The Day After
Chief of Army Staff Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani was in Kabul today, apparently without prior notice to President Hamid Karzai or the Afghan Defense Ministry. The IASF command is in Kabul, so General Kayani could have been meeting with Gen. David McKiernan. Meetings in person and by phone were added on with Defense Minister Mohammad Zahir Azimi and President Hamid Karzai. Oddly, yesterday Karzai did a presser and announced he is running for re-election.
Someone else is due in today, President Nicolas Sarkozy, after 10 members of the 8e RPMIa were killed and another 21 were wounded in an ambush 60 kilometers east of Kabul over night. As the French unit was doing recon, it is possible that it took close to 100% casualties during the three hours of fighting and had combat air support failed, would not have been able to self-extract or prevent capture, beyond the four reported captured and subsequently killed, either by hostile or friendly fire.
The Daily Times has a paragraph from two dozen political leaders on the resignation. Some want him tried under Article 6 of the Constitution and Article 58-2 (b) abolished. Some just want to Move On.
The coalition leaders are discussing replacing General (ret.) Musharaff.
- Baloch leader Attaullah Mengal,
- former chief justice (r) Saeeduz Zaman Siddiqi,
- Justice (r) Wajeehuddin Ahmed,
- Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Faryal Talpur,
- Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Ghous Ali Shah,
- Awami National Party (ANP) President Asfandyar Wali,
- former Defence minister Aftab Shaaban Mirani and
- Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Fazlur Rehman
Not on the list is Tehreek-e-Insaaf Chairman Imran Khan, which is sort of odd since his signature issue was the sacking of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and the political independence of the judiciary.
Gallup fielded a poll overnight and 85 per cent of the respondents want Iftikhar Chaudhry and other judges to be reinstated immediately.
The 10-member National Command and Control Authority which controls Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is not (yet) making the news.
Musharraf will leave for Saudi Arabia with his family for Umra, then go to either London or the US.
Musharraf resigned following an agreement with the ruling coalition that it would provide him security and would not try him after declaring any of his actions as unconstitutional. The US, the UK, Saudi Arabia and General Ashfaq Kayani are guarantors to the agreement.
