Saeed Minhas
Islamabad– The Britain, UAE and Saudis with a nod from the Washington has embarked upon a task to save the embattled President of Pakistan, Gen. Pervaiz Musharraf by rallying his arch rivals Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif around him to ensure that the General is not disturbed while carrying out Washington-orders in the faltering war on terrorism.
Highly placed sources informed The Frontier Post that lots of options have been brought to table by the kitchen cabinet of the President since the Operation Silence against Red Mosque militants and ensuing spate of suicide bombings targeting the security forces. Options after options were discarded, sources added. However, it was decided earlier this week that World Bank nominated Prime Minister Shoukat Aziz would be made a scapegoat by asking him to resume his Citi bank job in New York and the ever-ready make-shift transition premier Ch Shujaat Hussain would be made to resume his role.
The option was almost final, but some back door channels indicated that World Bank or Washington does not want to withdraw its man at this time and instead have agreed with the option of utilizing the services of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif to ditch their befooling-the-public-act and deflate any opposition move against Gen. Musharraf. The deal, as it may be called in the days to come would give Musharraf another year and may be two to finish his agenda-item, “war on terrorism” in tribal areas.
Chaudhary Shujaat is in knowledge of the latest deal and has started contacting the tribal deal-makers to make sure that they should be mentally prepared for the carnage to come their way, informed the sources.
Benazir Bhutto, a self exiled leader and chairperson of Pakistan Peoples Party has already done her part by disassociating herself from the grand opposition alliance against Musharraf on July 9 thus leaving her party supporters and leaders wondering about a deal. She has confessed having contacts with Musharraf on a number of occasions since signing the Charter of Democracy (COD) with Nawaz Sharif. COD was aimed at ending all back door contacts with military rulers besides asking for many other things, but none of the leader seems to really mean what they had agreed to disagree in the end.
Nawaz Sharif, living in exile following a deal between Saudi Royals and Gen. Musharraf, has been trying to emerge as a main opposition leader by shouldering PPP out of the opposition alliance. Nawaz Sharif’s two gurus Ishaq and Rehman along with his younger brother have been trying to appease Saudis for quite some time now through Royals of Qatar family. Ever since, Nawaz Sharif hoodwinked Saudis to come out of Saudi Arabia to live in UK, Saudis have been annoyed with him and had even asked his brother to leave the kingdom. Therefore, Nawaz Sharif has finally been lured into the deal with Musharraf, through Shahbaz Sharif which will not only reopen his links with Saudis but also would let him have some piece of the cake from Musharraf, added the sources.
Sources confirmed that British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has brought with him this message of solace for the entangled Gen. Musharraf while Royals of UAE and Saudi Arabia have agreed to host yet another American adventure. The roles of ex and serving spy masters, members of Musharraf’s kitchen cabinet besides that of redcow and BCCI famed Saifur Rehman and foreign exchange nationalization guru Ishaq Dar are considered very important in this whole scenario.
President Bush has already declared the Red Mosque Operation part of his decisive on-slaught against the Taliban and its wanted leadership, which Washington firmly believes is hiding inside the Pakistan near Pak-Afghan border.
To literally ensure a peace of mind for General Musharraf, the Arabs have been asked to move their good offices to ensure a meeting between the exiled leadership of PML (N) and PPP with Gen. Musharraf, who is already in Abu Dhabi. Sources also confirmed that PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto has been drafted in from London to the same place so that the two can discuss matters of mutual interest.
Benazir Bhutto was supposed to chair a meeting of the Punjab Party to decide the issue of party tickets for the upcoming elections, but the party members were told only in the morning that BB would not be able to chair the meeting owing to some personal reasons. Some sources said that a royal plane was used to bring in the PPP chairperson from London to Abu Dhabi. The lackey of PML (N) leader is already in the Gulf region, therefore meeting between Shahbaz Sharif and his brother’s tormentor is also on the cards.
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