Musharraf’s stamp on the security apparatus

The pakistani military hierarchy has undergone a major reshuffle, with the old guard of Vice Chief Hayat and chairman, joint chiefs, Ehsan ul Haq, being replaced by Ashfaq Pervez Kayani and Tariq Majid respectively. Kayani is set to take over as the chief of army staff (COAS), “on vacation of that office”. Many see winds of change in these appointments. But actually the more things change the more they remain the same.

The roots of power in Pakistan lie not in the hallowed offices of the president or prime minister, nor in the Supreme Court, but in the GHQ in Rawalpindi, Pakistan’s old capital, and the HQ of the ISI in Islamabad. No one knows this better than the Pervez Musharraf, who has mastered the art of outmaneouvring all opposition.

Kayani is a known Musharraf loyalist and has just relinquished the post of ISI chief. He was also a key member of the team that negotiated with Benazir Bhutto. Kayani is said to have insisted on the top job when Musharraf was considering a review, given the impending retirement of Hayat and Haq. Majid has been nominated as chairman, joint chiefs of staff committee (JCSC). He thus becomes the highest ranking military official in the country. However, it is commonly known that power lies in the office of the COAS, who along with the coterie of corps commanders, presides over a vast network of serving and retired army officers who run policy as well as routine matters in Pakistan. But Majid has the all-important role of deputy chairman, Development Control Committee of the National Command Authority, which controls nuclear development. The Strategic Plans Division will also be under him and he will directly report to Musharraf. Thus Musharraf has secured the two key arms of the state, the army and the nuclear arsenal, by nominating known loyalists.

The third arm, the all powerful ISI, is also controlled by another loyalist, Lt Gen Nadeem Taj. He was military secretary when Musharraf took over Pakistan as ‘chief executive’ on October 12, 1999, and knows the inner workings of the Pakistani power structure. That Kayani and Majid are also favourites in Washington could be more than coincidence. While Kayani has attended the Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Majid is a graduate of Asia Pacific College of Security Studies, Hawaii. Incidentally both generals were commissioned in the Baloch Regiment in 1971, the year when Pakistan suffered a defeat against India in the east. They almost certainly carry this historic baggage. As the head of an army with 250 soldiers captured by militants in South Waziristan and facing a direct challenge from the Al-Qaeda, Kayani takes over at a critical time. Juggling the political with the military has always been difficult for the COAS. More often than not they have taken the easier option of combining both offices in one. Kayani will not have this option. In Musharraf, he will have a wily president who will like to control rather than be controlled.

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