11 August 2008

Al Qaeda has launched a blistering attack on Pakistan’s beleagured president Musharraf, accusing him betraying Muslims by supporting US led war in Afghanistan.

In a rare English language audio message believed to be from Ayman Al Zawahiri, which aired on Sunday by a Pakistani private TV network, Osama bin Laden's number two called for jihad against Pakistan, listing a litany of charges against Mr. Musharraf. He urged Pakistanis to rise up and fight the United States or at least to support the insurgents.

The message, the authenticity of which has not been fully confirmed, came as Pakistan's leader fights a critical battle for his political survival, threatened by an impeachment motion by opponents. The Pakistan television channel ARY said the tape was delivered to its office in Islamabad by an unidentified person. People familiar with Mr. Zawahiri ‘s voice said the tape could be genuine.

The timing of the message is particularly important. Pakistan’s ruling coalition, led by the Pakistan People’s Party of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, decided last week to impeach Mr. Musharraf, saying he plunged Pakistan into political and economic crises during nearly nine years of single-handed rule.

Farooq Naek , the federal law minister said the coalition was close to completing a charge sheet for the attempted impeachment.

The pressure on Mr. Musharraf mounts as the country's four provincial assemblies meet today to demand that he seek a vote of confidence from Parliament or step down. The lower house of Parliament is also set to convene today in anticipation of an impeachment proceeding. Stripping Mr. Musharraf of the presidency would require a two-thirds majority vote of all law-makers in a joint session of the National Assembly and Senate.

On the audiotape Mr al-Zawahiri, who is believed to be hiding in Pakistan’s tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, attacks Mr Musharraf, saying he had compromised Pakistan’s sovereignty by allowing the CIA and FBI to operate freely in Pakistan and arrest, interrogate, torture, deport and detain people at will, whether Pakistani or not. “He has turned Pakistani army and security agencies into hunting dogs in the contemporary crusade,” said the purported tape from Mr al-Zawahri.

The audio overlays a series of images, including a static one of Mr al-Zawahri. Earlier this month, CBS News reported it had obtained a copy of an intercepted letter from unnamed sources in Pakistan that urgently requested a doctor to treat Mr al-Zawahri. A spokesman for a top Taliban leader in Pakistan denied the report.

On the tape, Mr al-Zawahri also mentions last year's deadly military siege of Islamabad's radical Red Mosque — an incident that militants have often used to rally support for their cause. “ Every soldier and officer should absolutely disobey any order to kill Muslims or aid their killers,”he says, singling out Army Chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani as a “hostile enemy of Islam.”