BS People: Ashfaq Pervez Kayani

A retired Pakistani General, with British drawl evident (Camberley and all that) was talking about Pakistan Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani. “How does he react under pressure,” he was asked. Suddenly, he lapsed into boyish slang. “Cool. Super cool,” was the reply.

Never has Pakistan needed the services of the ‘Sultan of cool’ more than at this point. Amid howls of rage from the US at the infidelity shown by Pakistan by hiding Osama bin Laden, the marriage, never happy, is now showing the signs of an irretrievable breakdown. The question the US is asking is: Did Kayani know bin Laden was in Pakistan? If he did, why did he keep this from the US?

One answer is Kayani’s personality. A man who speaks little and shares nothing – inscrutable is his middle name – the Pakistan Army Chief never lets on what he is thinking. He was one of the most important go-betweens in the talks former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf had with Benazir Bhutto before she returned to Pakistan to rejoin politics. This is because Kayani was deputy military secretary to Bhutto during her first tenure as the prime minister.

But Kayani has kept his own counsel lately. He has not spoken to Musharraf after he left Pakistan for cooler climes, following corruption and murder accusations. And now, he must protect not only himself but his colleague, General Shuja Pasha, who is heading the ISI.

Kayani has had training stints at US institutions and retains links from that period with the US army and security framework. The US would rather deal with him than an unknown general. In any case, Kayani holds his office till 2013. He is going nowhere. And, as for Pakistan’s curtailed sovereignty, well, there is a civilian government in place, isn’t there?

Every time the PM or the President goes abroad, either Pasha or Kayani accompanies him. Pakistan’s military is in power, even if it is not in power. Above all, it is in clover. What more could anyone want?