Pakistani Government grapples with chaos and uncertainingy: Naveed Ahmad

The Pakistani government is in bad shape amid widespread chaos growing in the country, a prominent political analyst tells Press TV.

This comes as the Pakistani police have attacked supporters of an influential Muslim cleric, Tahir-ul Qadri, during an anti-corruption rally in Islamabad.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Naveed Ahmad, a security and diplomacy analyst from Islamabad, to further discuss the issue. The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Let’s get some things cleared up here because there are some allegations being thrown around. First of all, Qadri is being used as a front for the Pakistani military to derail the upcoming vote. Is that something that you find credible?

Ahmad: Qadri has no credibility as such in a political arena. He has shunned and resigned from politics three times before and this is his fourth term. He’s launching this whole movement from a platform which is a charity to run schools. It’s not a registered political party.

He’s involving Islam and also politics with it, and that’s a serious issue.

At the same time, once we realized he brought a good number of people, around 30 thousand Pakistanis on the streets of Islamabad. He needs to be listened to.

But whatever he’s saying, he’s saying nothing new to the Pakistani people or the international community.

Yes, the timing is of crucial importance. The Pakistani government is really in a very bad shape.

In Balochistan they faced serious problems when certain Pakistanis were killed in a bomb blast. Then of course, a similar incident happened when another set of Pakistanis were killed in Swat.

In this security situation and in this failure of providing energy and everything, anybody who talks about empowerment of people is going to be heard. Tahir-ul Qadri is totally in sync with the public as far as electoral politics is concerned.

He’s the only answer to all such calls with the government is a constitutional one to announce the date for elections and clear all the mist that we are facing. There is no such thing as Qadri making a dent and making sure that the government packs up and all these leaders go home, and there is a caretaker set up that is naturally being awaited.

Asif Ali Zardari government has to announce this, and they will announce this.

Press TV: What about how in a matter of weeks he’s pretty much come to rise as a national political force as so it appears? Is he getting outside funding? What’s the possibility on that?

Ahmad: Well, the funding is a big question mark he has not come clean on. There’s a clear concern within the Pakistani political community, the media community and of course the public at large that where is this oil money coming from and how is he managing all that?

The cleric is a lower middle-class background guy and he was not involved in any kind of fundraising at home. All this money has come from abroad. According to him, this has come from his sympathizers who are Pakistanis but living abroad.

Himself, he is a Canadian national. I have from my own sources and interactions known that Western powers, particularly in the northern American side, really are in favor of him because they want somebody who is a bit Sufi and who follows not a Salafi line of Islam or Deobandi line of Islam. He is not very militant as well and does not have a constituency so he can be rooted out.

Clearly, there are signs that he is planted but nothing can be said for sure. A lot depends on the lost opportunities at the hands of the Pakistani government which has failed on numerous occasions and is failing in containing such elements even now.

Tahir-ul Qadri’s money issue is going to be a major issue as to where the funding is coming from. For example, the current ongoing process that started on the 23rd of December until the 14th of January involves billions of rupees and millions of dollars spent in political campaigning without having any clear perspective as to whether you want to be prime minister of Pakistan.

If you want to be prime minister of Pakistan, would you be ready to shun your Canadian nationality? What kind of structure are you looking at? Is there any possibility that your party will contest the election? Would you register one for that matter?

All these are big question marks. It’s a very bloody situation and people won’t really vie for it quite long if Asif Ali Zardari decides to announce when the elections are going to be held because assemblies are going to expire very soon.