Musharraf begs for understanding

MEPs blast hollowness, hypocrisy of dictator-President

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, who came to power in a bloodless coup on October 12, 1999 after ousting the democratically-elected government of Nawaz Sharif, came to Brussels during his four-nation trip to Europe.

Among many of his arranged talks to whitewash his image in the run-up to national elections on February 18 in Pakistan, the former military dictator-turnedpresident faced the toughest challenge at the European Parliament, the only directly-elected European institution.

Addressing an amalgamation of European lawmakers from Foreign Affairs Committee and the Delegation for relations with South Asia, Musharraf faltered when Neena Gill, MEP, challenged him over the imprisonment of pro-democracy activists in Pakistan. Gill asked Musharraf how, in the light of his alleged commitment to free and fair elections, he could explain the imprisonment of leading members of Pakistan’s civil society with little justification. She questioned him particularly about the case of Atizaz Ahsan, President of the Supreme Bar Association of Pakistan, who has been kept under house arrest for several months.

Ahsan, a prominent advocate of democracy in Pakistan was arrested after he fought a successful legal battle to reinstate the Chief Justice Pakistan, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who was illegally swept from office by Musharraf.Gill demanded to know if Ahsan, and other imprisoned lawyers would be freed, allowed to re-enter an independent judicial system and campaign unhindered in the forthcoming elections.

Gill told journalists later, “President Musharraf was evasive when answering MEPs questions. He claimed Atizaz Ahsan is free to leave his home, but we were informed differently.”“Mr. Musharraf continues to reiterate his commitment to free, fair, transparent and, as he added during today’s debate, peaceful elections. Sadly, there is a lot of evidence, such as Mr. Ahsan’s imprisonment which suggests his actions do not reflect his words. It is the responsibility of the international community to put pressure on Mr. Musharraf to replace the current Electoral Commission with a truly autonomous body, and allow a free media and judiciary.”

Earlier, Musharraf told a gathering of European lawmakers, diplomats and a sprinkle of journalists, “Pakistan is not a banana republic,” trying to clear the alleged blood stains on his regime from the recent assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

Foreign Affairs Committee Chair MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski asked the Pakistani President for his assessment of the upcoming elections while MEP Veronique De Keyser was of the opinion that there was “a danger for democracy” in the recent events leading up to these polls, especially the mass arrests of lawyers.

Echoing this, MEP Annemie Neyts demanded that “all political prisoners need to be released before the elections,” while South-East Asia Delegation Chair Robert Evans highlighted, “MEPs will want assurances that you’ll do all you can to ensure a free and fair election, especially with relation to media freedoms.”

Denying that Pakistan has political prisoners, President Musharraf said only people “arrested” are “for breaking the law.” Visibly moved, Musharraf said he had acted “in accordance with the law of Pakistan and its constitution” when he initiated steps to remove the Chief Justice from his post in November last year, whom he described as “politicised, inept, corrupt and nepotistic.”

Making journalists wonder about his words, Musharraf argued Pakistan’s media was as free as any Western country’s, and assured MEPs that the upcoming elections will be “free, fair, transparent and peaceful.”

His assertion came within weeks of demands of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) for the suspension of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), which has stepped up its efforts to restrict the media since Musharraf imposed a six-week state of emergency in early November.

According to the IFJ, which represents more than half a million journalists in 120 countries, it is impossible for journalists to properly do their work and cover the February 18 elections in a free atmosphere unless the Government revokes the recent censoring of media laws.

IFJ Asia-Pacific Director Jacqueline Park said the formation of a press council is pointless until respect for media rights and press freedom is first enshrined in the law. “With the current situation being as it is in Pakistan, especially following the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on December 27, it is more important than ever that the media are free to carry out their professional duties and keep the public informed,” said Park.

Wondering about the motives behind Bhutto’s assassination, Jose Salafranca asked whether President Musharraf was in favour of an international investigation into the case, but the former military chief vehemently denied “all conspiracy theories concerning the involvement of the intelligence services or the government,” in Bhutto’s death.

Musharraf went to great lengths to explain how the Pakistani security had “performed its duties well” in protecting Bhutto while it was no one but Bhutto to blame as she came out of the bullet-proof vehicle provided by the government.He, however, accepted forensic help from Scotland Yard and reiterated that Pakistani investigators were capable of uncovering who had been behind the assassination.

Speaking on the oft-repeated remarks about Pakistan being “in the forefront of fighting terrorism and extremism,” the former military dictator pleaded to the gathered audience to “help us, instead of attacking us and criticising us.”

Rejecting claims by MEP Francis Wurtz that the “war on terrorism” was declared by US President George W Bush, Musharraf argued, “We are fighting this war for our own interest, not anyone else’s.”

Dismissing the accusations about money being siphoned off from Western aid of billions of Euro, meant to fight terrorism, Musharraf gave a mathematical calculation formula showing that most of the money went back to donors for services and logistics provided for the war on terror. He went on to say that he would like to ask US President Bush to keep US money so that these accusations are not labeled on his government.

Musharraf also met the European Union’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana as well as Belgium’s caretaker Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

On the sidelines, the anti- Musharraf Pakistani demonstrators representing Pakistani opposition parties gathered just a few kilometres away from the hotel where the Pakistani President was staying. Protestors held pictures of assassinated opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and the leader of the PML-N, Nawaz Sharif. The demonstration was organised by three groups, the Pakistan People’s Party, Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) and Tehirke Insaf( Movement of Justice).

No knowledge of whereabouts of Osama bin Laden: NATO

Osama bin Laden remains as elusive today as he was at thestart of US-led NATO operations in Afghanistan six years ago.“We have no knowledge of the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden,” said Brigadier General Rodney Anderson, the Deputy Commander General for Support for Regional Command East in Bagram, Afghanistan.

Speaking to Brussels-based journalists during a video teleconference, General Anderson elaborated on the mountainousTora Bora area from where bin Laden was supposed to have escaped years ago, “In the Tora Bora area the Afghan NationalArmy has recently partnered with coalition forces, conductedsome operations in the area. There are still Afghan National Army forces in the area. And this is all to provide a level of safety and security for the people of the province of Nangarhar. But there were really no major operations, so to speak, conducted there over the last several months.”

With the recent assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and a spate of terrorist attacks across the country, the situation in the key state of Islamic Republic of Pakistan seems to have gone from bad to worse.

Although the NATO commander hesitated “to speculate on what is essentiallya political matter in Pakistan,” the General did call the FATA, the Federal Administered Tribal Area a challenge saying,“We recognise it as a challenge and the Pakistan military has responsibility for that area. We do not conduct any operationsor the like across the border.”

Confirming good communication across the border, “There are no disagreements that I am aware of between the Pakistan’s military and the coalition forces’ military as it relates to the border,” Anderson ruled out direct NATO action there saying, “We have no plans, no intentions, no instructions, noauthority to cross the border to conduct any sort of operations inside Pakistan.”

There have been repeated attacks on Pakistani army in thatarea and according to reports there is no tangible authority of the Pakistani government there. With such a hostile climate across the safe havens for the resurgent Taliban in the Western Pakistan where insurgents are able to regroup and attack NATO groups while the government of Hamid Karzai is struggling to keep them at bay, there is a humanitarian face of NATO, silent but steady at work in rebuilding Afghanistan.

The decade-long brutal Soviet occupation from 1979 to 1989 decayed the fragile economy and damaged the fabrics of Afghan society that it may take years and billions in aid to bring some kind of normalcy.

NATO Brigadier General Anderson went to great lengths explaining the significant progress guided by “a single unifying strategy, the Afghan National Development Strategy or ANDS.” Giving the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan credit to keep Afghanistan on path to progress, Anderson stressed the link between development and security situationsaying, “as they move forward there will be an increase in capability and capacity of the police and the army and likewise in the reduction in poverty, in the improvement in universal primaryeducation, gender equity and all of the other aspects of the Millennial Development Goals.”

He listed some statistical data like, “Schools have increased from 1,000 to 9,000 in the last years... in the area of health care, basic health care access has increased from eight percent six years ago, to 78 percent today ... In the area of roads, the Ring Road is 100 percent complete in Regional Command East and 73 percent paved around the country.”

Queried about the reliability of these data, the General told journalists, “The figures that we’re using are with inputs fromthe ministries, but from independent assessments that have been done and indicators from several different sources. And so we are fairly comfortable that we have not over-inflated the figures that I gave you.”

Outlining the NATO role as “just to assist where there’s a lack of knowledge of what government program might be available,” the General said, “Each province in Regional Command East has a PRT, a Provincial Reconstruction Team, and it is one of their responsibilities to assist the Provincial Development Council and the District Development Assembly and just partner with the entire development and governance framework at the provincial level... Every project completed is another step forward. This progress will not happen overnight, but Afghanistan, with international help, can meet the UN’s Millennial Development Goals.”