SUMMIT: The shadow of Sattar & Aziz
by B.Raman
The shadow cast by Abdul Sattar, Pakistani Foreign
Minister, and Lt.Gen.Mohammed Aziz, a Corps Commander at Lahore, over the
forthcoming summit meeting at Agra between Mr.A.B.Vajpayee, the Indian
Prime Minister, and Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the self-styled Chief Executive
and self-promoted President of Pakistan, is getting deeper and darker.
We had earlier mentioned that Sattar had been sulking
because:
* Most of the preliminary work in connection with the
summit had been got done by Maj.Gen. (retd) Mahmud Ali Durrani, former
station chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in Washington and
an active member of the Belusa group of Mrs.Shirin Tahir-Kheli, through
Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, the Pakistani High Commissioner in New Delhi,
without Sattar being kept in the picture. Durrani works from the
office of the so-called Chief Executive.
* Sattar was not totally in the picture regarding the
visit of George Tenet, Director, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), to
Islamabad during which he (Tenet) had an unusually long meeting with
Musharraf.
After the acceptance of the Indian Prime Minister's
invitation by Musharraf, during the period of his intensive interactions
with political, religious and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) leaders, in
disregard of the views of Sattar that such interactions were not required,
the Foreign Minister was mostly away from the country---initially on a
visit to the UK, Canada and the US and, subsequently, to Mali to attend a
meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC). In Mali, he
was reported to have met Mirwaiz Umar Farooq of the Hurriyat .
During this period, the programme of Musharraf in India
was being finalised by the Chief Executive's office in consultation with
Qazi, with the Pakistani Foreign Office playing very little role in the
matter. It was during these consultations between the Chief
Executive's office and Qazi that the question of inviting the Hurriyat
leaders to the high tea to be hosted by Qazi in honour of Musharraf in the
Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi came up for examination.
Qazi was reported to have drawn the attention of
Musharraf to the sensitivities of the Government of India on this
subject. It was reportedly decided that they should not be invited,
that Musharraf should not meet the Hurriyat leaders, that the meeting of
Sattar with Umar Farooq should suffice for the time being and that Qazi
should suitably explain the position to the Hurriyat.
Musharraf's action in allegedly succumbing to the
pressure of India on this issue came in for strong criticism from some
sections of the Ulema and the POK leaders. The strong statement of
Yasin Malik, of the J.K.Liberation Front, criticising Pakistan for
allegedly letting down the Kashmiris was noted with concern in the
Pakistan Foreign Office. To assuage the anger of the Hurriyat,
Musharraf had invited some representatives of the Hurriyat, operating from
Pakistan, to his interactions with the POK leaders and had also indicated
that before going to India he would be meeting, possibly in POK, the
leaders of the United Jihad Council, headed by Syed Salahuddin,
Pakistan-based leader of the Hizbul Mujahideen, to reassure them that
there was no change in Pakistan's attitude towards the Hurriyat and in its
stance on Kashmir.
Since his return from abroad, Sattar had reportedly been
strongly criticising the reluctance to invite the Hurriyat leaders to the
High Commissioner's tea in deference to the sensitivities of the Govt. of
India and insisting that Musharraf should meet them during his stay in New
Delhi, either by inviting them to the tea party or by inviting them
separately if he did not want to embarrass the Indian leaders and
officials who might be coming for the tea party.
It is believed that Lt.Gen.Aziz, who has reportedly been
advising the Hurriyat and the jihadis against any moderation of their
anti-India rhetoric or any slow-down of their activities, also strongly
supported the point of view of Sattar. It is said that as a result,
Musharraf changed his mind in favour of a meeting with the Hurriyat
leaders in New Delhi, even at the risk of his action irritating the Indian
leadership.
Political observers in Islamabad also see the hand of
Sattar in the virulently anti-India statement on the alleged violations of
human rights in Kashmir issued by the Pakistan Foreign Office on the night
of July 6. It is not known whether Sattar authorised this statement
on his own or in consultation with Musharraf.
Ever since the Prime Minister invited Musharraf, Sattar
has been blowing hot and cold, vitiating the pre-summit atmosphere.
Before going to the UK, Canada and the US, he made a strong statement
against India at a press conference in Peshawar. However, his
statements in the US relating to India and the Kashmir issue were moderate
by his normally vitriolic standards. After his return from abroad
too, he has avoided any statements in his name which might be interpreted
as calculated to vitiate the atmosphere, but seems to be active behind the
scenes to make Musharraf adopt a more confrontational stance on issues
such as the Hurriyat, alleged violations of human rights in Kashmir etc.
There is so far no evidence to indicate that Sattar and
Lt.Gen.Aziz have any support for their hardline, confrontational stance
from other senior army officers or Cabinet members. Speculation,
which was rife after the take-over of Musharraf as the President, that
Lt.Gen. Muzaffar Usmani, Deputy Chief of the Army Staff (DCAS), was also
siding with Aziz, has not been corroborated. Usmani has been
actively associated by Musharraf with the summit preparations.
As of now, Sattar and Aziz seem to be in an isolated
minority of two. It is still a mystery as to why Musharraf does not
call them to order or ease or throw them out. On the contrary,
Musharraf seems to have been prevailed upon by Sattar not to make any
change in the present policy of no normalisation of the trade relations
with India till the Kashmir issue is resolved.
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet
Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently, Director, Institute For
Topical Studies, Chennai. E-Mail: [email protected]
)
