SEP
2: General Musharraf's government is considering filing a treason case against Ms Bhutto for
disclosing state secrets, which she had pledged not to divulge when she took
oath as the country’s prime minister.
According to another news report, Benazir, after her conviction, sought reconciliation with President General Pervez
Musharraf and offered him a safe exit and a safe return for herself, but he rejected.
Musharraf's government,
which has chosen to be pro-active against the opposition parties opposing the
Legal Framework Order (LFO), will point out a violation of the oath taken by
Benazir Bhutto as the country’s prime minister under clauses 2 and 3 of Article 91 of the Constitution.
The oath of the prime minister says: "I’ll not disclose to anyone any matter or subject that is brought into my knowledge as the prime minister."
No head of state or top government of Pakistan official has ever been convicted for violating the Official Secrets Act.
But this may very well be the first case of its kind, say analysts knowledgeable of Pakistan politics and military's influence on all national and security matters.
According to details, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto revealed elements of an important military operation in a newspaper interview with an Indian journalist in London, a few days after a Swiss magistrate judgment last month, senior officials have said. "Musharraf wanted to grab Srinagar," Shayam Bhatia quoted Ms Bhutto in August 21 issue of India Abroad, a weekly news magazine.
Ms Bhutto disclosed to Bhatia: "He was my Director General Military Operations and he presented me with his plan in front of 50 officers about how the mujahideen would infiltrate an area similar to Kargil, how they would bring about a war and how the Indians wouldn’t be able to dislocate us and they would be forced to start a second front at which point the international community would intervene and we would take Srinagar." The interview or its contents have not been disputed by the PPP despite its publication on August 21.
Without commenting upon the exact contents of the briefing, several official sources have now said that Ms Bhutto’s interview with the Indian journalist contained elements of the "Top Secret" briefing arranged for her by the then COAS Gen Abdul Wahid Kakar at the Joint Staff headquarters in mid-1995.
In the briefing attended by the top hierarchy of the military services, informed officials said, the then Director General Military Operations Major General Pervez Musharraf briefed the audience about the contingency plans and operations prepared by the military operations directorate, the backbone of military planning at the General Headquarters (GHQ).
Officials confirmed a vigorous interaction that took place between Ms Bhutto and Major General Musharraf, but they said that even then it was impressed upon her that the Army was not contemplating any action and the idea for that most confidential briefing was only to apprise her of the preparedness of the country’s military planners.
"It was irresponsible on the part of the former prime minister to speak about an India related military operation and that too with an Indian reporter," said a senior Pakistani official.
A senior PPP leader in Islamabad, requesting anonymity, recalled: "Ms Bhutto had granted this interview soon after the Swiss magistrate’s judgment and she thought that the military junta had bribed the Swiss magistrate to defame her internationally."
Whatever may be the background of Ms Bhutto’s interview with "India Abroad", her utterances might aggravate her problems with the Army more than anything else in recent past.
Ms Bhutto’s decision to speak about the military operations presented to her by the Army has apparently further angered the establishment, which had not yet recovered from her series of media interviews since September 11 terrorist attacks against the United States in which the former prime minister had accused ISI of having direct connection with Osama bin Laden.
Several times also in the past two years, she branded top generals such as General Musharraf, former DG ISI Lt-Gen Mahmoud Ahmad and Chairman joint chiefs of staff Gen Aziz Khan as fundamentalist pro-al Qaeda generals.
The reason for her continued tirade against the Army is her belief that the establishment never allowed her government to function normally and she is being defamed internationally because she represents a solid challenge to the establishment’s grip over power in Pakistan.
Paradoxically, she never had serious complaints against the Army chiefs that had served the PPP government.
Ms Bhutto had such an admiration for former COAS Gen Aslam Beg that she decorated him with an unprecedented Medal of Democracy.
Her opinion about Gen Beg has now changed completely as she accuses him now of accepting $10 million from Osama bin Laden to overthrow her government through a no-confidence vote in parliament in 1990.
Repeatedly in the past few weeks, the PPP chairperson, whose grip on the party still seems formidable, has alleged that the General Pervez Musharraf-led establishment influenced Switzerland’s judicial system to win an initial magisterial inquiry against her and now this verdict is being used to rid her of a positive international image.
Meanwhile, informed officials said authorities are exploring if Ms Bhutto’s interview with Shayam Bhatia of India Abroad is tantamount to the breach of her oath as prime minister.
Given the army's history of long standing bias against the Bhuttos, Benazir's most recent tell-telling on official secret matters, specially military-cum-security related has the potential of becoming the final nail on her political casket.
If news reports and General Musharraf's statements are any indicators of how badly the military establishment want Benazir exited from the Pak political scene, then the most recent issue may play well in the hands of the anti-Bhutto clique in the establishment.
But most of her misfortunes have been of her own making, say some analysts.
However, being a moderate voice and a formidable force in a country which is beset with sectarianism and extremism, her being in the eye of the storm does not abode well for those who want to see Pakistan come out of the post 9/11 tufaan.
Whether Musharraf and his political-cum-security pundits will look at Benazir's most recent goofup as only a lousy cheap shot will largely depend on how much they care for the international community, particularly United States' concern about westernized democracy in Pakistan.
US has already begun efforts to bring about rapprochement between the General and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Richard G Lugar, chairman of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has begun efforts to open up new channels of communications between Musharraf and Bhutto, says media reports.
The US is interested to see Bhutto's return to Pakistan as it does not want to see the marginalisation of liberal and progressive elements in Pakistan politics.
End.
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