Trouble in Aden
There will be both long and short-term implications of our involvement in Yemen
The writer is Editor of The Express Tribune
A debate on whether Pakistani troops should be committed to fight alongside Saudi forces in the Yemen offensive can only be held if the government has the option to refuse such an agreement. That is not the case.
Defence minister Khawaja Asif was being economical with the truth when he told parliament that Pakistan had taken no such decision. The next day a statement from the prime minister’s office confirmed what we suspected all along - that Pakistan has entered another war that it has no business fighting.
Given that Saudi Arabia is a major supplier of oil to Pakistan, and that too at concessionary rates, we don’t have the economic wherewithal to refuse. The Sharifs cannot afford a petrol crisis on their hands, which could turn nasty given the state of opposition from the PTI and other parties. The Sharif also cannot turn down the Saudis, whose hospitality they have enjoyed in the past.
We also have in place an agreement with the Saudis in which we have committed troops to assist the Kingdom at a short term notice. At the time of signing of this understanding, that led to a gift of Saudi money to Pakistan through which we kept the dollar at around Rs100, we expected that this would mean Pakistani troops going to Syria. Now we know they are going to Yemen instead.
The immediate worry is the safety of the hundreds of Pakistanis who live and work in Yemen. They are now being airlifted in an operation that should have been done last week. There is an immediate danger to being a Pakistani on the streets of San’a or Aden at this time. Who can forget the videos released of the killing of Pakistani workers in Bahrain by vigilantes during the disturbances in that city-state in 2011. This came after the role played by Pakistanis in crushing the rebellion there.
We are told that this is not the first time Pakistan has been involved in Yemen. Way back as 1969, Pakistani fighter pilots were used to fight back Yemeni incursions into the Kingdom. But that was a conflict between two neighbours. This is a larger conflict that involves our own neighbour Iran besides the oil-rich Sheikhdoms of the Gulf and the Arab world at large. It is a conflict that is tearing apart the Middle East, as respected academic Dr Vali Nasr warned us in his lecture at Karachi’s Habib University last year.
We have not learnt any lessons. Pakistan has a history of committing to such alliances in the past. Apart from being part of War against terror, we have been part of coalition fighting in the Gulf War. The extent of our confusion could be gauged from the fact that while prime minister Sharif supported the Saudis, the then army chief General Aslam Baig gave a statement in favour of Saddam Hussain.
Not all such arrangements are bad. Pakistan has contributed greatly to the UN peacekeeping effort which is both professionally and financially rewarding, and is the biggest contributor of troops. Our men have served across the world as part of a force to bring stability and peace under the aegis of the UN.
Even this arrangement sometimes has tragic consequences. In 1993, for example, 24 Pakistani army men were killed and 57 injured when warlord Farrah Aidid ordered his militia to attack them while they were on duty in Mogadishu, Somalia. Aidid suspected the UN of trying to shut him down. The lesson here being that even the UN is sometimes suspected of taking sides and this puts peacekeepers at risk too.
Aside from coalitions and UN peace-keeping, we have been involved in other adventures . Who can forget the role played by Brigadier Ziaul Haq during Black September, the 1970 civil war which pitted the Jordanians headed by King Hussein against the Palestinians headed by Yasser Arafat. The war resulted in the deaths of thousands of people, a vast majority Palestinian.
The Palestinians never forgot this and when General Zia took power, they played an active role in supporting the Al-Zulfikar Organisation. They were also involved in the 1986 hijacking of a Pan-Am airliner at Karachi airport, an incident that started the international aviation isolation of Pakistan.
There will be both long and short-term implications of our involvement in Yemen. We can only wait and watch.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 30th, 2015.
Defence minister Khawaja Asif was being economical with the truth when he told parliament that Pakistan had taken no such decision. The next day a statement from the prime minister’s office confirmed what we suspected all along - that Pakistan has entered another war that it has no business fighting.
Given that Saudi Arabia is a major supplier of oil to Pakistan, and that too at concessionary rates, we don’t have the economic wherewithal to refuse. The Sharifs cannot afford a petrol crisis on their hands, which could turn nasty given the state of opposition from the PTI and other parties. The Sharif also cannot turn down the Saudis, whose hospitality they have enjoyed in the past.
We also have in place an agreement with the Saudis in which we have committed troops to assist the Kingdom at a short term notice. At the time of signing of this understanding, that led to a gift of Saudi money to Pakistan through which we kept the dollar at around Rs100, we expected that this would mean Pakistani troops going to Syria. Now we know they are going to Yemen instead.
The immediate worry is the safety of the hundreds of Pakistanis who live and work in Yemen. They are now being airlifted in an operation that should have been done last week. There is an immediate danger to being a Pakistani on the streets of San’a or Aden at this time. Who can forget the videos released of the killing of Pakistani workers in Bahrain by vigilantes during the disturbances in that city-state in 2011. This came after the role played by Pakistanis in crushing the rebellion there.
We are told that this is not the first time Pakistan has been involved in Yemen. Way back as 1969, Pakistani fighter pilots were used to fight back Yemeni incursions into the Kingdom. But that was a conflict between two neighbours. This is a larger conflict that involves our own neighbour Iran besides the oil-rich Sheikhdoms of the Gulf and the Arab world at large. It is a conflict that is tearing apart the Middle East, as respected academic Dr Vali Nasr warned us in his lecture at Karachi’s Habib University last year.
We have not learnt any lessons. Pakistan has a history of committing to such alliances in the past. Apart from being part of War against terror, we have been part of coalition fighting in the Gulf War. The extent of our confusion could be gauged from the fact that while prime minister Sharif supported the Saudis, the then army chief General Aslam Baig gave a statement in favour of Saddam Hussain.
Not all such arrangements are bad. Pakistan has contributed greatly to the UN peacekeeping effort which is both professionally and financially rewarding, and is the biggest contributor of troops. Our men have served across the world as part of a force to bring stability and peace under the aegis of the UN.
Even this arrangement sometimes has tragic consequences. In 1993, for example, 24 Pakistani army men were killed and 57 injured when warlord Farrah Aidid ordered his militia to attack them while they were on duty in Mogadishu, Somalia. Aidid suspected the UN of trying to shut him down. The lesson here being that even the UN is sometimes suspected of taking sides and this puts peacekeepers at risk too.
Aside from coalitions and UN peace-keeping, we have been involved in other adventures . Who can forget the role played by Brigadier Ziaul Haq during Black September, the 1970 civil war which pitted the Jordanians headed by King Hussein against the Palestinians headed by Yasser Arafat. The war resulted in the deaths of thousands of people, a vast majority Palestinian.
The Palestinians never forgot this and when General Zia took power, they played an active role in supporting the Al-Zulfikar Organisation. They were also involved in the 1986 hijacking of a Pan-Am airliner at Karachi airport, an incident that started the international aviation isolation of Pakistan.
There will be both long and short-term implications of our involvement in Yemen. We can only wait and watch.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 30th, 2015.