COUP IN PAKISTAN
On Tuesday, the military closed the airports and placed Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif under house arrest.
The coup came just hours after Sharif fired Musharraf, who was visiting Sri Lanka. The general immediately flew back to Pakistan and was met at the airport by a large contingent of soldiers.
The conflict between the two men developed this summer after the prime minister ordered militants to withdraw from Indian territory in the Kashmir region, ending two months of bitter fighting with India.
Musharraf reportedly orchestrated the incursion into Kashmir, and the withdrawal of the militants was considered humiliating to Pakistan's military.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/july-dec99/pakistan_report_10-12.htmlMusharraf's coup
A beleaguered Pakistan military regime faces mounting criticism
In perpetrating a second coup against democracy, General Pervez Musharraf may have strengthened his own position but he has done Pakistan no favours. Gen Musharraf's decision to elevate himself from "chief executive", the title he assumed after the 1999 military takeover, to president, had been predicted. But that does not make it any more acceptable. And the timing was inept, coming as his foreign minister, Abdul Sattar, was in Washington trying to persuade a sceptical US administration to show more understanding of his country's problems.
Mr Sattar, who seems to have been badly caught out by the presidential putsch, conducted a similar exercise in London the previous week. Any progress he may have made has now been wrecked by the general's action, which brought sharp rebukes from the US State Department and the Foreign Office. Any chance that Washington would relax its sanctions has been blown, while the Commonwealth must decide whether to expel Pakistan when it meets later this year.
Just as when he overthrew Pakistan's elected prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, Gen Musharraf justifies his latest constitutional violation on grounds of personal duty and the national interest. Some progress has been made since 1999 in tackling corruption and restoring order to the country's indebted economy. Growth this year is estimated at 4% and exports and foreign currency reserves are up. But these advances have come at a high cost, with normal political life suspended, violence in Kashmir increasing again, and Pakistan isolated, especially over its links with Afghanistan's Taliban. Although Gen Musharraf promises to allow parliamentary elections by October next year, he is likely to retain his dominant, still illegitimate position, backed by an unelected security council. Public anger at Mr Sharif's clique has been replaced by a sense of powerlessness.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,2763,511917,00.htmlBy Vilani Peiris
21 November 2000
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Last month marked one year since General Pervez Musharraf ousted the elected Pakistani government, arrested prime minister Nawaz Sharif and installed his own military regime. Accusing the previous government of corruption and ruining the economy, Musharraf promised to bring economic progress and political stability, eradicate poverty, build investor confidence and restore democracy as quickly as possible.
Twelve months later none of these promises have been fulfilled. The economy is still on a knife-edge and there is growing popular discontent with falling living standards and the lack of basic democratic rights. The regime is under fire not only from the political opposition but also from its supporters in the ruling elites including among the military top brass.
At the end of October, a meeting of key military commanders grilled Musharraf over the record of his administration. According to an Agence France-Presse report: “Political and diplomatic sources said that the commanders discussed plans to appoint a civilian prime minister to deflect public anger from the military, should the situation deteriorate further.”
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/nov2000/pak-n21.shtml
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