Pakistan ‘soft coup’ fears as army chief holds talks with protest leaders

10 years ago | Posted in: Latest Politics News | 467 Views

Pakistan’s army chief took centre stage in a national political crisis on Thursday night by holding talks with two protest leaders who have been agitating on the streets of Islamabad for the overthrow of the elected government for the last two weeks.

Politician and former cricketer Imran Khan and a Muslim cleric called Tahir-ul-Qadri left their protest camps outside parliament for back-to-back audiences with Raheel Sharif, the general in charge of Pakistan’s 500,000-strong army.

Officials said the general had agreed to mediate in a bitter stand-off between the government and Khan and Qadri who have brought thousands of their followers to Islamabad.

Even though prime minister Nawaz Sharif requested the army chief become involved in defusing the crisis, the development was widely seen as a decisive re-assertion of power by an institution that has directly or indirectly ruled Pakistan for most of its history.

The development was widely criticised as a major setback for the country and even described by some as a “soft coup” by the army. One key ally of Khan, a veteran politician called Javed Hashmi, said the army’s involvement was a “shameful time for all politicians”.

Ayesha Siddiqa, an expert on Pakistan’s military, said Sharif would now only be able to serve out the rest of his term as a “ceremonial prime minister”.

“Any gains made in the last eight years to strengthen democracy have been rolled back,” she said.

Sharif, a politician who lost power during the 1999 military takeover, was elected last year determined to curb the power of the army.

In so doing he enraged the military establishment by ordering the trial of former dictator Pervez Musharraf for treason, pushing for deeper trade ties with arch-enemy India and siding with the country’s biggest television station after it accused the army of trying to kill one of its journalists.

On Thursday a senior aide to the prime minister said the army had agreed to help the prime minister defuse the crisis on the condition he left key areas of national affairs to the army, principally foreign and defence policy towards Afghanistan and India…. see more

source: Guardian UK

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