Pakistan Army Government Crisis reaches Flashpoint as Parliament Summoned, General Naeem Khalid Lodhi Fired by PM Gilani

The Pakistani Government has been in  a state of crisis for the last few months with relations detoriarating between the civilian government and the generals. Note the Army in Pakistan led by the Chief of the Army Kiyani calls the shots with the civilian government a mere puppet in the defence and foreign relations department. The Government in Pakistan has been in chaos ever since Osama Bin Laden was captured from near the Army HQ in Rawalpindi. After the Army got a lot of flat from everyone, it decided to hit back at the civilians using a memo by the US Ambassador Haqqani which talked of an army coup.

Osama Bin Laden used to live in an area which was populated with affluent retired Pakistani senior military offiicers. The compound had 18 foot walls,barbed wire and internet connections. The compound was built in Abbotabad which is just 35 kms away from the Pakistan capital of Islamabad. Living in such a big compound amongst important military officials it would take a really dumb person to think that Pakistan government did not know or shelter Osama Bin Laden.  It is a damning indictment of the Pakistani establisment.Note a number of terrorist incidents have a common origin in Pakistan. The Mumbai terrorist bombing in which the prime accused has said that Pakistani government officials were in the know about the bombings in which Americans and Israelis were targeted in India’s financial capital Mumbai. The failed London bombing too had its origin in Pakistan. Now this operation which was conduced in the very heart of Pakistan to kill the most dreaded terrorist the world has seen.

With the President under pressure, there was talk of the Army taking over when Zardari went to Dubai . The tensions were inflamed with Gilani criticizing the Army openly in an interview by submitting an affadavit in the court . This is abnonrmal as in democracies the Army is subservient to the government . Now the Crisis has hit another low point with Gilani firing the Defense Secratary Naeem Khalid Lodhi and summoning the Parliament. Pakistan remains a dangerous country with many dangerous terrorist groups running rampant with patronage and possessing many nuclear weapons as well.

Pakistan’s Nuclear Weapons Program is known to be  source of tension for world powers was already known.B ut the WikiLeaks revelations has shown that the situation is more alarming than it seems.USA is not the only big power concerned with the Nuclear Weapons falling into the hands of Islamic Terrorists. China, Russia and UK are equally concerned with the high risk that this nuclear program poses.Pakistan has recently been torn apart by internal Islamist and Taliban terrorism bringing the economy to a halt. Floods and Earthquakes have exacerbated the situation. The Pakistan Polity is equally as corrupt and self serving as most of the other South Asian ones. Note Pakistan became a nuclear power by testing nuclear weapons in 1997 following India’s Nuclear Tests.

In the fight between Advantages and Disadvantages of Nuclear Energy , Nuclear Weapons are the biggest Disadvantage

Gilani’s spokesman said the premier had fired the country’s defense secretary, retired Lieutenant General Naeem Khalid Lodhi, for misconduct.Zardari and Gilani convened leaders of their Pakistan People’s Party and its allies yesterday after the Supreme Court decision on the graft cases. A separate judicial commission is investigating whether Zardari and his ambassador to the U.S. authorized a memo in May that sought American pressure against a feared military coup following the killing of Osama bin Laden.

The prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, said this week that affidavits to the court by the army chief and the head of the military’s spy agency were “unconstitutional and illegal”.The military responded on Wednesday with a highly unusual statement in which it said that “no allegation more serious” could be levelled against the army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, and the director general of Inter-Services Intelligence, Lieutenant-General Ahmed Shuja Pasha.”This has very serious ramifications with potentially grievous consequences for the country,” the military said

In their written testimonies to the court, Kayani and Pasha pressed the judges to investigate the allegations against the former US envoy, Husain Haqqani. The government has asked the court to drop the case and leave a parliamentary committee to investigate. The government was furious that the military’s affidavits had not been cleared by it first, though technically they were filed through the government’s attorney general.