Majority of the corps commanders and top brass of the military are supportive of army chief Gen Ashfaq Kayani’s approach of letting the Pakistan People’s Party government complete its term.
Sources close to both political and military leaderships maintain that apart from some powerful elements in the military that want to see the back of the incumbents at the earliest even if that involves some sort of tinkering with the prevailing political system, the rest of the lot does not want to get involved in any controversial move which may harm the PPP government.
But more heartening for the rulers is that although Gen Kayani and most of his corps commanders are not happy with the performance of the government, they have no desire of sending the PPP government packing through any adventurism.
The sources revealed that Kayani also recently conveyed a message to the prime minister through common friends and intermediaries to be more watchful in the coming days in the wake of the ‘memogate’ controversy, adding that the PM softened his stance inside and outside parliament after this “message”.
The top military brass was not happy with the stance of the political leadership on “memogate” and the way the government was protecting former Pakistani ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani. Some recent outbursts of the prime minister also worked to widen the gulf between the two state institutions.
Tension soared between the two institutions when the leaders from both sides took diametrically opposite positions on “memogate” before the Supreme Court, creating political instability in the country.
But Gen Kayani’s statement that the military would not destablise the present set up and supported democracy, followed by President Asif Zardari’s reconciliatory tone during his recent address to mark the death anniversary of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto worked wonders in damage-control efforts.
The sources claimed that the situation is under control now, terming any move of destablisation of the government next to impossible. The images of meeting of the prime minister with the army chief and the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen Khalid Shamim Wyne and chiefs of other services on the sidelines of an event at the National Defence University also indicate the increasing thaw in the relations between the two institutions. Political analysts believe that there is hardly any constitutional way to dislodge the president or the prime minister, let alone removing them both. They said removal of one through any legal or other means would not serve the purpose either. However, some political leaders think that the government was still not out of the woods and the month of March would be very crucial.
Military top brass ‘doesn’t want to rock the boat’
