A Warning For Benazir

Ultimately it turned out to be an amateurish attempt by 40 bearded khakis (men in uniform) to Islamise Pakistan's political and military landscape. But the abortive coup attempt managed to shake Pakistan's fragile democracy, exposing potential threats from the military, which has the dubious distinction of overturning democratic governments thrice since Partition, in 1958, 1969 and 1977.

The military's mouthpiece, the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), is tight-lipped about the September 20 episode. According to reports, it all began with a group of army officers, allegedly involved in smuggling contraband goods and frustrated with the government's policy of checking the flow of arms because of the Karachi quagmire. The Military Intelligence (MI) arrested a two-star general, Zaheer-ul Islam Abbasi, a brigadier, four colonels and over a dozen other officers for defying the army's chain of command.

The supreme commander of Pakistan's armed forces, President Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari, has now publicly promised that on completion of investigations against the arrested army officers, the inquiry report will be made public. However as one of the strongest supporters of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, he sought to dispel any impression that the incident could cause political uncertainty in the country.

For its part, the opposition has also by and large remained silent, except for rightwing Islamic parties like the Jamaat-e-Islami, the radical Sipah-e-Sahaba and the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam. They have described the arrests as a typical gesture by Bhutto to please the Americans; that is, to show how she is crusading against fundamentalist forces in the country. Before her last trip to the US, Ramzi Yousaf, who had been implicated in the New York bombing case, was whisked away to that country within hours of his arrest. Surprisingly, the timing of this incident also coincides with her visit to the US.

But with the establishment keeping mum over the incident, there is much speculation in the Pakistani media. An oft asked question is, how could anyone stage a coup with petty arms from Darra Adamkhel -- a source for locally made light weapons in the tribal belt of the North Western Frontier Province.

Besides, none of the officers arrested in connection with this attempted coup had had an operational posting in the military establishment or is credited with effective links with the intelligence, which could have helped them in their religion inspired endeavours. Rather, most of them had either been superceded or were disgruntled because of their postings.

Efforts are being made to project the officers' links with extremist Islamic organisations like the Harkat ul Ansar Hizbul Mujahideen and Tehrik Fehmul Quran (Movement to understand the Quran). These groups have declared a jehad (holy war) against infidels the world over. Former Inter-Services Intelligence chief, Lt-Gen Javed Nasir, who was forced into compulsory retirement by army chief Gen Abdul Waheed Kakar is the Tehrik's spiritual leader. Currently he is abroad preaching Islam with another the religious group, the Tableghi Jamaat. However, another former army officer believed to be involved in the coup attempt, Major Amin Minhas, who also belongs to the Tehrik Fehmul Quran, flew to London soon after the plot was uncovered.

This is not the first time that a group of army officers has sought to purge the country of its democratically elected representatives. In the '50s there was a pro-communist Rawalpindi conspiracy. In the '70s a group of officers was annoyed with Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and planned what came to be known as the Attock conspiracy I.And in the'80s there was the Attock conspiracy II against Gen Zia-ul Haq.

The exact sequence of events in the attempted putsch are still shrouded in mystery. What is clear is that a group of army officers was arrested after Brig Mustansar Billa was taken into custody by the MI while smuggling a huge consignment of contraband items from Darra Adamkhel. The smuggling was discovered when the corps headquarters in Peshawar checked on the movement of these goods with the customs department. It was then discovered that several senior officers were involved. At the time Gen Waheed was away in Indonesia and on his return on September 23 that final approval was sought for Abbasi's arrest.

Soon after these arrests, a meeting of corps commanders of the Pakistan army took place in Rawalpindi. It is believed that they decided that the army would not get involved in the country's politics and would stay neutral. This was in keeping with the line taken by Waheed since he became army chief for a three-year tenure in January 1993. In fact, he re-affirmed this line in Lahore recently when he said, "Politics is for the politicians and the army remains fully committed to its duties as soldiers." He urged the troops not to waste their time and energy on matters which do not concern them.

The initial response from the army's top brass to news of the attempted "Islamic coup" indicates that they are committed to upholding the Constitution. Besides, it is clear that the powerful troika of the president, the prime minister and the army chief is bent on preserving the country's fledgeling democracy and is not willing to accept any violations in army discipline or its chain of command.

What is interesting, however, is that the leader of the opposition and former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, called for the "rediscovery of Islamic values" in an article published recently. Never known to be a writer, Sharif's article coincided with the abortive coup attempt. But like all else, whether this coincidence merits serious attention still remains confined to the realm of speculation.