The report by WikiLeaks that Pakistan Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani was not totally averse to imposing military rule or at least showing the door to President Asif Ali Zardari has created a stir in leadership circles here, official sources said Wednesday.
“The President and the Prime Minister are surprised. The Cabinet members are also panicked”, a source close to the decision-makers told this newspaper.
Gen. Kayani, who succeeded Gen. Pervez Musharraf as head of the Army in 2008, started a fresh term as chief on Sunday. He was given an additional full three-year term by the government, ostensibly because he was pro-democracy.
US diplomatic cables put in the public domain by WikiLeaks claimed that the Army chief had mused about forcing out President Zardari, who in turn had made “extensive preparations” for a coup or assassination. The latest tranche of memos disclosed by whistl-eblower site WikiLeaks and reported by the New York Times and London’s Guardian also showed that Washington was more concerned than it let on publicly about Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.
Gen. Kayani told the US ambassador during a March 2009 meeting that he “might, however reluctantly” pressure Mr Zardari to resign, according to cable cited by the newspapers.
Gen. Kayani was quoted as saying he might support Asfandyar Wali Khan, head of the Awami National League Party, as the new President — not Mr Zardari’s arch-foe Nawaz Sharif.
In another cable quoted by these newspapers, US vice-president Joe Biden recounted to Britain’s then Prime Minister Gordon Brown a conversation with Mr Zardari last year.
Mr Zardari told him that Gen. Kayani and the Inter-Services Intelligence agency “will take me out”, the cable said. It added that Mr Zardari had claimed he had “made extensive preparations” in case he was
killed.
Tensions between Mr Zardari and the Army are no secret, and Pakistan often witnesses coup rumours. After Gen. Kayani met in September with Mr Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, the now-exiled Pervez Musharraf had quipped: “I can assure you they were not discussing the weather”.
On Wednesday, Pakistan dismissed US and British fears that its nuclear weapons programme could fall into hands of terrorists as laid bare in the leaked US diplomatic cables. The leaked memos had suggested that the US was more concerned than it let on publicly about Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.
“Their fears are misplaced and doubtless fall in the realm of condescension,” Pakistan foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit said on Wednesday. “There has not been a single incident involving our fissile material, which clearly reflects how strong our controls and mechanisms are. It is time they part with their historical biases against Pakistan,” Mr Basit said, referring to the US and Britain.
Speaking separately, US ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter said Wednesday that the relationship between Pakistan and the US would not be affected by the WikiLeaks disclosures. While talking to reporters here on the restoration of infrastructure in flood-affected areas, Mr Munter said the partnership between Pakistan and the US would continue and both countries would leave the issue of the leaks behind.