Pakistani Military Topples Premier and Seizes Power

The Pakistani army ousted this country’s democratically elected leader Tuesday, raising the specter of civil strife and instability in a nation that possesses nuclear weapons.

Troops loyal to army Chief of Staff Gen. Pervez Musharraf surrounded the home of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, seized the state television network and closed major airports. Soldiers stood outside Sharif’s home in the capital, Islamabad, and a military spokesman said the toppled prime minister had been taken into custody.

“You are all well aware of the kind of turmoil and uncertainty that our country has gone through in recent times,” Musharraf said in a brief televised address early today. “Not only have all the institutions been played around with and systematically destroyed, the economy too is in a state of collapse.”

The armed forces struck in apparent retaliation for the prime minister’s sacking of Musharraf only hours before. Instead of falling into line, the military went after Sharif.

Musharraf, who has a reputation as a tough, no-nonsense soldier, was out of the country when he was fired but quickly returned Tuesday. He was met in Karachi by a throng of loyal soldiers.

The chaos in Pakistan could threaten the stability of South Asia, home to the world’s two newest nuclear powers. India and Pakistan, which have fought three major wars since the two countries gained independence from Britain in 1947, tested nuclear weapons last year.

Sharif and the Pakistani military had been locked in a barely disguised power struggle in recent weeks, much of it stemming from a border clash between Pakistan and India earlier this year. The clash began in April when Pakistani troops occupied several positions in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir and ended in July when Sharif ordered them to withdraw. Sharif’s role in the incursion is still unknown, but Musharraf was widely seen as the driving force.

Indian forces were put on high alert Tuesday following the coup. In New Delhi, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee held an emergency meeting with his advisors. The reports from Pakistan “are causing grave concern,” said his spokesman, Ashok Tandon.

In Washington, State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said: “We regret that again a set of political events has led to a setback for democracy and the constitution in Pakistan.

“We want the earliest possible restoration of democracy in Pakistan,” he added, “and hope that Gen. Musharraf will set forth clear plans for the restoration of civil government in Pakistan.”

Rubin said that Washington had no immediate concerns about Pakistan’s newly developed nuclear capability and that neither India nor Pakistan had increased military deployments in reaction to the crisis.

“With respect to control of the nuclear capability Pakistan may have, I don’t think there is a fear right at this moment that that is jeopardized by recent developments,” Rubin said.

Assistant Secretary of State Karl F. Inderfurth met with Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S., Riaz Khokhar, to discuss the crisis. But U.S. officials said no one in the Clinton administration spoke directly to Sharif during the day or to the Pakistani army officers who toppled his government.

U.S. Says It Had ‘No Advance Knowledge’

Amid signs of the power struggle in Pakistan, the Clinton administration had publicly warned in recent weeks that it would “strongly oppose” any moves to topple the Sharif government by extra-constitutional means. But Rubin said repeatedly Tuesday that Washington had “no advance knowledge” of the day’s events.

“There was no specific warning,” said another senior U.S. official. “Obviously, we were aware of behind-the-scenes turmoil, positioning and floating of trial balloons. We’d heard the rumblings.”

Tuesday’s events began at 5 p.m. local time, when the state television network announced that Musharraf was being retired early. The general had not been scheduled to step down until April.

The bulletin said that Musharraf had been replaced by Gen. Zia Uddin, the chief of the country’s powerful Interservice Intelligence agency and a Sharif loyalist. Before Pakistan Television went off the air, it showed Sharif and Uddin clasping hands. Sharif also dismissed Gen. Mohammed Aziz, the chief of general staff.

Three hours later, the station was shut down, and the military was in the streets. Soldiers were seen taking over the houses of several top civilian officials, including Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz and Information Minister Mushahid Hussein.

TV Stations Seized in Several Cities

In the cities of Karachi and Peshawar, the army seized television stations and the governors’ residences. In Islamabad, soldiers climbed over the walls of Pakistan Television and seized the facility.

After the main television building in Islamabad was taken over, hundreds of Pakistanis gathered in the streets, singing, waving flags and chanting, “Long live the army!” In Lahore, Sharif’s hometown, soldiers in jeeps and trucks took up positions on the main road and at government buildings.

Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, a bitter opponent of Sharif now in exile in London, speculated to the British Broadcasting Corp. that Pakistan might be on the brink of civil war.

“When you hear reports that the military is fighting with the civil government and elements of the military are supporting the . . . government, well, that looks very much like civil war to me,” Bhutto said.

The coup highlights the deep fissures that have developed in Pakistani society in recent years. Since being elected prime minister in 1997, Sharif has jailed dissidents, intimidated the press, bullied the Supreme Court and chased Bhutto into exile. The economy has teetered on the brink of collapse and been kept afloat only by foreign loans.

Popular resentment of Sharif crystallized this summer after the debacle in Kashmir, and his opponents have recently staged huge demonstrations against his rule.

The army has ruled Pakistan for nearly half of the country’s 52-year history. Democracy was last restored in 1988, but no democratically elected government has fulfilled its entire five-year term.

Western diplomats have been increasingly concerned in recent years about the growing influence of Islamic fundamentalism in the Pakistani army. It was not immediately clear what Musharraf intends to do now that he is in charge. Pakistani newspapers in recent weeks have been rife with speculation that a government of technocrats could run the country with the backing of the military--if Sharif was relieved of his duties.

Meanwhile, Indian analysts said the crisis in Pakistan will thwart the resumption of peace talks between the two countries, which had seemed likely after the election of a new government in India last week.

The border clash between India and Pakistan earlier this year came just months after a landmark summit in Lahore, Pakistan, where Sharif and Vajpayee agreed to take steps to normalize their relations.

Former Indian Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral said that Tuesday’s coup had dashed hopes that India would sign the nuclear test-ban treaty and that President Clinton would visit the region as planned early next year.

“Everything else goes into the freezer for the moment,” he said.

In addition, the Clinton administration will be forced under U.S. law to cut foreign assistance to Pakistan if it deems that the military has overthrown the constitutional government.

The administration cut all but humanitarian aid to Pakistan in May 1998 after the nuclear weapons tests. Clinton subsequently eased some of the economic sanctions, although the action had little apparent impact on Pakistan’s plummeting economy.

Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House International Relations Committee, said Tuesday that he will seek to modify a defense appropriations bill now before Congress that would allow the White House to also ease military sanctions.

“I am concerned that the resumption of U.S. defense sales to Pakistan would only serve to assist those who are supportive of today’s possible military coup,” Gilman said.

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Times staff writer Filkins reported from New Delhi and special correspondent Siddiqi from Karachi. Staff writers Bob Drogin and Tyler Marshall in Washington contributed to this report.

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Updates on the coup in Pakistan are available today on The Times’ Web site: https://www.latimes.com.