Pakistan fires defense secretary, escalates crisis

In this April 10, 2010 photo, Pakistan’s Army Chief Gen. Ash­faq Per­vez Kayani, right, and Pakistan’s Prime Min­is­ter Yousuf Raza Gilani, left, watch a mil­i­tary exer­cise in the Cholis­tan Desert near Bahawalpur, Pak­istan. Pakistan’s mil­i­tary warned on Wednes­day of “griev­ous con­se­quences” for the coun­try after the prime min­is­ter accused the army chief of vio­lat­ing the con­sti­tu­tion, adding to a sense of cri­sis that some believe could end in the ouster of gov­ern­ment. (Asso­ci­ated Press File | Khalid Tan­veer)

CHRIS BRUMMITT

Asso­ci­ated Press

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s gov­ern­ment fired the defense sec­re­tary Wednes­day and the army warned of “griev­ous con­se­quences” for the coun­try, esca­lat­ing a polit­i­cal and legal cri­sis that some believe could end in the dis­missal of government.

Retired Lt. Gen. Naeem Khalid Lodhi, an army loy­al­ist seen as a bridge between the gen­er­als and the civil­ian gov­ern­ment, was dis­missed for “gross mis­con­duct and ille­gal action” and replaced with a bureau­crat close to Prime Min­is­ter Yousuf Reza Gilani, the gov­ern­ment said in a statement.

The devel­op­ments were sign of near-open con­flict between the army and the in a nation that has seen repeated mil­i­tary coups in its six-decade his­tory. Rela­tions between Pres­i­dent Asif Ali Zardari and the gen­er­als have never been good, but have soured dra­mat­i­cally in recent months over a memo sent to Wash­ing­ton ask­ing for its help in rein­ing in the power of the military.

Polit­i­cal insta­bil­ity has dogged the gov­ern­ment since it took office in 2008 after a 10-year army dic­ta­tor­ship, and there have been fre­quent, wrong pre­dic­tions of its demise since then. While unpop­u­lar, the gov­ern­ment has a solid major­ity in par­lia­ment and its unclear whether the army or the Supreme Court have the stom­ach to unseat it midterm.

The cur­rent stand­off has ham­pered the nuclear-armed country’s abil­ity to bat­tle al-Qaida and Tal­iban mil­i­tants and coin­cided with the near col­lapse of ties between Pak­istan and the United States, a rela­tion­ship seen as key to nego­ti­at­ing an end to the war in Afghanistan.

The memo, allegedly mas­ter­minded by Pakistan’s then envoy to Wash­ing­ton, out­raged the army, which por­trayed it as a threat to national secu­rity. Act­ing under its pres­sure, the Supreme Court ordered a probe to estab­lish whether it had been sanc­tioned by Zardari, some­thing that could lead to impeach­ment hear­ings. As part of the inves­ti­ga­tion, army chief Gen. Ash­faq Per­vez Kayani and the head of the main spy agency, Lt Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, sub­mit­ted state­ments to the court in which they sug­gested the memo was part of a con­spir­acy against the army.

Gilani said in an inter­view to a Chi­nese news­pa­per that Kayani and Pasha had vio­lated the con­sti­tu­tion by doing this. The inter­view was also pub­lished by Pakistan’s state-run news agency. An army state­ment denied the mens’ actions were ille­gal, and said Gilani’s alle­ga­tions had “very seri­ous ram­i­fi­ca­tions with poten­tially griev­ous con­se­quences for the coun­try.” It did not elaborate.

An aide to Gilani said Lodhi was fired because of his role in sub­mit­ting Kayani and Pasha’s state­ments to the court.

The Supreme Court is at the cen­ter of another affair that could also see the dis­missal of the gov­ern­ment. It has ordered the attor­ney gen­eral to open cor­rup­tion pro­ceed­ings against Zardari over a once shelved case, some­thing the gov­ern­ment is refus­ing to do. On Tues­day, judges warned they could dis­miss Gilani unless he fol­lowed their order to pur­sue the case. It ordered the gov­ern­ment to attend pro­ceed­ings next week to explain its inaction.

“I think the lines have been drawn, now it depends on who fires the next shot,” said Rasul Bakhsh Rais, pro­fes­sor of polit­i­cal sci­ence at Lahore Uni­ver­sity of Man­age­ment Sci­ences. “It is a three dimen­sional war: the judi­ciary, the polit­i­cal exec­u­tive and the armed forces.”

Observers say polit­i­cal pres­sure is grow­ing to top­ple the gov­ern­ment before Sen­ate elec­tions sched­uled for March, which are expected to give Zardari’s party a major­ity in the upper house that would give him sig­nif­i­cant polit­i­cal power for the next six years. The coun­try also is to hold gen­eral elec­tions next year, although some are push­ing for the vote to be held sooner.

Most inde­pen­dent ana­lysts say the army has lit­tle appetite for a direct coup but is happy to allow the Supreme Court, believed to be hos­tile to Zardari, to end the cur­rent setup via “con­sti­tu­tional” means.

“We can’t rule out those impulses. They are rooted in his­tory, but right now the army have decided not to. Rather they will stay by the side­lines and watch the court,” said Rais.

Posted by AP News on Jan 11 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.