General Kiyani is neutral on the Musharraf-Zardari rift. President wants him replaced with one of his confidants
LAHORE: As things are fast approaching towards a final showdown between the presidency and the government, the Pakistani media is reporting the possibility of President Pervez Musharraf replacing Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Kiyani with one of his confidants to tilt the power in his favour, as the incumbent COAS is adamant to keep the institution of the Army neutral in the ongoing confrontation between the two power centres in the federal capital.
Pakistan’s print and electronic media has reported that Musharraf is not happy with Kiyani’s neutral posture while he was confronted with a grave crisis and he was seriously contemplating to exercise his presidential powers and bring in one of his confidants as the new Chief of Army Staff.
The presidential spokesman Major General (retd) Rashid Qureshi has said that the Army Chief was appointed on merit for a period of three years and there was no move in the offing to replace him. The presidential spokesman described reports about moves to replace Kiyani as simply malicious and designed to vitiate the relations between the presidency and the chief of the armed forces.
However, a senior defence analyst Brigadier (retd) Ikram Sehgal has insisted in his latest column in English daily The News that there have been strong rumours in the military circles that the incumbent ISI chief General Nadeem Taj could be promoted by Musharraf to replace General Kiyani as the Chief of Army Staff before the PPP government tables the proposed package of constitutional amendments in the Parliament, in a bid to reduce the president to a dummy head of the state.
Musharraf’s eight-year rule seems to be coming to an end with a major shift in the Zardari’s pro-Musharraf stance on Saturday when he publicly warned that the president should better quit voluntarily or get ready to be impeached.
Insiders say although the conflict between the presidency and the Zardari House in Islamabad was simmering under the surface for quite some time, the PPP leader was waiting for the right time to strike which arrived with his May 19 acquittal in the last criminal case pending against him since 1998.
The PPP circles confirm that the president may move any time. However, they insist Musharraf is too weak to go for a misadventure and dismiss an elected government. Even otherwise, they maintained that without the support of the Army, the president could not exercise his power under the Article 58(2)(b) of the Constitution and the Army leadership has clearly distanced itself from politics.
