It is absurd to suggest that a former ambassador to the US can hold up military sales from the US to Pakistan
WASHINGTON, DC: The recent statement made in parliament by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, where he accused me of lobbying against the release of the latest tranche of F-16s meant for the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), has come as a huge surprise to me. Khawaja sahib and I both opposed the Musharraf dictatorship together and, political differences notwithstanding, I did not expect a democrat to maliciously attack a fellow Pakistani democrat in language normally used by our establishment. It is absurd to suggest that a former ambassador to the US can hold up military sales from the US to Pakistan. Implicit in the allegation is the admission that those currently responsible for the conduct of foreign policy on behalf of Pakistan are somehow ineffective against a former ambassador who is regularly targeted with adverse propaganda by the powers that be in Pakistan.
The defence minister should know that I am an academic and not a lobbyist, and it is not very difficult to look up the respective definitions of the different roles. I have not lobbied for anybody or anything since I left the position of ambassador. History would prove that while I served as ambassador, Pakistan received 12 F-16 aircraft from the US as per contracts, without Congressional opposition. As ambassador, I did my duty of removing political difficulties in the execution of the deal and received appreciation from the PAF for my services in this regard. Congress also approved the largest civilian aid package for Pakistan of $7.5 billion over five years under the Kerry-Lugar-Berman Act during my tenure.
In some of my recent analytical articles, I have pointed out the actual role of F-16s in the Pakistan military’s arsenal against India, which does not constitute lobbying for or against the aircraft’s sale to Pakistan. For years, Pakistan’s sales pitch to the US has been based on underplaying its real strategic outlook to secure foreign military funding and foreign military sales. My factually correct articles offend those who do not want to change the basis of US-Pakistan relations to honest discourse, which is why these are being wrongly described in Pakistan as anti-Pakistan. I advocate a new foreign policy paradigm for Pakistan, which includes pursuing independence from acquisition of military hardware from the US on false assurances and the shift of focus from military relations to economic and trade ties. I do not believe that having the eighth-largest military while being only the 42nd-largest economy in the world is a sustainable course of action for us. Pakistan’s priority should be to put the 42 per cent of children of school-going age who are currently out of school, into schools.
While I have no role in lobbying in Washington, DC for anything, including the F-16 sale, I find it disturbing that my scholarly work should even be an issue. Support for or opposition to specific weapons systems for the military is not considered a measure of patriotism in any country except unfortunately in Pakistan.
Husain Haqqani
Published in The Express Tribune, January 24th, 2016.
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