Posted on 03/12/2007 9:33:05 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Musharraf: Ties with China deeper than sea
KARACHI: Standing on the deck of a Pakistani warship and pointing to the blue waters of the Arabian Sea, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said: "China-Pakistan relations are deeper than this sea."
Musharraf, who was witnessing a multinational naval exercise, said on Saturday that like the relationship between the two countries, the ties between the navies of Pakistan and China are also strong.
He added the two navies must cooperate for peace and security on the seas.
"This is an excellent exercise. It has a great tactical and operational value for the navy; they learn when they integrate exercises with so many countries," he said.
The participation of a large number of countries observers from 27 nations and physical participation of eight bears testimony to the fact that Pakistan is determined to work with other peace-loving nations to make the seas safe and secure, Musharraf said.
Reviewing warships and an aerial display in the major exercise hosted by the Pakistan navy codenamed "Aman 07", he said the drills also send a strong message to terrorists that they are not allowed to disrupt peace and security in the world.
At the invitation of the Pakistan navy, the Chinese navy sent two frigates with more than 400 naval personnel on board and joined most programs in the maneuvers.
Although it is the first time that the Chinese navy participated in such a multinational naval exercise, the task force showed its professionalism by organizing the search and rescue part of the military exercise.
The two Chinese frigates Lianyungang and Sanming will leave Karachi Navy Dockyard tomorrow and take about two weeks before returning home with a stopover in Indonesia.
It is the first time that Chinese navy vessels have traveled so far without being accompanied by a replenishment tanker.
"It gives us a chance to learn how to survive without food and oil in a big tanker floating nearby," said Commander Wei Xiaodong, who is also the Chinese observer for the week-long exercise.
"To refuel our warships, we have to coordinate well with foreign ports along the route," Wei said.
In its 7,000-km-plus journey from East China's Zhejiang Province to Karachi in southern Pakistan, the frigates stopped for 6 hours in Colombo, capital of Sri Lanka, for replenishment.
Source: China Daily
http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/mar/12pak.htm
US may be looking at post-Musharraf Pakistan: Report
March 12, 2007 16:03 IST
The United States is possibly looking at a post-Musharraf administration in Pakistan, if media reports are any indications.
"If Mr Musharraf were to fall to an assassin's bullet ... it is unlikely that there would be mass uprisings in Lahore and Karachi, or that a religious leader in the Taliban mould would rise to power," the New York Times said, quoting American diplomatic and intelligence officials in Washington.
"Based on the succession plan, the vice chief of the army, General Ahsan Saleem Hyat, would take over as the leader of the army and Mohammedmian Soomro, an ex-banker, would become president," the report said.
'General Hyat, who is secular like Musharraf, would hold the real power', it said. 'But it is unclear whether General Hyat would be as adept as Musharraf at keeping various interest groups within the military in line'.
The record of Islamic political parties at the polls in recent years does not suggest any danger of their pulling off an electoral victory, the paper said.
For years, it said, the notion that Musharraf is all that stands between Washington and a group of nuclear-armed mullahs has dictated just how far the White House feels it can push him to root out Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives who enjoy a relatively safe existence in Pakistan.
The spectre of Islamic radicals overthrowing Musharraf has also limited the Bush administration's policy options, taking off the table any ideas about American military strikes against a resurgent Al Qaeda, which has camps in Pakistani tribal areas, the paper said.
The question of how to handle Musharraf, it said, is critical at a time when intelligence officials widely agree that the Taliban is expanding its reach in Pakistan, gradually spreading from remote areas into more settled regions of the country.
The fear within Washington that Islamic extremism has become a dominant force in Pakistan, the paper said, has been stoked in part by Musharraf himself.
It quotes analysts as saying that his warnings are used to maintain a steady flow of American aid and keep at bay demands from Washington for democratic reforms.
'He often invokes the dangers of Islamic radicalism when meeting American officials in Washington and Islamabad, and his narrow escape in two assassination attempts is frequently cited by President Bush as evidence of his tenuous grip on power', the paper noted.
While the Islamists would surely take power in any way possible, it said, an examination of polling data and recent election results however suspect in a less than democratic country provides little evidence that Islamists have enough support to take over the country.
The last time Pakistan went to the polls in 2002, religious political parties received just 11 percent of the vote, compared with more than 28 percent won by the secular party led by former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
That election, the paper said, may have even been a high-water mark for the Islamists, who were capitalising on surging anti-American sentiment after the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
Even though the Iraq war has also inflamed anti-Western attitudes, these sentiments do not seem to have translated into electoral gains for Islamist parties.
Islamist politicians, the report noted, received a drubbing in local elections in 2005, gaining less support than expected in their power base in the tribal areas.
In September, a poll by the International Republican Institute, a respected organisation affiliated with the Republican Party that helps build democratic institutions in foreign countries, found that just 5.2 percent of respondents would vote for the main religious alliance, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, in national parliamentary elections.
Although the poll found that this alliance was the most popular in Balochistan, the southwestern province where Taliban support is strong, Islamist leaders lagged far behind both Musharraf and Bhutto, as well as another former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
'It is also thought to be unlikely that a successful attempt on Musharraf's life would mean wholesale changes to the power structure of Pakistani politics', it added.
'I am not particularly worried about an extremist government coming to power and getting hold of nuclear weapons', the paper quoted Robert Richer, who was associate director of operations in 2004 and 2005 for the Central Intelligence Agency as saying. 'If something happened to Musharraf tomorrow, another general would step in'.
 |
Warning: This could be a moderate/high volume pinglist. Note: This pinglist generally does not cover topics pertaining to soutwestern Asia (the Middle East); there are already a couple of moderate volume pinglists for that region of the world. Ping if you see a pertinent thread. |
No message is necessary. To get on or get off this pinglist, freepmail here, with the appropriate subject. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Greater India should have become a reality back in late 2001 - early 2002. Sure it would have been messy, even a few tac nukes. But by now, all the issues inherent to that bastard known as Pakistan would have been history. Under joint US - Indian administration, by now we'd have wiped out all remnents of Taliban, captured OBL and cut off the PRC from the Persian Gulf. Gwadhar would have been seized and turned into a NATO-Indian base. Etc, etc, etc.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.