US daily exposes dark side of Mush

San Francisco Chronicle article alleges Musharraf has links with terrorists and is only a short-term ally of the US

LAHORE: Six years after the 9/11 terror attacks in the US, many layers of the Pakistani president General Pervez Musharraf, the most vocal proponent of a so-called enlightened moderation, have unfolded to such an extent that it has made policymakers in Washington get to know the real face of their once most-trusted ally in the war on terror.

A recent story in the San Francisco Chronicle by Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark, authors of the book, Deception: Pakistan, the United States and the Global Nuclear Weapons Conspiracy, shows an extremely conflicting and contradictory picture of Musharraf. Musharraf is always conscious to project himself as a liberal and modern soldier, but he is liberal only as far as his social behaviour is concerned.

When it comes to his approach, a majority of Pakistani analysts believe he is a true conservative, mainly due to the fact that he is a part of the Pakistan Army, which has a fundamentalist outlook.

The story claims that Musharraf has long-standing links with several Islamic fundamentalist groups in Pakistan given the fact that he had been involved in the job of preparing mujahideens for anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan. While confirming the contents of the story, a retired military officer in Rawalpindi, said while requesting anonymity that Musharraf has been an inseparable part of the jihadi machine for the past 20 years.

He claimed that Musharraf had helped build the Harkatul Mujahideen, which comprises the muscles of Osama’s international Islamic Jihad organisation, besides facilitating the formation of several jihadi groups active in the Indian part of Kashmir. He says the Islamist groups share a synergistic relationship with Musharraf and he is unwilling to do anything to disturb that bond despite pressures from the West.

The San Francisco Chronicle story also endorses a 2006 study carried out by the Washington-based Cato Institute, a top US think-tank, which said the Musharraf regime is unlikely to evolve into a long-term American ally in the war against terrorism. “Since 9/11, Musharraf has been opportunistic. He responded to political and military pressure from the US by ending his country’s alliance with Taliban and other radical Islamic groups, taking steps to liberalise his country’s political and economic system, and opening the road to an accord with India over Kashmir.

But, there are no signs that Musharraf and his political and military allies have made a strategic choice to ally themselves with the US long-term goals in the war on terrorism by destroying the political and military infrastructure of the radical and violent anti-American Islamic groups in Pakistan”, said the American study.

The report stated: “The partnership with the US and Musharraf’s willingness to negotiate with India over Kashmir are nothing more than short-term moves aimed at preventing India from emerging as Washington’s main ally. Over the long term, US policymakers should distance themselves from the Musharraf regime, seek out ways to cultivate liberal secular reforms in Pakistan and engage in more constructive relations with India.”