Reply #3: here's the suggested replacement for PM.. (he's one of "ours")

[phoebe]

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=reutersEdge&storyID=5521388

snip

Plucked from Citibank in New York to become finance minister after a 1999 military coup in Pakistan, Shaukat Aziz is just weeks away from becoming prime minister of the turbulent South Asian nation.

Unlike Zafarullah Khan Jamali, who resigned as prime minister on Saturday, Aziz is clearly favored by President General Pervez Musharraf.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/EF27Df03.html

snip

According to Pakistani media, Shaukat Aziz, who used to work for Citibank in the Gulf and the US before being invited by Musharraf to become his finance minister after he seized power in October, 1999, is a US citizen and enjoys the confidence of both the US and Saudi Arabia. After last October's elections, Musharraf insisted that Shaukat Aziz should remain as the finance minister and the elected government had to accommodate his demand by getting Shaukat Aziz elected as a member of the senate, the upper House of the federal parliament. Many Pakistanis - and particularly the religious fundamentalist elements - suspect that the US has been using Shaukat Aziz to keep a watch on the goings-on in the nuclear and missile establishments.

Surprisingly, the intriguing composition of the small entourage which has accompanied Musharraf to the US has not received the attention of many analysts. Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, the foreign minister, has been kept out of it, bringing to mind the fact that when Musharraf went to the US on his first bilaterlal visit in February last year, he did not take with him Abdul Sattar, his then foreign minister. It was reported at that time that this was because of Sattar's misgivings over the ISI agreeing to cooperate with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for monitoring developments in Iran. Sattar resigned a few months later, ostensibly on health grounds.

snip

In Pakistani political circles, Pirzada is viewed as an evil genius. He acted as the constitutional adviser to former dictator Zia ul-Haq and helped him control the judiciary and tamper with the constitution. After seizing power on October 12, 1999, one of the first acts of Musharraf was to appoint Pirzada as his adviser to perform a similar role. He made the judiciary approve Musharraf's seizure of power under the doctrine of necessity, reject petitions against Musharraf's referendum and uphold his right to amend the constitution.

And Pirzada is even closer to the ruling families of Saudi Arabia than Shaukat Aziz and has in the past played an active role in persuading Saudi Arabia to fund the Pakistani military nuclear development program. The inclusion of Aziz and Pirzada in the entourage indicates that Musharraf anticipated that US suspicions over the security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal and concerns over Pakistani collusion with North Korea and alleged activities of pro-Iran rogue elements in the nuclear establishment might figure in his discussions with President George W Bush at Camp David, and hence wanted them to assist him.