In a last ditch effort to salvage a possible deal there is a “secret” meeting taking place in Abu Dhabi between the two political camps. At the root is when and how Musharraf will announce that he is giving up the uniform.
In the frontiers up to 150 Frontier Corps and Pakistan Army troops are either captured as hostage, or blockaded by the Taliban forces of Baitullah Mehsud (Mahsud tribe.) This puts the question of uniform, or “Wardi” issue, into contrast.
Can the President announce that he is laying aside the uniform this early when there are signs of fracture within the army and in the face of the brewing scandal of the Karachi Bridge collapse? Can he garner the votes needed to ammend the constitution to allow someone to serve 3 terms as Prime Minister?
Contrast that to the coming stir as Nawaz Sharif returns from exile on the 10th. Large things are astir in Pakistan, and all people hope for the best turn of events, but who can know which fork is best? From Breitbart:
Pakistan President Gen Pervez Musharraf is to make a final attempt to seal a deal with exiled former Premier Benazir Bhutto that could keep the general in power.
Envoys for Musharraf and Bhutto will meet in Abu Dhabi, Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on Dawn News television.
However, a spokesman for Bhutto said no such meeting had been arranged.
Musharraf and Bhutto have been discussing a pact that would shore up the president’s troubled re-election bid while allowing the former prime minister to return to Pakistan and contest parliamentary elections.
But Bhutto has failed to win a public commitment from Musharraf that he will quit as army chief or give up the presidential power to fire the government.
My thought is that Musharraf has meant to lay aside the uniform all along — it’s been a matter of finding the right moment and time — which events have not permitted. All of the instigation leading into election times when things were previously calm leads one to wonder — where is all that coming from? Has the Nawaz camp been making deals on the side as well? Showing one face to the public, and another to the miscreants stirring up Lal Masjid events and the like? The ties to the old-guard ISI factions are certainly there with the Sharifs. This is speculation; perhaps the brothers have changed since those days when they encouraged and funded the Taliban.
Thanos,
Need your expertise here….is the following….”News” ?
http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=37564&n_tit=Jaish-e-Mohammed+Joins+Hands+with+Al+Qaeda+
Yeah, it was news a couple days back, here:
http://noblesseoblige.org/wordpress/?p=1475
I’ve been saying awhile that the focus will shift to Kashmir since Lal Masjid did not raise the support they had hoped for. The Kashmir is the place that might get the army on AQAM’s side. Remember, some of the sub affiliates of these groups were in camps funded by the government along the Kashmir border, 14 of them, but all were closed in October last year, and funding stopped. Coincidentally that’s when fecal matter really started hitting the fan *inside* Pakistan.