However, his keen assistance to Washington appears to be his undoing, especially within his army that seems extremely uncomfortable with his policies. The bulk of the junior and junior-to-middle ranking officers do not believe that they are fighting their own war in the tribal areas. The disenfranchisement within the defence forces ties the hands of the senior generals who benefit from their alignment with the US, but cannot totally support the former chief’s policies due to internal organisational pressures. It is not just for nothing that we can see interesting things happening in Pakistan, such as the exhibition of private videos on state television meant to embarrass Musharraf or the confessions of former Lt Gen Jamshed Gulzar Kiyani or Dr A.Q. Khan. Kiyani’s confession on television regarding the Kargil operation still does not mean that the military is likely to conduct an audit of the operation or that it carries the whole truth. But what it means is that some segments of the military are willing to publicly embarrass Musharraf with the intent of convincing him to leave.

There are two possible sources for this campaign. First, the current army chief, Gen Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani, feels helpless due to appointments Musharraf made prior to his retirement in November last year. The fact that Musharraf loyalists occupy most senior positions makes it difficult for the current army chief to force the president to resign as had happened in President Ghulam Ishaq Khan’s case during the ’90s. He is forced to act like a toothless General Yahya. So, the natural course is to use secret and coercive methods to nudge the top man out. Second, certain elements in the army want Musharraf out and have done all of what is mentioned above. In addition, these elements are doing policy reversal such as unleashing the militants to reverse Musharraf’s earlier policies. This group of individuals might be operating without necessarily being authorised from the top, which is a much more dangerous proposition since it means that the military is badly fractured. One hopes that this is not the case.

... contd.