Defence secy first target for the govt

Coalition partners and the top Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leadership agreed on Friday to adopt a safe route and take action against Defence Secretary Lt General (r) Naeem Khalid Lodhi to build pressure on the military top brass, rather than initiating any steps to penalise the army chief or Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)director general.
“After the consultation process, the government has decided that rather than going for a head-on collision with the army, it will take on the defence secretary in the first step and later, action would be taken against others if necessary,” said a source privy to the details of the day-long consultation process. Earlier, a series of meetings were held at the Presidency to carefully analyse the situation emerging in the wake of the loaded political speeches delivered by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.
In the morning, President Asif Ali Zardari hosted a luncheon for the Pakistan’s new Ambassador to the US Sherry Rehman and had a detailed discussion with her on her new assignment. A source told Pakistan Today that former ambassador Husain Haqqani also joined the meeting for some time, which was held at the Presidency. He briefed Rehman on the challenges the country was facing in Washington. He also gave his input to the new ambassador on a host of other issues, the source added.
Later on, the president moved to his office and attended a meeting of the PPP top brass, also known as its Core Committee. The source said that during the meeting, some enthusiastic PPP leaders wanted action against the leadership of the security establishment. However, things calmed down significantly after news of Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani’s statement that there would be no military coup reached the meeting, which the PPP top brass appreciated.
The source said Senator Raza Rabbani said it would not be wise to take action against the army chief and ISI chief in the start, and it would be more advisable to issue a notice to the defence secretary, who had stood by the army leadership in the memo case.
“Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani also supported this idea and said under the law, the defence secretary was responsible for adhering to the orders of the chief executive but he did not follow his orders, so he should face the music first,” said the source. The source said most of the leaders agreed to Rabbani’s proposal. “In view of the proposals, the Core Committee authorised the president and prime minister to give final shape to its recommendations in consultation with the leadership of the coalition parties,” the source added.
A participant quoted President Zardari as telling his colleagues that after the prime minister’s hard hitting speeches, despite recovering from illness, he had slept well on Thursday night. Following the meeting, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Senior Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi joined the president and shared their views about the situation. Another source said both PML-Q leaders advised the president to resolve the situation with political acumen and avoid any head-on collision with the army.
“Shujaat told the president that the army was a strong institution and any animosity against the institution may damage the PPP-establishment relations, which may take decades to repair,” the source added.
Awami National Party (ANP) President Asfandyar Wali Khan and leader of FATA parliamentarians group Munir Khan Aurakzai also met the president separately and shared their views on recent political developments.
Briefing reporters about the meeting, Presidential Spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the PPP leaders’ meeting that lasted for about two hours reviewed the overall political situation in the country with special reference to the most recent developments. The prime minister gave a comprehensive briefing on the overall situation.
He said the meeting reiterated its unswerving commitment to the principles of parliamentary sovereignty, constitutionalism and rule of law and said the party and the government would uphold these principles under all circumstances.
The meeting said parliament was supreme and state institutions were answerable to it, and the party believed in and would continue to act upon the principle that power belonged to the people and to nobody else.
The meeting also reiterated that all institutions of state had to work within the ambit of the constitution without trespassing into the domain of others.
Nayyar Hussain Bukhari, Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, Rehman Malik, Mian Manzoor Wattoo, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, Syed Khurshid Shah, Syed Naveed Qamar, Senator Raza Rabbani, Dr Babar Awan, Senator Jahangir Badar, Senator Sardar Ali Khan, Nazar Muhammad Gondal, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Rana Farooq Saeed, Rukhsana Bangash, Fouzia Wahab, Fouzia Habib, Mehreen Anwer Raja, Sherry Rehman and Farhatullah Babar attended the meeting.