The deteriorating situation in Afghanistan combined with a possible United States-led attack on Iraq and growing anti-US sentiments in Pakistan are creating a groundswell of dissent from hawkish elements within the Pakistan army — dissent that President General Pervez Musharraf is attempting to quell through new plans to reshuffle the army leadership. Well-placed sources told this correspondent that the reshuffle, which could take place within weeks, is expected to involve all crucial positions — including the important army corps based in Rawalpindi, Mangla, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta. Changes are also expected in the first and second tiers of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), including the replacement of the present ISI director-general, Lieutenant-General Ehsan ul Haq, with the present Corps Commander of Mangla, Lieutenant-General Javed Alam Khan. At the same time, the heads of the ISI's internal and external wings are also likely to be changed.
The last head of the ISI, General Mahmood Ahmad along with the previous corps commander, Lt General Aziz, were both Islamists who oversaw the running of the Taliban and the Kashmiri Jihadis. General Ahmed was the guy who was sent to see Mullah Omar with the message that he must hand over Bin Ladin, but instead told him the exact opposite. He apparently became a 'born again' Jihadi during Pakistan's undeclared Kargil war with India in 1999. His replacement, Ehsan El Haq, was somewhat loyal to Musharaff, but he was also a Pashtun who most likely turned a blind eye to the former members of the ISI's 'Afghanistan Desk' continued support of their old proxies the Taliban and Hekmatyr. General Aziz was formerly in overall command of the ISI's Joint Intelligence North, which oversaw the terrorist training camps in both Afghanistan and Pakistan which turned out Jihadis to be used against the Indian army in Kashmir.
The impending changes come against a background of Pakistan's failure over the past year to maintain influence over important factions currently vying for power in Afghanistan. After the Taliban retreated from Afghanistan in early 2002, Pakistan's strategic interests suffered due to its relations with its neighbor to the west, where the new president, Hamid Karzai, although a Pashtun, is perceived as a US puppet. After former Afghan prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was expelled from Iran last year, he took over command of the shattered network of Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan militants and emerged as a leading resistance leader in Afghanistan against US forces. Asia Times Online pointed out last year (The new Afghan jihad is born) that Pakistan, desperate to maintain influence in Afghanistan, had revived its former contacts with Afghan commanders affiliated with the Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan. As part of these efforts, the ISI offered support to several commanders allied with the Hezb-e-Islami in areas near the Pakistani borders, including Gazni, Jalalabad, Kunhar and Kandahar. The purpose was not to support the US opposition in Afghanistan, but to safeguard Pakistani interests along the Pak-Afghan border.
| They're still doing the "sphere of influence" thing... |
However, these areas have since become hotbeds of resistance to US forces. According to sources in the South Waziristan Agency, rebels based in Gazni, about 110 miles from Wana (the district headquarters of the agency), fire mortar shells and missiles on US positions almost every night and then flee. When US forces chase them, they silently cross the border back into Pakistan.
| If they couldn't do that, they wouldn't be firing the mortars and missiles, which also, I'd guess, come from Pakland. It doesn't appear we have an Afghan jihad, but a Pak jihad — just like in Kashmir... |
The situation is very obvious to US authorities, who have silently conveyed complaints to the Pakistani foreign office. As a result, Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar forwarded the protest to Musharraf, adding his own insistence that Pakistan could not afford to play a double game. If it continued, it would simply mean that the country would lose whatever US goodwill it had gained after September 11, 2001. Sources said that after these reactions, Musharraf personally took on the concerned officials and asked them not to play around with the national interest and not to take decisions on their own. After these developments, another division of government was formed, headed by serving Lieutenant-General Khalid Qidwai, to coordinate matters between the foreign office and the ISI.
| But the jihadis continue playing their games, with ISI backing... |
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