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Journalism of Courage
Benazir rejects call to delay return,8221; reported Friday8217;s Dawn from London. Benazir Bhutto8217;s statement at a press conference, that she would stick by her schedule to land at Karachi on October 18, was in response to President Pervez Musharraf8217;s request to her, through a television interview, that she put off her return till the Supreme Court pronounced on the validity of his presidential election. It next hears the case on the 17th. The court has restrained the Election Commission from notifying the result till then.
The day8217;s editorial took stock of this appeal and put Bhutto8217;s itinerary in the context of a wider timetable. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said this week that once the present assemblies 8212; provincial and national 8212; complete their terms next month, caretaker governments would take over.
President Musharraf 8220;is fearful about the role Bhutto can play in the worst-case scenario,8221; agreed The Daily Times in its editorial October 12. 8220;What if the court finds against him and he has to impose emergency or any other order curtailing the constitutional provisions making his exit certain?8221; Also: 8220;There is talk of the caretaker prime minister being proposed by the PPP, possibly a personality not too objectionable to the ruling party, but anathema to the PMLN and the religious parties. A reliable prime minister would be of great value to the PPP for the January general election.
There is rumour also about further details of the caretaker set-up. The PPP is supposed to be demanding 8216;consultation8217; on one-third of the caretaker government at the centre and another 8216;safe8217; proportion in the provinces.8221;
Northern complications
There has been heavy fighting in North Waziristan, and by midweek The Daily Times reckoned that the death toll from three days of operations, with heavy artillery and air strikes, had crossed 250. In an editorial on Monday, it gave a backgrounder: 8220;North Waziristan too has broken away from the 8216;deal8217; made with it last year and gone on the warpath.8221; The military operation was launched after militants 8220;employed by Al-Qaeda8221; ambushed an army convoy in Mir Ali, 24 km east of agency headquarters Miranshah. Al-Qaeda, it said, uses North Waziristan to fight its war in Afghanistan. Moreover: 8220;It is a tough war to fight because of the way it is being interpreted in Pakistan. All kinds of politicians tend to begin with the familiar 8216;given8217; that the people of Waziristan are 8216;loyal8217; Pakistanis and have rendered great service to the country in the past. This is said without distinguishing between the people in the tribal areas and the militants, who are paid to kill, and the suicide-bombers, who are indoctrinated through religion to kill innocent people, including women and children. The war is tough also because of the way disgruntled retired military officers often describe it as a conflict in which the national army is required 8216;to fight its own people8217;.8221;
It concluded: 8220;The army needs political support and has less and less of it as the elections draw near. Its need for this political support will increase after the elections, and the only parties willing to offer it will be the MQM and the PPP.8221;
Done deal?
More on the PPP. The News quoted sources in the National Accountability Bureau to report on Friday that 8220;the government is all set to move the Swiss courts shortly to seek defreezing of the bank accounts of Benazir Bhutto, her spouse Asif Ali Zardari and other party members.8221; But Farooq Naek, their counsel, who has filed a petition in the Accountability Court for withdrawal of SGS/Cotecna and ARY references against his clients and return of their assets, claimed that Bhutto and Zardari have no foreign currency accounts: 8220;I, on behalf of both Mohtarma and Zardari Sahib, make it clear that neither do they hold any accounts in Switzerland nor is there any question of their freezing or de-freezing.8221;
