the judiciary was letting them off of the hook. Yet the present crackdown in Pakistan is not on Islamists but on civil society.

Scores of leading members of Pakistan’s civil society have either been arrested or kept under house arrest.

“The liberal elements of Pakistani society who have consistently opposed jehadi philosophy and wanted a moderate Pakistan are now behind bars,” points out G. Parthasarathy, a former Indian envoy to Islamabad.

Human rights activist Asma Jehangir has been confined to her home in Lahore. Aitzaz Ahsan, the main lawyer who has challenged President Pervez Musharraf’s re-election, was arrested as were 80 other lawyers. None of these people has any links to Islamist terrorism.

Musharraf has also detained political activists opposed to him — Javed Hasmi, acting leader of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League, as well as Khawaja Asif, another PML senior. Yet there is not a word about any arrest of those spouting extremist Islam or want Pakistan to follow the Shariat.

“How can patriotic Pakistanis like Asma Jehangir or Aitzaz Ahsan be the targets. They have nothing to do with terror, but they do uphold the rule of law,” said an Indian official who did not wish to be identified.

“He is arresting the civil rights people and lawyers because in the cities of Pakistan these are the people who are confronting him. The jehadis at the moment are in the mountains,” said Salman Haider, former foreign secretary. “He is fighting for himself and the position of the army, which is the one institution that had always stood firm. Today this is also under threat,” adds Haider.

The danger is very real. Musharraf made the emergency declaration at a time when the power and influence of the Taliban has ‘liberated’ Swat. Reports of the army and the police surrendering to the Taliban in Swat have been coming in for some time. In the North-West Frontier Province, the local government has publicly offered to meet the demands of the Taliban to enforce Shariat throughout the Swat region.

The Islamist movement in the area the Tahreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM) is a real threat. Yet none of the known terror gangs has been touched. Perhaps the army and intelligence agencies are not in a position to do so yet. This has vindicated the charge that Musharraf’s aim is to serve his own interests and ensure that the armed forces continue to play their traditional all powerful role in Pakistan.

 

 

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