Former head of ISI General Asad Durrani says...

Army rigs polls to perpetuate power: Ex-ISI DG
By Khalid Hasan
Daily Times, October 19, 2006

WASHINGTON: Lt Gen (r) Asad Durrani, a former head of the ISI who later served as ambassador to Bonn and Riyadh, told a meeting here on Tuesday that an army regime only digs itself deeper into its hole as time passes and it has to rig elections to perpetuate its power.

Durrani, who did the round of several local think tanks this week, was speaking at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He said as an institution, the army wants to keep out of politics. But when in power, it finds its particular culture clashing with civilian culture, which is different. Whereas the civilian approach is one of accommodation and compromise, the army is trained to operate out of a well-defined framework. He said one reason for military takeovers is that the army gets impatient with the pace and style of civilian-run governments and disrupts the process through intervention when it should learn to let it continue, which is the only way it will improve. Once the military takes power, within its own ranks, it is loyalty to the coup-maker that becomes the norm. After some years in power, army regimes begin looking for an exit strategy but do not always find it.

Turning to the present situation, he felt that President Musharraf should take off his uniform and stay in power thereafter for four to five years. He was of the view that in the last seven years, the “so-called” mainstream parties had failed to build support at the grassroots level. They had also been waiting for “outside signals”.

Gen Durrani called for a rethink of the common Pakistani view that Pakistan’s fate is determined by “two As”, namely Allah and America. He said Allah does not spend all His time looking after Pakistan. As for America, its role has been exaggerated. Not always does the American ambassador in Islamabad, for example, know about changes, he added. He did not agree that every major decision is taken by the army, even when civilian governments are in power. He cited two examples where the decision-maker was the elected prime minister: the nuclear blasts of 1998 and Mr Vajpayee’s visit to Lahore. Answering a question, he said the Fauji Foundation was set up with pension funds from the Second World War and had been a success story. Even India had approached Pakistan once to learn about the factors responsible for the foundation’s good performance.

Asked about Kargil and what his version was, he replied that “no one knows the truth and every side has been economical with the truth”. To a question about the coming general elections in Pakistan, he said, “I am not in the business of speculating”. To another question about the possibility of Pakistan helping Saudi Arabia with nuclear know-how and assistance, he answered that during his two years from 2000 to 2002 as ambassador to the Kingdom, never even once had the nuclear question come up. He stressed that Pakistani-Saudi relations predate the oil boom and Saudi Arabia considers Pakistan a trustworthy friend. He wondered if questions about Saudi-Pakistani nuclear links were in the nature of trial balloons or if they were even rational. He described such speculation as far-fetched. To the inevitable question about the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden, he replied that no one knew where he was, but if he was found in Pakistan, it would be “embarrassing.” He ruled out the Saudi fugitive’s presence in Pakistan’s tribal regions where secrets are hard to keep. It is much easier to hide in a built-up area, he added. Some people, he pointed out, see Bin Laden as a “symbol of resistance”. He disclosed that there are 14 different American organisations in Islamabad looking for Bin Laden. That is what has driven property prices in that city higher than they were in Washington, he added as the audience snickered.