General Pervez Musharraf, facing a surge of anti-American sentiment, on Thursday warned that covert Untied States air strikes against al-Qaeda inside Pakistan were an infringement of national sovereignty.
Admitting that his popularity was waning, the Pakistani president insisted he was ”not a poodle” of George Bush and rejected accusations he was running a military dictatorship.
Speaking to The Guardian at Army House in Rawalpindi weeks after a tense visit by the US president that brought a torrent of domestic criticism, Musharraf insisted he was his own man.
”When you are talking about fighting terrorism or extremism, I’m not doing that for the US or Britain. I’m doing it for Pakistan,” he said. ”It’s not a question of being a poodle. I’m nobody’s poodle. I have enough strength of my own to lead.”
If necessary he had ”teeth” to bite back, he added. ”Yes sir, I personally do. A lot of teeth. Sometimes the teeth do not have to be shown. Pragmatism is required in international relations.”
Musharraf pledged to hold free and fair elections next year as urged by Bush during his visit to Islamabad last month. Opposition parties fear the poll, which government officials claim will be the most open since Musharraf seized power in 1999, will be rigged.
”It is ironic that I’m sitting in uniform talking of democracy … but to bring democracy into Pakistan I thought I needed it,” he said.
An American Predator drone fired Hellfire missiles at a house in Bajaur tribal agency in January, killing 18 people but missing their target, al-Qaeda’s second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri. The attack near the Afghan border caused public uproar and brought renewed accusations that Musharraf was a US puppet.
Local journalist Hayatullah Khan, who photographed missile fragments linking the strikes to the US, disappeared four days later and is still missing. A western diplomat said he was probably being held by Pakistani intelligence and may have been mistreated.
The strike underlined tensions in the anti-terror alliance between Pakistan and the US, which has also been strained by Washington’s nuclear deal with India, its insistence on democratic reforms, and alleged American meddling in the sprawling south-western province of Baluchistan. ”The strike was an infringement of our sovereignty and I condemned it,” said Musharraf.
Pakistan also faces criticism from the US and Afghanistan for not doing enough to flush extremists from its tribal areas. Bush said he had come to Islamabad ”to determine whether or not the president is as committed as he has been in the past to bringing these terrorists to justice”.
Musharraf insisted on Thursday there was no question of Pakistan submitting to American scrutiny and said claims that his government acted at Washington’s bidding were nonsense. ”There is no need of any checks — that is the reality,” he said.
Musharraf, who faces revolts in Baluchistan and along the Afghan border, admitted to feeling embattled. He added that there was a growing problem of ”Talibanisation” in Waziristan, a troubled tribal area where several hundred al-Qaeda suspects have been killed.
The battle against al-Qaeda was almost won in Waziristan, he said. ”Because of our successes in the cities where we got 600-700 of them, and then in the mountains where we occupied their sanctuaries, thankfully they are on the run.”
But a new form of local fundamentalism was taking its place in Waziristan, which is ruled directly from Islamabad under colonial-era laws. ”Extremism in a Talibanised form is what people are now going for. Mullah Omar and the Taliban have influence in Waziristan and it’s spilling over into our settled areas.”
This week militants occupied a market in the regional capital, Miran Shah, for several hours, burning newspapers and threatening local people. Two taxi drivers accused of collaborating with coalition forces in nearby Afghanistan were found beheaded. More than 150 pro-government elders and officials have been killed in the past year.
Musharraf defended his tactic of using military force instead of negotiation to quell the violence and said some collateral damage was inevitable when militants’ hideouts were attacked.
”We take extreme care to be 100% sure of the target from all sources of intelligence … There is minimum collateral damage. If someone happens to be very close to [the target], that somebody is an abetter and they suffer the loss. Sometimes, indeed, women and children have been killed but they have been right next to the place. It’s not that the strike was inaccurate but they happen to be there, so therefore they are all supporters and abetters of terrorism — and therefore they have to suffer. It’s bad luck,” he said.
Musharraf also played down unrest in the resource-rich province of Baluchistan, where nationalist militants are blowing up gas pipelines and trains and attacking army positions. He described the rebels as ”mercenaries” and their attacks as ”pin pricks”, and said the disturbances were confined to one-twentieth of the province’s area.
”So what revolt are you talking about? People talk about an East Pakistan situation,” he said, referring to the secession of Bangladesh in 1971. ”I understand strategy. These people are pygmies.”
Criticism of his military-driven strategy came from ”people who sit in drawing rooms and talk”, he said, but added that a political solution was also being sought.
Musharraf has survived two assassination attempts but elections scheduled for next year are expected to pose the greatest threat yet to his grip on power. Overt and behind-the-scenes US and British pressure for a free poll has become another friction point in the West’s relationship with Islamabad.
The leaders of the two main opposition parties, Benazir Bhutto of the Pakistan Peoples party and Nawaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League, are in exile and face arrest if they return home. Meeting in London this week they launched a fresh political alliance and called for western support.
Musharraf said his mission was to democratise Pakistan. ”My popularity has gone down … but at this moment my country needs me. I’ve put a strong constitutional democratic system in place. That will throw up a successor. I’m a strong believer in democracy.”
Backstory
Pervez Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999 when he was head of the country’s armed forces, forcing the country’s elected Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, into exile in Saudi Arabia. Initial international condemnation faded after September 2001, when Musharraf dropped his support for the Taliban and threw his weight behind the US-led ”war on terror”. He has since become a key ally in the west’s hunt for al-Qaeda extremists but his popularity has plummeted due to widespread anti-American sentiment. In December 2003 he survived two al-Qaeda assassination attempts in two weeks. Musharraf attempted to legitimise his rule through elections in 2002 that observers described as deeply flawed. A self-described liberal, he has introduced some social reforms but also allied himself with hardline religious parties when necessary. Last year he advanced the peace process with India through ”cricket diplomacy”. – Guardian Unlimited Â