Is Pakistan at fault, or are all the countries wrong in being averse to its policies? Will Pakistan change or will it enforce a change in how others view it? Will Pakistan’s ‘victimhood at the hands of terrorist forces’ make up for the consternation its ‘duplicity’ is causing across the globe. Will the tolerance and appeasement of these forces continue, which on the surface are perceived as strategic assets, but are actually agents of medieval obscurantism? Will these forces remain partners in the security business while they abhor and reject music and films as un-Islamic i.e., essentially despise and viciously propagate against a normal way of life? Can they really be partners, when apparently they can provide the first line of defence but in reality are proliferating the society with an extremely conservative narrative on life? Aren’t the beasts biting the hands that were feeding them?
These are some of the questions that require scrutiny at home. Given Pakistan’s current beleaguered circumstances, one wonders whether those who matter within the power corridors have ever thought out possible answers to these questions.
Christine Fair, an American academic and journalist, recently wrote in Foreign Policy (June 21) that “….for once there’s consensus in Washington.... [B]oth houses of the Congress and the White House have all joined in chorus to decry Pakistan’s duplicity”. At the same time, she said that the US needs to resist the urge to “cut-off Pakistan” since such a move would “ultimately be counterproductive”.
While such cautionary advice by some American writers may come across as a big consolation, time for Pakistani brinkmanship — embedded in the Cold War era mindset — is fast coming to a close. Islamabad needs to take hard decisions. They may entail temporary violence and bloodshed but may mean international respect and inclusion as well as medium to long-term socio-economic dividends.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 12th, 2012.
COMMENTS (39)
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@Arya: "It is you who is duplicitous. You live in US when Pakistan needs you"
I think you are very confused. Stating facts about duplicity in international relations has nothing to do with any one's place of residence.
Former American Defense Sec Bob Gates too lives in the United States, and here's what he told the US Senate at a committee hearing before he retired last year: "Well, first of all, I would say, based on 27 years in CIA and four and a half years in this job, most governments lie to each other. That's the way business gets done."
http://www.riazhaq.com/2011/06/straight-talk-by-gates-on-pakistan.html
To Pakistanis in constant search for enemies, look in the mirror. You will not see a pretty sight, but for sure you will find out who is destroying your country.
Who is Pakistan’s enemy?
According to Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the whole world and perhaps Martians too.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/407846/fazlur-rehman-alleges-israeli-involvement-in-kashmir/
@Nazir Ahmed: Real enemy must be the Army! Army is unreasonably held high in spite of it being responsible for loss of half of Pakistan - East Pakistan and radicalisation of society. And all the people of Pakistan think they are superior to others. Manifestations of this results in clash of institutions now. Secularism is the foremost thing it needs most now.
Mr Arya@ Riaz Haq,
I live in Islamabad - my heart and soul is in Pakistan.
@Riaz Haq, It is you who is duplicitous. You live in US when Pakistan needs you, enjoy the life there in very secure environment while your innocent countrymen are brutally killed daily back home, but you blame US for duplicity. US follows whatever the policy it is following just to keep people like you gainfully employed, prosper, safe and live happily in US.
@banjara "its not their people who get massacared, nor their economy that is destroyed." are you kidding me. While the losses to Pakistan NOW are lot, who created this mess initially? And why?
And even if we have 1 person die due to terrorist attacks emanating from Pakistan (and mind you the number is huge) why should we suffer fools?? . You are just never ready to bite the bullet. You will go down, and take the entire region down with you.
@Riaz Haq, I always find your comments amusing. Why just curse US. Your "higher then mountain, deeper then ocean" friend China has better relations & trade with India. What about your so called cultural & religious father Saudi Arabia, they recently handed over a wanted criminal to India instead of Pakistan. Name any of your friends who have even little credibility in international politics and it will have a much better relations (trade or otherwise) with India. Get over your attitude to blame everyone except yourself. Get some life. Peace.
@Riaz Haq
Just look at America’s double game with Pakistan: US is killing Pakistani soldiers and citizens and building close ties with its arch-rival India while at the same time calling Pakistan its “major Non-NATO ally”.
I think you need to relearn the meaning of 'duplicity'. It means not being honest about what you are doing or profess to be doing. Like Pakistan professes to be fighting against Al Qaeda and Taliban, while hosting then on the sly. Even today Pakistan has not openly owned up Quetta Shura and the Haqqanis.
Contrast this with the US. Have they ever denied their relationship with India? Have they ever denied the loss of life in Salala? Have they ever denied the use of Drones? Have they ever said Salala and Drones are the result of non-state actors? Haven't they maintained that the civilians should have an upper hand? Didn't they openly go about seeking the Central Asian route?
Think. Arrogant? May be. Duplicitous? Certainly not.
@A Pakistani: "@BruteForce: @Wonderful: @gp65: You folks have tried to negate the statement of Mr. Riaz Haq – “Unfortunately, duplicity is the name of game when it comes to international relations. No one is pure!” – in one or the other. My question to guys is: Is India also not playing the game of duplicity with China? At one hand, India is pretending to be her friend through statements and increasing trade volume, while on the other hand is developing long range missiles to nuke Chinese cities and is a partner in US efforts to limit China."
Unlike Pakistan India does not make any higher than mountain claims of friendship with Chinese. There is a known border dispute with China for past 50 years that has not been brushed under the carpet. There are other issues e.g. allowing Dalai Lama and Tibetans oppressed by China to live in India. India does not deny that thousands of Tibetans and Dalai Lama live in Dharamsala. Neither India nor China claim these disputes do not exist. Both countries have simply decided that we will not allow trade and economic co-operation to be held hostage to these disputes. India makes no secret that to a large extent its missile programs are for defense from China. So there is no duplicity.
Pakistan is accused of duplicity because it claims to be a NATO ally and yet provides safe havens to Haqqanis who are attacking NATO and then denies the fact that these safe havens exist.
@A Pakistani Is India also not playing the game of duplicity with China? At one hand, India is pretending to be her friend through statements and increasing trade volume, while on the other hand is developing long range missiles to nuke Chinese cities
When did security of the country be termed duplicity??? Unlike Pakistan we TRADE with China not get AID from them. Trade is a two way street unlike aid.
Friendship does not mean surrender. Moreover we have declared a no first use policy in our Nuclear doctrine and we do not threaten to nuke China within 8 seconds. Better fences/defences make better neighbours.
I understand where you are coming from, In Pakistani terms, friendship means becoming a client state and then begging for aid. eg. Saudi, China
Who is Pakistan's enemy ? The Pakistan Army that is the bitter truth . The army has been in power or has been back seat driving since Ayub took over, so they are responsible . They have had the authority but without any responsibility being perceived as a savior.
@BruteForce: @Wonderful: @gp65:
You folks have tried to negate the statement of Mr. Riaz Haq - "Unfortunately, duplicity is the name of game when it comes to international relations. No one is pure!" - in one or the other. My question to guys is:
Is India also not playing the game of duplicity with China? At one hand, India is pretending to be her friend through statements and increasing trade volume, while on the other hand is developing long range missiles to nuke Chinese cities and is a partner in US efforts to limit China.
the futility of pakistan's policiy vis-a-vis afghanistan is obvious. but the present war on terror, and the way it is being conducted in the af-pak region is a disaster in toto and does not help things at all; on the contrary. it keeps further tightening a knot that needs to be loosened. in simple words, it is part of the problem, not part of the solution. it is far too easy and simplistic to say that pakistan should do this, that and the other. the reality is that it is next to impossible to change things on the ground with the stroke of a pen. witness the immediate increase in terrorist incidents as soon as the nato supply line was reopened. is the author going to take the responsibility of guaranteeing the security in pakistani cities? people like imtiaz gul and others - who i presume want an immediate and all out declaration of war on the jihadists - need to come up with a concrete and effective way in which this could be done without causing total collapse of security in the cities of pakistan. for the american and indians, it is easy to keep on their brainless chants in this regard. its not their people who get massacared, nor their economy that is destroyed. one way or the other, the foreign occupation forces in afghanistan will have to leave the region. whether they do so now, or after further monumental destruction and loss of life for the hapless people in af-pak is the only question.
Who is Pakistan’s enemy? The answer is; It is its rulers. Pakistani rulers, civilian or military have failed to address and overcome internal problems. How is it that after over six decades, the country does not have its writ in certain parts of the country serving as terrorist sanctuaries?
The solutions to the myriad problems that beset Pakistan must be searched for in Islam. That is where they originated; didn't they?
@Riaz Haq: "US is killing Pakistani soldiers and citizens and building close ties with its arch-rival India while at the same time calling Pakistan its “major Non-NATO ally”."
US is killing implies that killing soldiers is an ongoing activity. You know it is not. Per US investigation on Salala the firing had started on Pakistani side. While Pak army had dismissed the American investigation results, the same were tacitly confirmed when Hilary Clinton said that in her conversation with Khar both sides admitted their mistakes.
It is not just US, even China is building close economic ties with India. In fact Pakistan government itself is trying to improve ties with India. How does this make US duplicitous?
Mr. Imtiaz Gul,
Recently, I read an op-ed article by Brig. Gen.Mehboob Qadir that is similar in tone and content to yours. People like you are part of the administrative/military elite, and the prescriptive essays you all pen are pretty much understood by most perceptive individual. It would be more useful to inform the public as to what substantive actions that same administrative/military elite actually is taking to actualize the goals you have indicated.
You cannot underestimate the anxiety and despair that afflicts a great many men and women who have to sustain and protect their families and livelihoods in urban Pakistan today. They want to hear about concrete measures from their functionaly leadership, which includes the inchoate mass of people such as yourself and your colleagues in many branches of administration. We knowexactly what is wrong and how best to resolve. What is missing is to learn how those who wield real power are going about trying to make things better for all. Or are they trying at all? That is the question that is worrying most ordinary people!!
non-state actors ''State sponsored actors'', would be the right choice.
@Riaz Haq: 'and building close ties with its arch-rival India.' China too has close ties with India and so does the rest of the world. You want the world to boycott India so that they support a terrorist country. Respect is earned and not endowed.
@Riaz Haq:
How is US being duplicitous? Have they ever denied they attacked and killed Pakistani soldiers. They have been very upfront.
But, Pakistanis have not. They supported the US, but also extended the support to anti-US groups in Waziristan, while all the time denying it and claiming to be a major ally of the US. THAT, my friend, is being duplicitous.
So, its you are not fair and balanced.
Pakistan
@Azizullah Khan: excellent comment. totally agree.
India,US and Israel
They regularly release toxins in Pakistan's air and water that most of the Pakistanis are suffering from permanent hallucination and lack in logical thinking
* They (Pakistan) may entail temporary violence and bloodshed but may mean international respect and inclusion as well as medium to long-term socio-economic dividends.* Are there any leaders now in Pakistan to take such impersonal long term unbiased actions?
As I have posted in other column, total elimination, lock stock and barrel, of the terrorists is the only way to bring any semblance of peace to Pakistan. This, as this writer has pointed out, will not be without cost, men and material, in the short term, but is the only viable solution to a peaceful Pakistan in the long term. Even for the short term cost, I am sure Pakistanis will agree that they are paying the price anyway without noticeable action on them
That someone who has established links with establishment is opining against the utility of Jihadi groups in foreign policy is indicative of how Pakistan is in deep strategic turmoil. Strategically none other than Pakistan itself checkmated itself. It is heading in dark alley. It simply has no policy for India, Afghanistan, America and Jihadi organizations. Myopic policy shortcuts and blunder after blunder discounted its potential to cope with issues he created in the course of time. Even If it wants now to correct its course it, it will do nothing because it is unable to take positive steps on these fronts.
Answer: Pakistan
very sensible to introspect about the world's repulsion at Islamic supremacist oriented policies of the ISI - misplaced tolerance for Jihadist policies may have been kosher during the cold war but no longer - all right thinking people are hostile to using terrorism and violence as state policy.
@Rizvi:
At least you finally agree to the fact that Pakistan establishment has reared and fed BEASTS to harm neighbors and thy are very much living among Pakistanis.
Rest is all semantics.
Remember Karachi in 1990s?
@Rizvi: Here's a simple answer: you supported them all and let them do what they wanted. Now you can't completely. That's how Pakistan is famous for poorly thought out duplicity. They try to please the militants and the US/NATO but instead they just alienate them both with a feeling of betrayal because nobody is deaf or blind enough to not see the contradictions besides whoever thought up the bright idea to do it in the first place. You guys like to rip on US policy but seem to ignore your own policies which are why you've dug such a deep hole for yourselves and forgot to prepare a way to get out of it. At least prepare a successful way out of it. So far all the attempts are insults on the world's intelligence.
rizvi you can not deny the damage these forces have done to pakistan in the name of relegion.they started their dirty games soon after pakistan came into being and aim was to implement their owen version of islam.now they are out of control.war on terror is a hot cake for them to get public support.where as these forces have worked with americ when dollars were coming to them.can you deny it?
Mr Imtiaz Gul speaks wisely. Pakistan can listen to his advice or it will be forced to listen and act by the rest of the world. The end result is going to be the same; you can do it the easy way or the hard way - choice is yours.
They were not biting the hands before the war on terror because they are the 'touch-me-nots'............touching them is like stoning a bee hive.
Imtiaz Saab:
It is a little too late. There is now not enough space for Pakistan's enlightened to be able to turn the state ship around fast enough. Our population is 200 million and exploding. Our infrastructure was barely adequate for the 1970's and has deteriorated if anything since. Our young who were rich and could be educated fled to europe, america and australia. The dream of any young Pakistani is to go abroad. We do not have enough teachers to teach basic skills to our exploding population. You do caution that "They may entail temporary violence and bloodshed", but unfortunately that temporary is going to be for a long long time. We do not like the Taliban but about 10 to 15% do and they are the true believers. They are violent and they have intimidated the rest. No one, not the PTI's Bara BigWig Khan Sahib, not the PML-N Industrialist Brothers, not the PPP's AZ Khappay, are going to utter one word because they know the power of the dedicated semtec laced true believers persistence will cut short their stay in this world. The young officers in our Military, the upcoming generals, have been indoctrinated well with the motto of the army and they do now believe in jihad fi sabeel Allah.
Really how many rhetorical questions can one oped have?
Excellent discussion on the definition of REALITY facing Pakistan, BUT those who share the flawed mindset that Pakistan is AN EMERGING WORLD POWER will refuse to see the enemy at the gates INSIDE PAKISTAN!!!