Sept. 29: The Pakistani military, angered by the inept handling of the country’s devastating floods and alarmed by a collapse of the economy, is pushing for a shake-up of the elected government, and in the longer term, even the removal of President Asif Ali Zardari and his top lieutenants. The military, preoccupied by a war against militants and reluctant to assume direct responsibility for the economic crisis, has made clear it is not eager to take over the government, as it has many times before, military officials and politicians said.
But the government’s performance since the floods, which have left 20 million people homeless and the nation dependent on handouts from sceptical foreign donors, has laid bare the deep underlying tensions between military and civilian leaders. American officials, too, say it has left them increasingly disillusioned with Mr Zardari, a deeply unpopular President who was elected two-and-a-half years ago on a wave of sympathy after the assassination of his wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
In a meeting on Monday that was played on the front page of Pakistan’s newspapers, the Army Chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani confronted the President and his Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani over incompetence and corruption in the government. According to the press and Pakistani officials familiar with the conversation, the General demanded that they dismiss at least some ministers in the oversized 60-member Cabinet, many of whom face corruption charges. The civilian government has so far resisted the General’s demand. But the meeting was widely interpreted by the Pakistani news media, which has grown increasingly hostile to the President, as a rebuke to the civilian politicians and as having pushed the government to the brink.
After the meeting, the President’s office issued a statement, approved by all the men, saying they had agreed “to protect the democratic process and to resolve all issues in accordance with the Constitution.” A Pakistani official close to the President who was familiar with the conversation but did not want to be identified, said, “The President made it clear that he would not leave, come what may.” “Sanity had prevailed,” the official added.
Since the floods, the government has defended its handling of the crisis, arguing that any government would have been overwhelmed by its scale. Still, it is clear that Gen. Kayani, head of the country’s most powerful institution, and the one that has taken the lead in the flood crisis, has ratcheted up the pressure on the government.
Having secured an exceptional three-year extension in his post from Mr Zardari in July, Gen. Kayani appears determined to prevent the economy from bankruptcy.