Musharraf is unsentimental over fate of his old friends and new foes

War on terrorism: The regime

Only hours after the end of the first attacks on Afghanistan, Pakistan's military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, was unsentimental about the fate of the Taliban.

Pakistan may have created, armed, financed and guided them, but at a press conference yesterday the general displayed no emotion at the pounding they are receiving.

"Pakistan condemns all forms of terrorism in general," he said, "and the attacks of 11 September in particular ... We tried to bring moderation in the Taliban government, we made all possible efforts ... We tried our utmost but unfortunately we could not achieve [it]."

General Musharraf said that "Pakistan's national interest" was his only concern. And to make sure that Pakistan's national interest is protected in the way he favours, it was revealed yesterday that he has quietly removed two senior colleagues who were closely involved with shoring up the Taliban – and who two years ago enabled him to seize power.

His first appearance before the media since 11 September was impressive: cool, clipped, efficient. He has called this the greatest crisis Pakistan has faced since the Bangladesh war of 1971, and no one would argue with that. He knows that all Pakistan's cities have witnessed relentless noisy anti-American protests for weeks, and he knows they will become louder and more destructive.

But under the overwhelming pressure produced by the events of 11 September he has set about putting his country on a course diametrically different from its existing one. Last night he was reported to have telephoned the Indian Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, urging co-operation on terrorism in a rare conversation.

General Musharraf has committed himself to the overthrow of the Taliban – even though the only available substitute, the Northern Alliance, remains Pakistan's confirmed foe. This is because of its patronage by Russia and – Pakistan believes – India, and because it is the enemy of the half of Afghanistan that is Pashtun. Pakistan has a large and volatile Pashtun minority.

General Musharraf was unsparing in his hostility to the Northern Alliance yesterday. "We know the atrocities they committed after the Soviets left and before the Taliban came," he said. "I have heard stories that would make your hair stand on end. After this [US military] action there will be a void in the parts of Afghanistan now controlled by the Taliban. If it is filled by the Northern Alliance we will see a return to anarchy and atrocities."

It was with a view to filling the void that General Musharraf broached another idea unthinkable in Pakistan until yesterday: official backing for the return of the former Afghan king, Zahir Shah. The former monarch, deposed in 1974 and now living in exile in Rome, was a consistent nuisance to Pakistan while king, voting against Pakistan joining the United Nations and fuelling demands for a homeland, called Pukhtunistan, for Pashtuns in the western tribal belt of Pakistan. But now General Musharraf the arch-pragmatist is in charge. "Environments are never constant," he told the media philosophically, "and now the environment is totally different.

"There is going to be a leadership vacuum in 90 per cent of Afghanistan... We need to find a new dispensation... maybe Zahir Shah has a role to play. Why should Pakistan hesitate because 35 years ago he was doing this or the other thing?"

General Musharraf gave himself room to make these breathtaking changes in Pakistan's policy by unsentimentally disposing of the three men with whom he shared power in Pakistan. Although he came to the press conference in his general's uniform, he is showing a keen grasp of the wiles of a politician. So when one questioner asked about the early retirement announced on Monday here of Lieutenant-General Mahmood Ahmed Shah, chief of Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), Pakistan's military intelligence agency and the most powerful institution in the country, he made light of it. "This is normal military activity," he said. "It's absolutely nothing to do with the events that are going on now." But well-placed sources here claim nothing could be further from the truth.

Two years ago on Friday, when General Musharraf, then Army chief of staff, was on his way back to Pakistan from Sri Lanka, Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister at the time, tried to get the army under his thumb by sacking General Musharraf and replacing him with a pliable ally. Two of Mr Musharraf's closest colleagues, Lt-Gen Mahmood and Lt-General Muhammad Aziz Khan, managed to foil the plot while General Musharraf was still in the air, and set in motion the events that led to General Musharraf bloodlessly ousting Mr Sharif and declaring himself Pakistan's chief executive.

General Musharraf rewarded his friends with high office.Now, however, none of them suits General Musharraf's plans. Lt-Gen Mahmood is seen as sympathetic to the hardline Islamists; he took part in the delegations to the Taliban recently that bore no fruit at all, and the suspicion arose that he was not interested in them bearing fruit. Lt-Gen Aziz, says the same source, is "an ideologue, very anti-Indian".

General Musharraf has replaced these cronies with Lt-Gen Muhammad Yousuf (new vice-chief of army staff) and Lt-Gen Ehsanul Haq (the new head of ISI) who both harboured doubts about Pakistan's earlier Taliban policy.

Having also awarded himself another three years as the army chief of staff, President Musharraf is now poised to lead Pakistan through the present crisis. If all goes according to plan.