Did the Americans copy these caveats from Husain Haqqani’s book Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military (Carnegie Endowment 2005)? What did Haqqani write that was so offensive to the army? He is facing a trial for treason, which is likely to attract the death penalty. And the judges are surprisingly hostile to him because the judiciary, by accepting the case, might be conflating Pakistani nationalism with loyalty to Pakistan Army. It is not to blame; the Constitution itself does so.
The book highlights the pattern of army and Religious Organisations working in tandem. It also traces another doctrine — that of “strategic depth”, which came to grief with 9/11 — to early formulations of strategy. Because Pakistan did not have geographical depth when militarily confronted by a 1,000-mile deep India, the army posited “fusion of the defence of Afghanistan and Pakistan”.
Haqqani traces it, not to the timeline of Pakistan Army’s decision to support the Taliban, but to Aslam Siddiqi’s 1960 book Pakistan Seeks Security. Siddiqi leans on Sir William Kerr Fraser-Tytler’s suggestion that the two states be fused into one. Siddiqi’s typically military addendum to the theory was that since it cannot be done by force (“fusion will lead to confusion”), Islamic ideology may be put to use. I am sure that today, Siddiqi will admit that it is the ‘fusion’ of Talibanisation with Pakistan that has led to more ‘confusion’.
Haqqani says that the army’s cohabitation with the mosque came through the intermediation of Nawaz Sharif. Pressured by the ISI and Qazi Hussain Ahmad, Nawaz Sharif toed the line on Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. An actual attempt at an overthrow was led by a major general who was “allegedly” patronised by the ex-ISI chief General Javed Nasir of the Tablighi Jamaat. A “weak” army chief was also to be targeted by the coup-plotters together with Benazir Bhutto and her government.
Haqqani reveals that the heavily bearded ISI chief, Javed Nasir, authorised the 1993 attack — through the Indian underworld figure Daud Ibrahim — on the Bombay Stock Exchange, which killed 250 people as revenge for the destruction of the Babri Mosque by Hindu fanatics. Javed Nasir’s list of “enemies of Islam” at the ISI included “the United States, Hindu leadership of India and the Zionists”. The covert Kashmir policy swung out of control under Benazir in 1993 as Mast Gul, a Jamaat-e-Islami hero of Charar Sharif, was lionised by the ISI against her wishes!
In 1998, Nawaz Sharif was compelled to mend fences with the Lashkar-e-Taiba in Muridke, near Lahore, when the governor of Punjab and the federal information minister called on its leader and praised him and his terrorist forays into India.
Haqqani also mentions the October 2001 attack by the Jaish-e-Muhammad on the Kashmir assembly in Srinagar. Then in December the same year, the Lashkar-e-Taiba attacked the Indian parliament, bringing the Indian Army eyeball-to-eyeball with the Pakistan Army on the borders. General (retd) Pervez Musharraf arrested Hafiz Saeed but let him go after keeping him in safe custody for some time.
There is reference to Fazlur Rehman Khaleel of the Harkatul Mujahideen. Khaleel was the logistics man for Osama bin Laden and had co-signed the 1998 fatwa of death against the Americans with OBL. He has a ‘safe house’ in Islamabad.
What came first, the army-sponsored India policy or army-sponsored Islamic extremism? Haqqani says it was India-centrism that finally brought Pakistan to Islamic extremism. The myth of India not accepting Pakistan and attacking Pakistan lives on even after the acquisition of nuclear deterrence.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 3rd, 2012.
COMMENTS (22)
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We need such enlightened souls as Haqqani, godspeed to him
ohhhhhh.....here comes another writer from SAFMA again !!
The writer Khaled Ahmed is from South Asian Media School, and SAFMA is South Asian Free Media Association. So this guy actually works at a subsidiary of SAFMA, an Indian funded group.
It is so easy to connect the dots now !!!!
There are some serious issues with the august bench’s observations. One must recall that not too long ago the Supreme Court had appointed a judicial commission to probe allegations against Ms Ispahani’s husband, the former Ambassador Hussain Haqqani in the so-called Memogate. When Mr Haqqani did not appear before the said commission on account of health and security reasons, the presiding judge, Honourable Justice Faez Issa had, in the April 6, 2012 hearing, threatened to ‘summon’ Mr Haqqani’s wife and children to court if he failed to appear before the commission in person. While no one doubts the honest intentions of the current bench hearing the dual nationality case, it still is rather disconcerting to see Mr Haqqani’s wife dragged to the court in just over a month after Justice Issa’s threat. To avoid any concerns about victimising Mr Haqqani’s family, it would have been prudent for the bench to include in the proceedings the 35 odd other parliamentarians, including ones from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, who allegedly hold dual citizenship. After all, justice must also be seen to be done, especially by a court given to long-winded speeches on morality.
Another brave soul, keep it up Khalid sb its a nice article.
@Riaz Haq: 1. There is an unsigned memo that was forwarded by Mansoor Ijaz to Jim Jones who in turn forwarded it on to Mike Mullen who says he did not act on it. 2. Jim Jones states that Mansoor Ijaz had never indicated that Haqqani was behind the memo. 3. There has been no evidence provided other than Ijaz's own notes that Haqqani was responsible for the memo. Certainly the word memo has not been mentioned in the blackberry messages. 4. Mansoor Ijaz has contradicted himself several times and has repeatedly written editorials accusing Pakistani army. Somehow everything else that he accuses Pakistani army of is false and is to be ignored but this one accusation related o memo is to be taken at face value.
"The myth of India not accepting Pakistan and attacking Pakistan lives on even after the acquisition of nuclear deterrence". It's not a myth, it's a fact. India occupied Kashmir, Hyderabad, and Junagadh, India blocked river water flow into Pakistan, India invaded East Pakistan to create Bangladesh, and India is actively involved in fomenting anarchy and insurrection in Baluchistan. It is India which first went nuclear (forcing Pakistan to do the same). Pakistan is the only stumbling block in India's path to dominate the region.
Nicely spelt out. If you're right and you're weak, then you're wrong If you're wrong and you're strong, then you're right
What came first was the Pakistan policy that US crafted during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
The build-up of the Mujahideen as a formidable force took place during 1979-1988 and as a result significantly changed Pakistan's geo-political frame, giving rise to militant groups that freely operated in large swathes of the former NWFP and AJK.
President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor 1977-1981, Zbigniew Brzezinski, financed the Mujahideen project and through an interagency working group of the US administration, helped forge an enduring relationship between and among the Mujahideen, ISI and other organs of Pakistan’s military establishment.
What came out of this relationship were several small but influential extremist formations that had begun to relocate from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border regions to the mainland. Several thousand of their recruits were deployed in militant camps which had sprouted in AJK.
Emboldened by the US-Zia protection and unabated financial and arms support from the CIA, Pakistan army and proceeds from the sale of illicit drugs, the Mujahideen began to devise an independent strategy, keeping ISI out of the loop, for capturing state power. The Taliban grew out of this paradigm shift and went on to effect a robust recruitment campaign in madaris that were cropping-up with great flourish in all parts of Pakistan and today stand at 35,000.
@Riaz Haq:
Your posts and blogs smell of establishment bones hidden in your closet.
As usual beautiful article by Khalid!
Even after becoming an ambassador to represent Pakistan in Washington, Haqqani never hesitated in bringing Americans into the civilian-military disputes in Pakistan's polity. BBM messages he exchanged with Mansoor Ijaz bring it out clearly. Attempts to deny the content of these messages are disingenuous given the fact that BBM is highly secure and impossible to tamper with. Regardless, the Pak "liberals" are giving him unqualified support because they believe all means, no matter how wrong, are justified to bring Pak military to heel. Such liberals need to learn how the Turks achieved this goal without compromising their dignity. What these liberals need to understand is that civilians have to perform and deliver positive results, as Turkey's Erdogan & Gull have done, to earn the respect of the Pakistani people who overwhelmingly approve of the military.
http://www.riazhaq.com/2011/11/blackberry-transcripts-sealed-haqqanis.html
every ordinary Pakistan, though they have no proof of it but know that its all true.as T.S.Elliott once said that people surprisingly knows all what is going on in the ruling palace.
The myth of India not accepting Pakistan and attacking Pakistan lives on even after the acquisition of nuclear deterrence.
India is very happy Pakistan happened. If not, India would have been in real trouble.
Brilliantly written, giving insight into the origin of countless problems that Pakistan is facing today. A translation of this article published in Urdu Newspapers will best serve the purpose of educating masses in Pakistan.
Haqqani's book is a must read for those who think there were no Taliban before 2004!
What did HH write?
Nothing but the truth, may not be the whole thruth.
the judges are now targetting Hussain Haqqani's wife, Farahnaz Isphanai.
Brilliantly insightful and informative, as always, Khaled Ahmed. The real eye opener is the Tablighee germ getting into the top of our security establishment. A lethal combination of literal Islam and vast resources. God save Pakistan and its people from these 'fidayeen-e-Islam'!
Haqqani is a friend or foe of Pakistan can be easily judge by his latest article in NYT. The author conveniently forgot to mention his latest writing.