Use diplomacy and ‘soft power’ to secure Pakistan from external threats.
KARACHI: This is with reference to a report in your newspaper on May 14, which said that the Shamsi airbase was not under the PAF’s control. ‘Terrain masking’ is a flying technique that has been used since the invention of radar in the 1940s. So, this wasn’t the first use of such technology, which the government would want all Pakistanis to believe.
Was there a real point in making this briefing in-camera? Now we seem to be getting garbled versions of what was said anyway. Why not do something absolutely revolutionary and actually be upfront with the people of Pakistan and tell them what happened instead of trying to ‘manage’ the facts?
On another note, I’m hoping that the military will finally realise that they cannot hope to compete against technologically superior nations on purely military terms and that we are better off trying to use diplomacy and ‘soft power’ to secure Pakistan from external threats, while using economic and social development to secure it from internal threats. Surely any rational attempt at furthering Pakistan’s security and national interests must come to this conclusion?
Iftikhar Zaidi
Published in The Express Tribune, May 16th, 2011.
