OCTOBER 25, 1999 VOL. 154 NO. 16

Karen Davies A cadet reads all about it.

Even more worrying are the triumphant crowings of Pakistan's militant Islamic groups. Their post-coup celebrations were especially fevered, perhaps because the last military ruler of Pakistan, General Zia ul-Haq, used Islamicization to lend legitimacy to his rule. Musharraf is reputed to be cut from very different cloth, but that hasn't stopped the extremists from hoping for a conversion of political convenience. "There should be no elections in Pakistan," says Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, chief of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, which runs militant training camps in Afghanistan. "There should be a Taliban-like system." Says Abdullah Muntazir, spokesman of Lashkar-i-Taiba, which trains Pakistani volunteers to fight in Kashmir: "Now we want an Islamic system in this country. The same system that was existing 1,400 years ago."

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By week's end, Pakistan's new government setup was still opaque. Musharraf announced a "state of emergency" that was still a half-pace short of martial law, and he said nothing about the possibility of future elections. There were expectations that the general would begin to spell out specific plans for the new administration, perhaps as early as Sunday night.

The Prime Minister's Downfall
Sharif's demise wasn't fully unexpected. Instead of using his two-thirds majority in the parliament to work for stability and development, the former businessman, who was brought into politics in 1985 by Zia, followed his mentor's example by trying to expand his power. He forced the ousters of the President and the Supreme Court chief justice in 1997; he harassed and jailed a number of journalists; he cracked down on the parliamentary opposition. Even his own party, the Pakistan Muslim League, seemed fed up. "They welcome this change," says Saleem Saifullah Khan, a former Muslim League member. Says former President Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari, one of the more respected politicians of the past decade: "He systematically attacked every pillar of democracy in a bid to acquire more and more power."

Most importantly at the end, Sharif's relations with the military were shaky. Late last year, Musharraf's predecessor was forced to resign after he proposed setting up a national security council, a suggestion the Prime Minister took as a threat. Musharraf was considered a tolerable replacement, and possibly a seatwarmer for Lieut. General Khwaja Ziauddin, a Sharif family friend and head of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), Pakistan's equivalent of the CIA.

But last spring, Musharraf organized Pakistan's incursion into the Kargil region of Indian-held Kashmir, which was hailed as one of the country's most daring military exploits. Pakistani troops, along with alleged "freedom fighters," infiltrated Indian territory and captured mountains above a vital road used to supply India's troops on the Siachen Glacier, where they have been battling Pakistan since 1984. Almost two months of fighting rattled the international community and produced hundreds of casualties on both sides. Sharif headed to Washington last July to press Bill Clinton for support. Instead, the U.S. President persuaded Sharif to withdraw his troops--to the military's outrage. When asked whether he had ordered the pullout, Musharraf told a journalist: "If I had done this, I would have lost the right to be the army chief." At subsequent military meetings, recalls one source, "the main issue was Sharif. [Musharraf] abused him for destroying the institution of the army."

The animosity between the two men increased, and Sharif dispatched his brother and the ISI chief to Washington in mid-September to sound a warning. In response, the U.S. released a statement warning against any attempt to change the government through "extraconstitutional means." That only further infuriated the military. Tensions reached such proportions that a 15-minute alert was sent out to the 111 Brigade, known for launching coups in the past, to seize civilian buildings in case Musharraf was fired. So intense was the hostility that intermediaries negotiated between the two men, and Sharif eventually agreed to extend Musharraf's term for an additional two years. But Musharraf wasn't consoled, and he immediately replaced a corps commander with a loyalist. Other generals, meanwhile, were waiting for the final boot to drop, having drafted coup plans if Sharif dismissed the army chief. "It was a war of nerves," says the army source.

Last Tuesday at 3:45 p.m., just after Musharraf had boarded the plane in Colombo, Sharif summoned the ISI's Lieut. General Ziauddin for a meeting at his Islamabad residence. A camera crew taped the Prime Minister decorating his new military chief. The video was sent to PTV to be broadcast as a bulletin at 5 p.m. and again on the main news program an hour later. Presumably, Ziauddin was then supposed to move quickly to clean out the top army brass. Police officers were on standby at Karachi's airport to arrest Musharraf, while other police waited at the small airport at Nawabshah. The men didn't move fast enough. As soon as Ziauddin started calling his corps commanders, they quickly put into effect their counter-coup. Soldiers took over PTV before the 6 p.m. broadcast. At 6:30 p.m., three army trucks pulled up at Sharif's residence; soldiers went to the door and ordered the security men, household staff and gardeners to leave. "We handed over the keys and left the premises," says one guard. Before Musharraf's plane touched down, soldiers had taken control of the airport and the radio and television stations, and put a number of cabinet ministers under house arrest. At 9:30 p.m., a convoy of jeeps left Sharif's residence carrying Ziauddin. The Prime Minister was also taken into custody that night; both were taken to safe houses at Chaklala air-force base.

However prepared Musharraf and his team were to take over, they had plainly given scant attention to what to do afterward. In the two days following Sharif's overthrow, the generals attempted to get President Muhammed Rafiq Tarar to declare an official nationwide state of emergency. The President declined, so Musharraf declared it himself and announced that the constitution was being suspended. For the next few days, the nation waited for Musharraf to deliver an address spelling out his plans for the future, which was postponed twice.

K.M Choudary/AP In Lahore residents celebrate with fireworks.

Some predict the military will have to install civilians, partly to assuage the international community--including donors of millions of dollars in vital aid--but also to shield themselves from blame if they fail to turn Pakistan around. "The army was sucked into a crisis not of their own making," says former ambassador Lodhi. "Knowing this crowd, I think they will be very sensitive to the fact that they can provide the muscle, but they don't want to be up front because they don't know how to do it." But after 10 years in the wings, Pakistan's military is back on center stage--and no subsequent government is likely to forget it.

Reported by Hannah Bloch, Michael Fathers, Ghulam Hasnain and Syed Talat Hussain/Islamabad, Helen Gibson/London, Maseeh Rahman/New Delhi and Mark Thompson/Washington

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