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Durrani’s ouster points to Gilani-Zardari struggle

Mahmud Ali Durrani

ISLAMABAD: Was the dismissal of Pakistan’s National Security Adviser Mahmud Ali Durrani on Wednesday the manifestation of a bitter power struggle between Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari?

The speculation swirling over the Youm-e-Ashura Muharram processions on Thursday was that Mr. Gilani’s decision to fire his National Security Adviser, the retired Major-General Mahmud Ali Durrani, was an attempt by him to assert himself as the “rightful” executive.

The NSA was fired after media reports, some quoting him, that Ajmal Amir Kasab’s Pakistani nationality had been established in “preliminary investigations.”

Major-General Durrani himself added to the speculation, telling Reuters that Pakistan’s security agencies had recommended confirming the Pakistani nationality of the surviving Mumbai gunman, and he was sacked because the prime minister was out of the loop.

“It had been decided yesterday that we would tell the world that he is a Pakistani because hiding that makes no sense,” he said. “The security agencies recommended it.”

He suggested he was dismissed because the Prime Minister did not know about this decision and used this to assert his authority.

“The Prime Minister happened to be ignorant. He was in Lahore and he didn’t know about it. He was out of the loop,” General Durrani said.

One report even said President Zardari heard the news of the NSA’s dismissal on television but the President’s spokesman Farahtullah Babar told The Hindu that “the President and Prime Minister are on the same page regarding the announcement made about the National Security Adviser.”

The National Security Advisor was attached to the Prime Minister, Mr. Babar said, hence the decision to appoint or dismiss him was purely the Prime Minister’s prerogative.

“Therefore the question of bringing it to the knowledge of the President is not very relevant,” he said.

However the speculation has continued to persist, and along with it the question of who is in charge in Pakistan.

The News said in an editorial titled “Cracks at the top?”, that “some very serious differences at the highest level in Islamabad have been spectacularly laid bare within the space of a few hours.

Prime Minister Gilani returned from Lahore and held a meeting with Mr. Zardari.

The President’s spokesman said “issue relating to the latest development were disscussed.”

Meanwhile, what is being described in the Pakistani media as a fiasco, has given rise to the renewed demand for doing away with Musharraf era constitutional amendments that made the presidency all powerful.

Pakistan Muslim League (N) Ahsan Iqbal said the manner in which Kasab’s nationality issue had been handled underlined the need to immediately to repeal the 17th amendment, so that the Prime Minister became the genuine head of government, the practice in a parliamentary democracy.

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