Prejudging the Abbottabad inquiry
He said rather naively: “When all is said and done, the government, army and the ISI are not irresponsible people, they would never do such a stupid thing which would show them in such a bad light”. He added: “Irrespective of the US, I have absolutely not an iota of doubt on this, that no government in Pakistan, no military in Pakistan, no intelligence organisation in Pakistan would do such a stupid thing”.
The general, however, was more concerned about the use of fake polio vaccination programmes by the CIA during the hunt for bin Laden and thought it a breach of trust between the US and Pakistani governments, saying, “This is principally, morally, illegally incorrect”. It is a bit surprising that a member of a commission of inquiry should start talking about his prior bias on one side or the other among parties involved, and that the only party he chose to blame should be the US government.
We have heard quite a lot about how America — our ‘perfidious’ partner in the war against terrorism — has let us down by carrying out a covert operation on our soil without taking us into confidence. In fact, so focused are we on our resentment against the US that we have forgotten to acknowledge the death of a terrorist who has made our people suffer for over a decade. An ISPR statement hinting at this aspect of bin Laden’s death was quickly superseded by our blanket anti-Americanism.
As for the assumption on the part of General Nadeem Ahmad that the government, the military or the ISI could not have provided a safe haven to bin Laden raises a number of questions. The military is currently taking action against some of its personnel owing allegiance to banned organisations over and above their loyalty to Pakistan. There have been officers of the ISI in the past — like Khalid Khawaja — who have violated their oath of loyalty to the armed forces of Pakistan and become soldiers of fortune with no faith in anything but their own selfish ends. There have been officers of the ISI who have operated against the very government they were supposed to serve, throwing their oath of loyalty overboard. Retired ISI chiefs like Hamid Gul have been making irresponsible ‘hate’ statements, putting pressure on the army chief by creating a certain kind of ‘variant’ point of view in the military rank and file.
It is very important to see how the world looks at the ‘moral’ argument advanced by the military and government about the ‘betrayal’ of the US when it attacked Abbottabad to get bin Laden. Similarly, it is important to look at the global opinion concerning the clamour about ‘sovereignty’ that Pakistan is making to attain the moral high ground on the issue of bin Laden’s killing. Let us consider these two issues.
So punctured is the intelligence system in Pakistan that any information about the whereabouts of the terrorists and their expected targets gets leaked to the enemy. This is what happened in the latest case of an attack on the PNS Mehran base where all security measures taken by the navy were leaked to terrorists who were then able to carry out an attack, perhaps with inside help.
The question of sovereignty is real only in Pakistan. More than half the country is given over to terrorists and the rest of the ‘governed’ territory is open to raids from the terrorists ensconced in their numerous camps in Fata. The world knows that Pakistan is no longer able to impose its writ on its territory and that life and limb is not safe in cities like Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar. Most of the energy structure and communications system have come crashing down while some of us are blaming the US for being perfidious, trying to destroy us in cahoots with Israel and India.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 21st, 2011.
COMMENTS (6)
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@Ahsan Jaffery The US spends less than 1% of its budget on foreign aid. So shutting off assistance to Pakistan will have no impact on US citizens. The problems in the US budget are gigantic military, entitlements and debt servicing.
I detect a hint of superiority that I have seen in "Pakistani descent" Americans towards Pakistan and native Pakistanis. That is repulsive.
@Subhash, India: Hi mr Snbhash, Please explain to me, what exactly do you mean by "you are still carrying uneducated & uninformed biases?" Did you even understand my point? What I meant by what US should do and what we shouldn't? Or do you just have a problem with me because I am a Pakistani American? Do you understand what exactly goes in Israel? Or what they don't tell you? You are in India, I know for a fact that media shows more over there than we get a chance to glimpse at. Look into Israel, how it began and what happened since, the policies they have, and all clear preposterous not to mention clearly violating human rights, that your country supports in words at least. Israel, in sense are the one making other groups to make radical and clearly stupid decisions i.e. to say "violence." If they just give up half of what they have under official Israel, and learn to live with each other than I will personally guarantee peace over there plus positive ranking with countries and organizations that are against, when you start bullying in high school, you're going to get rebellious behavior in return, might not be up to par but it will be there. Now i want to clarify that I mean no disrespect to anyone person or group, I just want to see PEACE in the world. Let's stop fighting each other, killing each other, drop our creed-caused hatred, you and I plus the billions of the rest of world all have different opinions on things, if we all keep fighting and making the rich getting richer while we struggle than we are nowhere more than just at the bottom of a pyramid and struggle.
You are such a rediculus writer, a person who gave his life for the betterment of situation of his country, showed the highest extents of patriotism, for the sake of religion he fought till he was martyered and you blame him for voilating loyality to the armed forces, ISI is the only body which plays the role to safe guard our nation from the critical ends and gen aslam baig gen hamed gul n colnel imam were the only Legends supporting the cause n unfortunately you have lost two of them and aim afraid where this situation is leadin to onwards, Please onwards if you are not educated enough avoid misguiding the whole nation.if you like to get famous with your articles write about something for what your base is strong. I have mentioned my email on top please write to me in future before commenting about such noble personalities, hope you woulnt need another warning.
@Ahsan Jaffery: Stop living in a fool's world, Jaffery Sahib. I doubt if you really think of US as your home as you are still carrying uneducated & uninformed biases.