MUSHARRAF'S VISIT TO POK & N.A.
by B.Raman
Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's self-reinstated Chief
of the Army Staff (COAS), self-styled Chief Executive and self-promoted
President, visited the Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) and the Northern
Areas (Gilgit and Baltistan) for four days from August 27,2001.
He had earlier planned to visit these areas in July
before going to India for the Agra summit with the Indian Prime Minister,
Mr.A.B.Vajpayee, but cancelled his plans following violent sectarian
disturbances in Gilgit, details of which were covered in our earlier paper
titled " Gilgit, Baltistan, China & North Korea" available
at www.saag.org/papers3/paper289.html.
His visit to the POK and the N.A. came in the wake of
the following developments:
* The election of Maj.Gen.Mohammad Anwar Khan, former
Vice Chief of the General Staff (VCGS), who is related to
Lt.Gen.Mohammad Aziz, Corps Commander at Lahore and the clandestine
Chief of Staff of Pakistan's Army of Islam, as the President of the POK.
Musharraf forced the ruling Muslim Conference of the POK to nominate
Maj.Gen.Anwar Khan for the post of President after he had prematurely
retired from the Army in order to be able to contest the election.
The Army of Islam consists of the Al Qaeda of Osama bin Laden, the
Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), the Jaish-e-Mohammed
(JEM) and the Al Badr. As already reported, the main role of
Maj.Gen.(retd) Anwar Khan would be to step up acts of terrorism in Jammu
& Kashmir (J&K) with the help of the LET and other components of
the Army of Islam (www.saag.org/papers3/paper286.html
and www.saag.org/papers3/paper297.html
) and to overcome the opposition from the people of the POK to
increasing the height of the POK-based Mangla Dam, which supplies water
and electricity to Punjab.
* The US media reports that its intelligence agencies
had detected the transport of 12 consignments of Chinese missile
components by sea and land since China pledged to stop such supplies in
November last. The consignments sent by trucks came via the
Karakoram Highway through Xinjiang and the N.A. To avoid detection
of transport by sea by US satellites or by the CIA's port-based sources,
China and Pakistan had decided to move future consignments by road,
which, they felt, would not be vulnerable to detection by the CIA and
the National Security Agency (NSA) of the US. Pakistan has also
sought Chinese assistance for the movements of future consignments of
missiles and components from North Korea by road through the same
route. The military junta had taken considerable precautions to
prevent detection of the truck movements by not associating any of the
officials of the NA Administration, particularly the Shias, with the
arrangements for the movement. In view of this, both Islamabad and
Beijing were surprised and embarrassed by the US media reports that US
intelligence had detected the truck movements. Pakistani officials
claim that even if US satellites had detected the trucks, they could not
have known that the consignments contained missile components.
They, therefore, reportedly feel that there must have been leakage to
the CIA from one of the Pakistani officials associated with the
movement. Moreover, following past US detection of the storage of the
earlier missiles/components in Sargoda, the military junta had drawn up
alternate plans for storage in Gilgit in the hope that there would be
less possibility of detection there by the CIA. Before Musharraf's
arrival in the POK, Lt.Gen. Jamshed Gulzar, Corps Commander, 10 Corps
based in Rawalpindi, had visited the N.A. to enquire into the leakage
jointly with the Force Commander, NA, Lt-Gen Muhammad Safdar.
Measures for tightening up security in N.A. was one of the subjects
which figured during the discussions of Musharraf in Gilgit in which
apart from senior military officers, Abbas Sarfaraz, Musharraf's
Minister for Kashmir and NA Affairs, who is also the Chief Executive of
the NA, also participated.
* Three explosions caused by unidentified elements in
different parts of the POK coinciding with the election of Maj.Gen.Anwar
Khan as the President. These were followed by one more explosion
just before Musharraf's visit. No one has claimed responsibility
for these explosions. Though POK officials have been blaming the
R&AW, India's external intelligence agency, for these explosions,
the people of POK believe that these must have been caused either by
local opponents of the plans for increasing the height of the Mangla dam
or by Sunni extremist elements of the POK, who have been demanding the
merger of the NA, a predominantly Shia area, with the POK, a demand to
which the Shias are vehemently opposed.
Apart from his discussions with the local officials at
Muzaffarabad, the capital of the POK, the principal engagement of
Musharraf was his inaugural address to the newly-elected POK Assembly,
which has no financial powers. The preparation of the budget and the
allocation of resources are done by the Federal Government at Islamabad
and the budget is passed not by the elected Assembly, but by the nominated
Azad Jammu & Kashmir Council, based in Islamabad, which is headed by
Musharraf himself. In recent months, there have been strong demands
in the POK for the transfer of the financial powers to the elected POK
Assembly, to which neither the political leaderships of the past nor the
present military leadership have agreed.
Before his visit to the POK, the AJK Council had met in
Islamabad under the presidentship of Musharraf and approved the budget for
the fiscal year 2001-02, which included allocations for increasing the
height of the Mangla Dam and for development projects in the POK,
particularly in the Information Technology and telecommunications
sectors. The debiting of the expenditure on the Mangla Dam to the
income from the tax-payers of the POK has been another unpopular issue in
the POK. The local people have been demanding that since Punjab has
been the main beneficiary of the dam, the administration there should meet
the expenditure.
In his address to the POK Assembly on August 28,
Musharraf once again reiterated the centrality of the Kashmir issue in any
future negotiations with Mr.Vajpayee at New York and Islamabad.
"I am prepared to discuss all issues with India besides Kashmir, but
it will be a futile exercise. There can be no trade, cultural and
good neighbourly relations with India unless the core issue of Jammu and
Kashmir is resolved," he asserted.
During his discussions with local officials and the
elected members of the POK Assembly, he expressed his determination to go
ahead with the Mangla Dam extension project and urged them to co-operate
with the military junta in this matter.
In the NA, he had discussions with the officials of the
NA Administration on the law and order situation in the wake of the recent
riots by the Sunnis in June. He also addressed the NA Council, which
has only powers of a local body and is not a full-fledged Assembly with
legislative powers. He promised to consider suggestions for
upgrading it as a full-fledged Legislative Assembly. At the same
time, he made it clear that in view of the strategic importance of the
area, the NA could not have a President and a Prime Minister as in POK,
but would continue to be directly administered from Islamabad by the
Ministry of Kashmir and NA Affairs, with the Minister in charge acting as
the Chief Executive of the NA.
It is reported that Musharraf declined to receive
representatives of local Shia organisations, who wanted to present a
memorandum reiterating their demand for the conversion of the NA into a
separate Karakoram province, with the adjoining Shia majority areas of
Punjab and the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) merged with it---with
the new province having the same powers as the other provinces of
Pakistan. The Shias' demand for a Karakoram province is strongly opposed
by the Sunnis of the POK, the Sunni component of the NA population and by
the Sunni organisations of Pakistan.
In view of the anger in the Shia and Sunni communities
of Pakistan over his recent ban on the Sunni extremist Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
and the Shia Sipah Mohammad, there were tight security arrangements for
him. Shia officials were totally kept out of the security
arrangements.
The centrality of the Kashmir issue during the
forthcoming summit with the Indian Prime Minister in New York was also the
theme of his address to the NA Council.
The NA does not have a separate budget of its own.
Its budget is incorporated in the budget of the Federal Government.
Since the Kargil war of 1999, the Federal Government, on the advice of the
Army, has embarked upon a plan for the improvement of road communications
in the NA. Since seizing power on October 12,1999, Musharraf has
already visited the NA twice to monitor the implementation of this plan.
The Federal Government has allocated Rs 600 million for the construction
of roads in the area during the current year.
In 1966, the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO), drawn
from the Army Corps of Engineers, was established to undertake, with
Chinese assistance, the construction of the 840 km long Karakoram Highway
(Hassanabdal to Khunjerab Pass). The Chinese have, however, shown no
interest in a Pakistani proposal for the upgradation of this highway due
to their misgivings that this road was being misused by the Taliban of
Afghanistan and the jehadi organisations of Pakistan to send arms and
ammunition to the Uighur separatists in Xinjiang.
There is presently no truckable road between Gilgit and
Chitral, which is mainly accessible from Afghanistan along the Kunar
River. A jeepable track was developed after 1950 between Dir and
Darosh passing over the 3118 meter high Lowari Pass. However, it is open
for only six months during the summer. The Lowari Pass remains
blocked by snow during the rest of the year. During this period, the
only way of reaching Chitral is either by the Pakistan International
Airways (PIA)'s Fokkar flights or through Afghan territory via the Bajaur
Agency.
In 1975, an attempt to connect Chitral with the rest of
Pakistan was made when work on an 8 km long tunnel under the Lowari Pass
was started by the Lowari Tunnel Organisation, another army engineers'
organisation, but they could not succeed in constructing the tunnel and
the work was abandoned in 1977.
The Musharraf Government has now drawn up plans for the
construction of a 24 -feet truckable road between Gilgit and Chitral as
follows:
* Chitral to Mastuj (100 km):Already metalled for about
80 kms up to Buni. The remaining portion is to be metalled.
* Mastuj-Shandur: (42 km ): There is presently a
jeepable track over the 3734m high Shandur top, which is the boundary
between the NWFP and the NA. The elevation varies from 2280m in
Mastuj to 3734 m at Shandur, which would be the highest point on this
proposed road.
* Shandur- Pingal( 62 km):Presently, there is a
jeepable track along the Ghizar river in Ghizar District. The jeep
track descends from a height of 3734m to 2185 m at Pingal.
* Pingal-Gahkuch (40 km): Presently, there is a
jeepable track along the Ghizar river. Gahkuch is the headquarters
of Ghizar District. It descends from a height of 2185 m to 1870 m
at Gahkuch.
* Gahkuch-Gilgit (77 km): A road already exists, which
is now being metalled. The elevation at Gilgit is 1454m.
The Astore Valley and the Deosai plains used to provide
the oldest route connecting Gilgit with Srinagar via the Burzil Pass and
Skardu through Chotta Deosai and Sadpara.
Now, a project has been undertaken to connect Thelichi
with Skardu via Chilum and Deosai to provide a shorter route between
Astore and Skardu. The project is to be implemented as follows:
* Thelechi-Chilum (94 kms): It will be 24 ft wide with 12
ft metalled. The elevation of the road rises from about 1250 m at
Thelechi to 3400m at Chilum.
* Chilum to Deosai Plains ( 53 km): This section spans
the Deosai. An existing track is to be widened. Its
elevation is around 4500 m and it remains under snow for about four to
five months in a year.
* Deosai Plains to Sadpara(29 km):Will be 24 feet
wide. The elevation descends from the Deosai Plains (4500m) to
2600 m at Sadpara.
* Sadpara to Skardu (10km): This section will be 24 ft
wide with 12 ft metalled. The elevation is around 2500 m.
The area is snow bound for about two to three months in a year.
During his recent visit to the NA ---- his third since
October,1999--- Musharraf inaugurated work on both these projects.
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet
Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently, Director, Institute For
Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: corde@vsnl.com
)
