Musharraf increasingly isolated: analysts

Army is speeding up the transfer of power to the new civilian government, further isolating President Pervez Musharraf, analysts say. Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, is confronting a hostile coalition government that won elections in February in the latest see-saw between army and civilian rule in Pakistan's 60-year history.
But in a departure from previous years when ministers visited the army chief, current military supremo General Ashfaq Kayani came to new premier Yousaf Raza Gilani's residence on Wednesday for a security briefing.
Later the same day Kayani, who succeeded Musharraf as army chief in November last year, replaced a key confidant of the president as head of the crucial Military Intelligence unit.
"It is another step that isolates President Pervez Musharraf. He is increasingly isolated by the new political power set-up," general-turned-defence-analyst Talat Masood told AFP. "It shows the times are changing in Pakistan. I think that it is the first time the COAS (chief of army staff) went to the PM house for such a briefing to the political leaders, showing that now the army is now prepared to promote democracy," he said.
Kayani vowed earlier this year to pull the army out of politics and began by ordering the withdrawal of officers from key government and bureaucratic roles in early February.
Analysts said that the most important step came when the military and its associated spy agencies did not meddle in the February 18 elections, which took place amid widespread expectations that they would be rigged.
"The revolution was more when Kayani said publicly that the army wants free and fair elections," leading newspaper columnist and political analyst Shafqat Mahmood told AFP.
He said the meeting on Wednesday was "symbolic, in a sense, that the power has transferred from military side to civil side." "The army played a role it is supposed to play in democracy. In the elections army and its intelligence remained aloof," former army chief General Mirza Aslam Beg told AFP.
Wednesday's visit also showed that the army agreed with Gilani's call for political solutions to the wave of violence spreading from the troubled tribal areas bordering Afghanistan into big cities. "The threat of this insurgency is also making the armed forces realise that it is important to promote democracy," Masood said.
The apparent harmony between the army and the new government should reassure Washington, which has been watching anxiously to see if the new administration will remain committed to fighting al Qaeda and Taliban militants. But the real test for the army will come if the new government decides to go head-to-head with Musharraf by reinstating around 60 judges sacked by the president under a state of emergency in November.