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| ‘Musharraf passes the buck to Shujaat’ |
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Wednesday, November 25, 2009
By our correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Former president Pervez Musharraf was unwilling to grant amnesty to the PPP leadership in corruption cases through the NRO, claimed one of his close confidants, also denying the impression that the PPP-Musharraf patch-up was pushed by foreign powers. Instead, he said, former US vice president Dick Cheney had strongly opposed this deal.
Humayun Gohar, who is considered the ghost author of Musharraf’s book In the Line of Fire also disclosed that the ISI, then headed by Gen Kayani, CIA and the UAE intelligence had warned Ms Bhutto she could be assassinated in case of her early return to Pakistan. He said the US abandoned Musharraf after the murder of Benazir Bhutto, also disclosing that former president’s ouster was purely the decision of Army’s high command as otherwise it couldn’t have been done by the PPP.
Humayun told The News the idea of brokering a deal with the PPP was of Musharraf’s close bureaucratic aides. They subsequently shared their plan with the then UK High Commissioner, Mark Lyal Grant, as they wanted him to play the role of an interlocutor between Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto.
British foreign secretary Jack Straw, who was in the know through his high commissioner, spread the word in Washington and received mixed reaction.
Former US president Bush and his state secretary Condoleezza Rice were excited to hear that a pair of enlightened moderates, Musharraf and Benazir, were drawing close to each other and would make a good partnership. But Cheney in contrast was critical of this deal and predicted that Ms Bhutto would not stand by her words, Humayun said.
As far the deal issue is concerned, Musharraf wanted to negotiate political settlement and the PPP leadership conditioned the future roadmap with amnesty in corruption cases pending in domestic and foreign courts.
“The NRO was the outcome of three-year-long negotiations,” he said, adding that Musharraf was not in favour of NRO, considering it an immoral act. He thought it would be wrong to give a clean chit for the crimes they committed. “Let’s negotiate some other deal, say, they come back and we facilitate them in securing bail. But they must go to the court for fair trial,” he recalled Musharraf’s words in opposition of the NRO.
But Tariq Aziz and Ch. Shujat Hussain pushed him for the NRO, thinking that Benazir’s return to Pakistan would damage the vote bank of Nawaz Sharif, Humayun said.
According to the understanding reached, Benazir Bhutto was to return after the election, PML-Q and PPP were to form the government headed by the nominee of the majority party. But the PPP leadership backed out of its commitment and Musharraf finally gave in.
He said Ms Bhutto was warned of the threats to her life and Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Khalifa tried hard to convince her to abandon the plan of early return. As she defied all odds, her security issue surfaced and she was strictly instructed not to stick her head out of the vehicle during travel. But she ignored this advice.
Things changed after her assassination, as the US which was already disappointed with Musharraf’s performance, finally abandoned him.
Humayun dispelled the public impression that Musharraf’s ouster was managed through an understanding between the new regime and foreign powers. He said the PPP couldn’t impeach Musharraf due to lack of solid evidence required for this. And National Assembly speaker Fehmida Mirza would make repeated calls to Musharraf’s military secretary, advising him to ask his boss to step down. Humayun said it was finally the Army’s high command that wanted Musharraf out in such circumstances and he finally nodded in agreement. There was no foreign power involved in the transfer of power agreement, nor even the PPP leadership. It was between the Army and Musharraf, he said.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
