CE in Parliament?

AS General Musharraf emerges from his labyrinth to journey eastwards, the rumour is he’s hankering to be feted by India’s robust parliament—although he overthrew a similar institution at home on October 12, 1999, with the equanimity of a man who knows in his bones that a uniform is the first step to absolute power. Even though all of Islamabad must know he’s not going to get the opportunity to address a special session of the two Houses—like Bill Clinton and Vladimir Putin—nevertheless, Pakistani High Commissioner Ashraf Qazi had to try. And so he called on Lok Sabha Speaker GMC Balayogi last Friday. Qazi told Balayogi that his Chief Executive had promised to restore the constitutional process by October 2002, and let on that the General would be delighted to meet parliamentary leaders during his summit here in mid-July. The Speaker merely listened carefully, knowing well that though New Delhi has come around to the view that they have no alternative but to do business with Musharraf—especially if the people of Pakistan are willing to keep him—they certainly haven’t decided to confer full parliamentary legitimacy on the dictatorship-next-door.

Balayogi, a man of few words, also got to ask his own questions of Qazi. Whatever happened, he said, to the invitation extended to him by the Pakistani Speaker of Parliament to visit Pakistan? We don’t know if the High Commissioner writhed uncomfortably in his chair, knowing that Balayogi knew that there isn’t a Parliament in Pakistan these days at all.

Ajmer bound

PREPARATIONS for General Musharraf are already taking on the contours and the hype of a major visit, although the overtones are somewhat mixed. Unlike the PM’s Lahore bus journey, to which many reacted with extreme emotion, Musharraf is so far at least an object of curiosity here. Nevertheless, the government seems to be willing to give the General what he at least procedurally wants. Such as a visit to his old house in old Delhi, an area that is being spruced up in welcome—the idea of cleaning up being such a welcome one, by itself— security permitting, of course. Moreover, Musharraf’s wife is likely to visit the shrine of the Sufi saint in Ajmer, another place that’s being given a makeover. Evidently, an invitation to the Musharrafs went out from Ajmer Sharif as well.

State visit or not?

INVITING any military dictator to determinedly democratic, even anarchic, India is never an easy decision, especially since the government knows it can’t fully control every protest group in town. When it’s Musharraf, the author of the Kargil conflict—a fact no one’s publicly talking about here out of sub-continental politeness—there’s all sorts of other attendant problems.

Moreover, never far away from the horizon is the fact that when Vajpayee took the bus from Amritsar to Attari and crossed over into Pakistan at the Wagah border, the then chief of Pakistani army staff, a gentleman called Gen. Pervez Musharraf, was not on hand to salute him. It was said, then, that Chinese Defence Minister Chi Haotian was leaving Pakistan and Musharraf had to see him off. Okay, so Chi was more important than Vajpayee, the Indians got the message and in the euphoria that followed, nobody in India pressed the point. So the tantalising question now is: is the General going to get a full ‘‘state visit’’ when he comes to India or is it simply going to be called a ‘‘working visit?’’ For starters, a state visit denotes full military honours at the forecourt in Rashtrapati Bhawan, something Musharraf in uniform must be comfortable about... What is regular, minute-to-minute protocol for others is, in Musharraf’s case, acquiring the symptoms of a major foreign policy decision for Delhi.

Sattar & Bush

PAKISTANI Foreign Minister Abdus Sattar is in Washington these days, seeking a return to old ally status. But it seems that Washington’s put out the clear message that while ‘‘Pakistan cannot be taken out of its geography, both sides have to see what they have in common.’’ Besides India and the upcoming summit with Vajpayee, Afghanistan is a major issue on the talks table, where Sattar is expected to be asked for new positions on how to deal with both Osama bin Laden as well as the Taliban, and not simply reiterate old ones. Today, Sattar meets US national security advisor Condoleezza Rice today and Secretary of State Colin Powell tomorrow.

Meanwhile, here’s another delicious bit of news: Maleeha Lodhi, the modish and well-heeled former journalist who has been Pakistan’s ambassador to the US for some years—touted as South Asia’s answer to the smart Washington set—is said to be moving heaven and earth to get President George W. Bush to ‘‘drop in’’ on Sattar while he chats with either Rice or Powell - just like Bush did with Jaswant Singh in April!

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