A week after Pervez Musharraf retired as army chief, the Pakistan government’s press information department issued a statement. Army House in Rawalpindi, it said, would continue to be President Musharraf’s official residence. Less than three months have passed since then, but the new army chief, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, is sending some unsubtle signals to refute the continuity implied in that residential arrangement. Last week the army first announced that it would not participate in the election process, unless expressly asked to assist with the law and order situation. This week, promptly upon Kayani’s words to this effect, the army has recalled its officers from deputation to civil departments. What could this return to the barracks mean?Some Pakistani analysts say this is nothing new. After long spells of military rule, the Pakistan army has typically receded from excessive public view — to repair its popular image after the excesses of military rule, and not to in any way ease its long-term involvement in key government decision-making. Kayani’s moves are also being seen as a way to separate the army from Musharraf. Musharraf could not have implemented the November coup if the army had not been with him. He has expended considerable energy since then explaining himself to the West and making no effort to even affect a desire of liberal democracy in Pakistan any time soon. By publicly returning to its core security responsibilities, Kayani’s army could be averting the possibility of being drawn into any charges of rigging in the February 18 elections.Or, could there be a more comprehensive rethink by the military? In recent weeks, retired generals have been getting together to seek Musharraf’s total removal from public office and to indicate their support for the lawyers’ movement for restoration of deposed senior judges — including Iftikhar Chaudhry, whose suspension as supreme court chief justice in March 2007 began Musharraf’s retreat from near absolute power. Their words have not cut much ice with the people and the media. But it does indicate that they know the writing on the wall.
