Few days back, Musharraf kicked out the Prime Minister Jamali in what is known as a democratic process in Pakistan. Now B. Raman has a detailed explanation of why the first Prime Minister from Balochistan was sent packing.
An aggravating factor was Jamali's failure (in the eyes of Musharraf) to vigorously explain to the people and to support in public the operations launched by the Army in the South Waziristan area of the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in its hunt, under US pressure, for the dregs of Al Qaeda and the Taliban. The operations have caused considerable resentment not only among the tribals, but also in the lower and middle ranks of the Army and have been bitterly opposed by the religious parties.
Since the middle of last year, Jamali himself was showing signs of unhappiness over what he perceived as his increasing marginalisation by Musharraf and by the prominence given to Shaukat Aziz. Before Musharraf's visit to Camp David in the US in June last year for talks with President Bush, there were indications of growing US concerns over the rogue proliferation activities of Abdul Qadir Khan, the so-called father of the Pakistani atomic bomb, and his cronies in Pakistan's nucear and missile establishment and the Army.
In order to divert suspicion from himself and the Army, Musharraf ordered Shaukat Aziz to inspect the security and accounting procedures in the Kahuta uranium enrichment plant and took Aziz along with him to the US to reassure the US that everything was in order in the nuclear establishment.
Before this, no civilian political leader of Pakistan had ever been allowed by the Army to visit any of the nuclear and missile establishments. Jamali was put in a highly embarrassing position when questions were raised as to why this task of seeming civilian supervision over the nuclear and missile establishment was given to Aziz and not to him (Jamali) and why Aziz reported his findings directly to Musharraf and not through Jamali. SAAG