A can of worms to be opened

There is some surprise at the alacrity with which the PPP agreed the proposal for commission to probe Haqqani's claims

There are times when only a cliché will do, and the cross-party agreement that there be a parliamentary commission to investigate a set of claims made by ex-ambassador Hussein Haqqani in an op-ed piece he wrote for the Washington Post has the potential to open any number of cans of worms. Given the nature of what Mr Haqqani is alleging, namely that at the request of the then-PPP government he issued visas to CIA operatives in order that they may work in Pakistan outside the knowledge and purview of the military and intelligence agencies, his allegations are serious. The American hunt for Osama bin Laden was at its height; and the Americans did not trust the Pakistan army or military and civilian intelligence agencies to keep secret intelligence that was obtained in the course of that hunt.

There is some surprise at the alacrity with which the PPP agreed the proposal for the commission, suggesting that it has confidence in the two men who are implicated — Asif Ali Zardari and Yousaf Raza Gillani — and that the fall-guy, safely over the horizon, is going to be Mr Haqqani. He it is who is to be held solely responsible, raising the culture of impunity to an altogether higher level. Given that he has just made himself an elective scapegoat it is difficult to see what Mr Haqqani gains from his actions.

What purpose will be served by the establishment of a commission is unknowable beyond the fact that none of those principally involved will trouble themselves with telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth in regard to their roles in this murky affair. A commission may serve as a bulwark against such activity in future and prevent a repeat of actions such as those alleged by Mr Haqqani, and it would anyway be advisable to devise a set of protocols that make a repeat impossible to achieve. Whatever the delusions of some parliamentarians nobody is going to be tried for treason, but the worms are out of the can, the cats out of the bag and once again there are going to be more questions than answers.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2017.

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