Future shock

It happened late last month when Musharraf was in the US, explaining to the Bush administration why he needed to stay as Army chief as he dealt with a recalcitrant bunch of ‘‘elected representatives’’. Except, around the same time in Rawalkot in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, Aziz Khan was calling the US Enemy No 1. And taking on Musharraf himself.

‘‘Those who are in uniform should not participate in politics,’’ Gen. Aziz said, ‘‘The US is the enemy number one of the Muslim world and is conspiring against Muslim nations all over the world.’’

He went on to add that ‘‘Even if the Kashmir dispute is resolved, India and Pakistan can never be friends.’’

Analysts in New Delhi pointed out that this was the same Aziz, whose conversation with Gen. Musharraf during the Kargil war in June 1999 blew the lid off the Army’s deliberate design to destabilise Nawaz Sharif and mount the operation across the LoC at Kargil.

‘‘Uski tooti hamare haath main hai,’’ Aziz had then been quoted as saying over the telephone to Musharraf, who was visiting Beijing during the war. Aziz, it was said, was referring to who had ‘‘control’’ of the war machine.

With Aziz confronting his own boss, Musharraf, analysts here said it was a pointer to the disaffection within an Army brought up on a strict religious diet and aid by America, which was now being told to go by Americans to go after Taliban operatives in Afghanistan.

Interestingly, the Aziz Khan speech from Rawalkot was even reported by APP, Pakistan’s state-owned news agency, but was killed by the Inter-Services Public Relations outfit of the Army.

The Indian analysts, however, also felt that Musharraf did not have much to fear from Aziz, since the real power in the Army was vested in Vice-Chief Mohammed Yusuf Khan, the commander of troops across Pakistan. Yusuf, the analysts said, continued to be ‘‘quite friendly’’ with Washington.