From chorus to crescendo: ‘Ties with Haqqanis’ threaten civilian aid
The chirrup has grown to a clamour, now threatening the most civil aspects of an otherwise rocky relationship.
A warning conveyed recently to Islamabad said US assistance to Pakistan under the Kerry-Luger-Berman Act may become a casualty of the ongoing row between the two countries regarding the Haqqani network.
The $7.5 billion non-military assistance was approved by the US Congress in 2009 in an attempt by the Obama administration to demonstrate its long-term commitment to Pakistan. However, the 20-hour long assault on the US Embassy in Kabul on September 13 may prove to be a “game-changer and compel the administration in Washington to review ties with Pakistan”, said an American diplomat on condition of anonymity.
US officials said the audacious attack was carried out by militants from the Haqqani network, allegedly based in North Waziristan.
Since then, one senior American official after another has hammered Pakistan to come clean on its alleged ties with the Afghan insurgent group which has launched some of the most daring attacks on US forces stationed in Afghanistan.
Resentment in the US Congress
The diplomat told The Express Tribune that resentment against Pakistan, for its lack of commitment to eliminate the Haqqani network, is growing in the US Congress.
“Many congressmen are now asking why we are spending American taxpayers’ money on Pakistan,” he added.
“If Pakistan fails to take decisive the US Congress may even go to the extent of blocking the assistance.”
The $7.5 billion aid over a period of five years is conditional to annual certification by the Secretary of State to the US Congress.
One such condition includes Pakistan’s progress to eliminate ‘terrorist safe havens’ from the tribal belt. However, another American official said, though the situation was tense, it was premature to conclude that this could even lead to a halt in civilian assistance to Pakistan.
Intelligence chiefs meet
The threat to cut back civilian aid comes amid mounting pressure on Pakistan, evidenced by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief General Ahmed Shuja Pasha’s unpublicised trip to Washington on Tuesday to meet with his Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) counterpart David Petraeus.
(Read: Pasha meets Petraeus in Washington to discuss Haqqani network)
First reported by the Washington Post, the CIA officially declined to comment on whether the meeting had taken place. However, according to sources, General Pasha met with Petraeus, CIA officials and senior White House officials at Ambassador Husain Haqqani’s residence in Washington.
The Haqqani network was the focus of discussions, the Washington Post reported. This was the third high-level meeting within a week between the intelligence chiefs to discuss the Haqqani network and its presence in Pakistan.
Rehman Malik’s denial
Amidst the clamour, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik denied categorically the presence of Haqqani network on Pakistani soil while talking to journalists after his meeting with FBI chief Robert Mueller here on Wednesday.
“[Pakistan] will take immediate action against the Haqqani network if we receive intelligence reports of their presence in Pakistan,” Malik said.
The interior minister said he told the FBI chief that Haqqanis were a product of the Afghan war in which Pakistan was a partner.
“They were sons of the soil,” the minister said, adding that, “they are no longer on this side of the border.”
The FBI chief said they discussed matters of bilateral relations, extradition and exchange of information on terrorists and means to further enhance cooperation in the on-going war on terror.
Malik, however, added that the Haqqani network also came under discussion and the FBI director was told that the network was not present in Pakistan. It is odd for an FBI chief, whose mandate includes homeland security and investigations into crimes committed on the US soil, to discuss matters of regional security with the Pakistani interior minister.
Earlier, on Saturday, the group’s leader Sirajuddin Haqqani had said the group feels “more secure in Afghanistan.”
(Read: ‘No sanctuaries in Pakistan’ - Haqqani network shifts base to Afghanistan)
In a rare telephone interview from an undisclosed location, Sirajuddin told Reuters that the group no longer hides “in the mountains along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.”
Khar-Clinton meeting
US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton told Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar in a three-and-a-half-hour-meeting in New York this week that Pakistan was quickly losing support in the Congress, a government official familiar with the discussions said.
Despite the veiled US threat, the official said Pakistan did not make any “specific commitment” to go after the most feared Afghan insurgent group.
The foreign ministry spokesperson, when approached, referred to the statement of Foreign Minister Khar in which she “underscored the fact that the relationship was not aid-dependent”.
She would not offer further comments but her brief response appears to reflect Pakistan’s attempt to downplay the strong position the US has taken against the Haqqani network.
On Tuesday, US Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen openly accused the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of using the Haqqani network to wage a “proxy war”.
Separately, The Washington Post quoted unnamed US officials as saying that in what amounts to an ultimatum, administration officials have indicated that “the US will act unilaterally if Pakistan does not comply.”
(Read: At the UN - US insists Pakistan get tough on Haqqanis)
However, Pakistani officials were quick to reject the assertion saying no such ultimatum or warning was given.
They even rejected American claims that the Haqqani network issue remained the first and last item on the agenda of a recent meeting between Clinton and Khar.
According to the foreign ministry spokesperson, Khar stressed that “the responsibility of effectively countering terrorism must be shared by all”.
“Areas that harbour terrorists on the other side of the border from where attacks are launched on Pakistani men, women and children must be dealt with proactively,” said Foreign Office spokeswoman Tehmina Janjua while quoting Khar telling Clinton.
(With additional input by Huma Imtiaz in Washington and Umer Nangiana in Islamabad)
Published in The Express Tribune, September 22nd, 2011.
COMMENTS (46)
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The Americans want Pakistan to do their dirty work, they want Pakistan to sacrifice more soldiers as a proxy army, but Pakistan has to live with these people for a long time after Americans have left.
If America knows where they are, let them drop rockets in them with drones, who is stopping them from doing so daily?
@PHAJJA you seemed to be easily criticizing the US for ''your version" of failure but you cleverly seem to gloss over why so many terrorist roam your country killing men women and children while you all do nothing to stop the blood bath! Where was Pakistan when the Taliban ruled in terror and kept the country poor and producing poppy to get rich I don't remember many Pakistanis caring about the Taliban harsh treatment of women. The US has every right to be in Afghanistan where Al-Qaeda was situated when US was attacked and the Pakistan allowed these monsters to move freely and then humiliated Pakistan with the capture & death of Osama Bin Laden in the military zone while Pakistanis scrambled not to look like fools I think the Afghans have a lot lose.having Pakistan as a neighbor! People who live in terror filled glass houses should not throw stones!
So if GoP is incompetent to get rid of these savages and US is willing to do any thing to get rid of Haqqanis then Why on earth they have not used drones against them??
How come US has not hit Jalaludding Haqani or Siraj uddin Haqqani in their hundreds of attacks? or because they want to use this as leverage for pushing Pakistan.
America should quit giving aid to Pakistan. Pakistanis are fed up of their empty threats.
@Tariq Shah: I am so surprised that you still do not understand the real game here. US and Pakistan both are nuclear powers. So are their respective allies India and china. That is why proxies are so important here. There will be no declaration of war but proxies will fight as they are right now. US has started pouring money to destabilize Pakistan. It is raising its own proxies in AF-Pak. Pakistan simply doesn't have the resources to match US on this. In this tangle Haqqani is just a beating stick. If Haqqani is over something else will become the beating stick. The bottomline is Pakistan will eventually have to fall in line with the US. There can be no strategy to win or even to fight on in this war for Pakistan unless they choose to end up being like Afghanistan. Pakistan must only concentrate on formulating a retreat strategy which it is not doing and that is the real unanswered question. As Pakistan avoid action thereby turning the showdown potentially into an existential crisis there will be increasing speculation that Pakistan wants to take this fight to the nuclear threshold to prevail. That is the real concern.
who will hide in pak after osama killed
haqaaanis is in afghanistan.
@biryani: That is telling of how much the word " Haqqani " occupies their mind right now. No doubt Pakistan is under pressure.
It is high time Pakistan show American it can do without its aid. This is the only way America will stop dictating to and humiliating Pakistan. America in running brokes, it can no longer offer the huge aid packages.
@Tariq Shah:
"Instead of constantly pressing Pakistan to eliminate the Haqs, if the US really know where they are, why not give evidence…. give evidence to the press, I am sure they know where the Haqs are since the Americans speak with so much morality on the issue?"
That is exactly what the Pakistani establishment had been saying for 10 years regarding bin Laden. Guess what happened!
All the fence sitters commenting against Pakistan must realize that what the US is demanding is nothing but a blackmail and forcing Pakistan in a venture,the backlash of which will be scores of suicide bombings in almost all the urban centres and this is what the enemies of Pakistan are waiting to see.
@BruteForce: Spot on. Aid cut, with serious conditions, is already on its way.
Do not be cowed down by this threat of loosing support in the Congress or elsewhere. The jackals threaten and if you stand up they run away. Just follow national interest and our national interest is the to be friends with our neighbours - and not with the US proxies in our backyard.
Imperialism has followed this strategy through the history but they fail in the end in the face of national resisitance.
Whether they are son of this soil or came from another soil, if they are living in Pakistan without obeying the laws of pakistan then they are criminals and they have to pay the price. There are so many banned out fits in Pakistan who were invovled in terrorism and criminal activites but they are operating freely as LeJ which is always called banned outfit but from collecting donations to free movement of their leadership is happening easily in Pakistan. No wonder why Pakistan is paying such a heavy price today by rasing these type of Sons of SOIL.
The American are flexing their muscle as Pakistanis crawl in fear. The truth of the matter is that from India we see Pakistan as a dangerous board game as various characters are allowed to roam the country and carry out their terror plans in plane sight of its people who are brainwashed by crazy political and conspiracy ideas fed daily by their (M & M) Military & Media. If the citizen are not foolishly blaming India then they are think we Indians are causing the chaos and thus allowing the trouble makers to create havoc in the meantime the others have thrown their hands up in the air and pray for God's intervention meanwhile as the daily terror spreads from city to city. America is the only power that is making Pakistan forcibly look at the problem and act and even though the general population speak against this and protest in rants the military and hierarchy are making trips and so are Americans sending over to Pakistan strong signals and Pakistan being so weak because if its own doing has NO CHOICE!
imran is the NLY choice
@Maulana Diesel: "what is stopping the US from using drones ? am I missing something?" No, you are not missing anything. This is the dance necessary before the final act. So, show some patience. Drones are coming to Pakistan!
@V: "Can someone tell me how can this guy continue to be the interior minister of Pakistan for so long? " It is Parkinson's Law in action. When mediocrity takes over the top echelons, every lower echelon has, per this Law, to be dumber and dumber even though there may be smarter people available!
Guess what, we have seen this earlier.Typical shameless Pakistan. I doubt if they themselves expect people to believe this. But they are going to continue like this. This time things are surely going to get nasty. Watch out.
interestingly Mullen in his press conference said.... i talked in 4 hour long meeting with general haqqani and we agreed bla bla.........
haha
Game is on!
Its not how you play the game , its how the game plays you
The Americans see our proxies only. I ask them whose proxies are the Karzais, the Malikis, the Mubaraks, the Hussains of Jordon and all the rest?
pakistan is playing an extremely dangerous game,nobody believes u after OBL.i would not be surprised if we see american boots or b-2's above north waziristan by this year's end.and trust me there's a difference between targetted drone strikes and carpet bombings.
ban the facebook it will fix the haqqanis
Sons of our soil? And he's actually reminding the world of that fact? Don't we have enough home grown problems already?
There are sons of the soil, called strategic assets, and then there are liabilities of the soil, more than 160 million, who demand electricity, water, food, roads, education etc.
@V: Its, what the Pak call Democrasy !!!! The man is complete waste of time !!!
well we are not interested in there ancestors,there actions are very effective
I remember reading similar statements from PAK before Abbotabad.
From the fever of all the meetings it is likely that the US knows more than the Haqqani network location. I suspect either an unilateral action of US or joint US-PAK actions on Haqqani network inside PAK in the near future.
Both of these actions will be unpopular in PAK in some segment of population, and PAK army is trying to avoid actions against her "sons of the soil".
PAK is in a squeeze and it is likely more of Haqqani network connection with PAK ISI will be made public in coming months.
How does Mr Malik know if Haqannis are in Pakistan or not ? Did Mr Malik not also claim that Laden was not in Pakistan, repeatedly ? Has Mr Malik relocated Mr Haqanni and has the new address ? If so, when was Mr Haqanni in PAkistan and when did he relocate ? Dis Mr Malik pay the relocation expenses ? Is it not a great tragedy according to what Mr Malik is saying that a 'son of the soil' like Haqanni , has to leave the soil ?
@TightDhoti:
meaning sons of soil of Afghanistan.
After all Haqqanis were welcomed in White house as equivalent of founding fathers of America
Haqannis are strategic assets. The rest, 160 million, are strategic liabilities who demand electricity, roads, healthcare , education. Just think, would US give billions if there was no Bin Laden, No Taleban and Haqanni ? Please think strategically as nothing is more important than strategic assets and strategic holes.
Count on Mr. Rehman Malik to come up with a new one. What I do not understand is this: the US bombs anything that moves with a drone in FATA. So if the Haqqani network in is North Waziristan and Pakistan does not want to attack who/what is stopping the US from using drones ? am I missing something?
Haqqanis are sons of the soil? And the rest of the Pakistani nation are adopted?