Changing of the Guard

This is a sad day for all Pakistanis.

I just found out today, upon calling Pakistan that Hakim Saeed was assasinated in Karachi.

An educationist and a simple non political person has lost his fight for the goal of elevation of the educational status in Pakistan.

Questions comes to mind, why? why him? why now?

Can anyone at chowk give me some more information on this.

He did support a boycott of elections in 1993. Could that have struck a chord with someone. I am sure it did, then, but comming back for it after 5 years...?

Pakistan has been deprived of a great personality.

It might be a little simple minded to believe that a man of Gen. Karamat`s stature made an important statement off-the-cuff, without realizing the reaction of the Government. As I see it, it must have been a topic discussed in the Corps Commanders meetings, and Gen. Karamat must have been let to believe he was speaking for them... was he let down by his corps commanders? ...that is the question

I read the article about Gen. Karamat`s resignation and the only relevant comment on the article.

In a country which has a long history of military coups, Gen Karamat`s words were no doubt a sign of danger for the ruling PML. The PML is also aware that it has failed as a government and since there is no other political option for Pakistanis, they are looking forward to the military for help.

It is very naive of one, if the person looks at the resignation from the point of view of the government and the press releases after the retirement of the ex-COAS. Pakistan has a long history of conspiracies and governments have been in a habit to delete any threat to their rule through false measures. With Nawaz Sharif this was the third time, the first two being the removal of the president and the Chief Justice of Pakistan.

A man of discipline and a patriot that Mr. Karamat was known to be, the view that he himself resigned is not a view to be overlooked. But keeping in mind all the facts, a conspiracy is what is likely to have taqken place. In the hour long meeting, the exact details are not available, the odds are that Mr. Karamat must have been forced by the PM to take an early retirement. Having a simple look at the events, including the unexpected appointment of Mr Musharraf, the conspiracy is not difficult to detect.

In the end i would just like to qoute Dawn Thursday, October 8th, 1998. This is an excerpt from the same news which read KARAMAT RETIRED,MUSHARRAF TAKES OVER AS COAS.

It says ``Earlier reports emanating from the meeting between the prime minister and Gen Karamat suggested that all was not well and the latter stuck to his position, which did not go down well with the ruling party. `We cannotrule out the possibility of naming a new COAS immediately,` a misterial source told Dawn. He said Gen Karamat`s name for COAS was announced three months before the retirement of Gen Waheed Kakar and `this could be repeated`.

The media would want to float Conspiracy theories

but what has happened is an action of a General who is known to be honest patriotic and thoroughly Professional. General Karamat in any case was going to retire in 3 months so to avoid another crisis over his suggestion of a National Security council, he decided to call it a day. We all know that the Chief of Army is a very strong individual and the Prime Minister really cannot force a resignation. Pakistani`s should be proud of the tradition that the Armed forces are trying to set, which is of remaining away from politics and concentrating on Defence matters, however I would also stress that at cerain critical phases the Armed Forces do need to keep a check on the Government especially in a country like Pakistan where politicians have been far from what they promise to be.

I know this is not topic specific, but I recently heard a rumor that PAF is operating a squadron of French Mirage 2000s from the UAE air force. According to this rumor, the Mirage 2000s are on a loan to PAF in lieu of new F-16s. Apprently, the recent purchase by UAEAF of the new 80 Block 60 F-16s was meant for Pakistan and once they are delivered, the Mirage 2000s will return to UAE.

Also, there have been reports of an American AWACS from the Royal Saudi Air Force being transfered to the PAF and based at PAF Base Chaklala. It is, reportedy, with the knowledge of the US government which considers the plane a defensive platform. This information comes from a military analyst based in the UK. According to him, his PAF sources have confirmed this and that Mirage 2000s can be seen flying out of Karma and Sargodha airbases.

Can any Chowkwallas, living in Pakistan, confirm or deny this story. I do not believe this story for a lack of independent confirmation. I have not heard any mention of this story either in Indian or western papers. Has some sort of understanding being reached on Pak defense issues ? Has the US government allowed the AWACS for use as early airborne alert for Pak defenses to reduce a threat of an nuclear war ? What is going on behind the scenes ? Not everything is reported in the papers here.

I would really like some feedback on this.