Pakistan will likely use US weapons against Baloch insurgents, India: Haqqani

Former ambassador questions US govt's decision to sell almost $1 billion in US-made attack weapons to Pakistan

Husain Haqqani, who has been living under self-imposed exiled in the US since 2012, believes the US government is committing a mistake by selling weapons to Pakistan as they will be used to “fight or menace” India.

In a scathing piece in the Wall Street Journal, the former ambassador to the US (2008-11) questioned the Obama administration’s recent decision to sell almost $1 billion in US-made attack helicopters, missiles to Pakistan. Interestingly, the headline of the article reads "Why are We Sending This Attack Helicopter to Pakistan?" Last time we checked, Haqqani was still a Pakistani citizen but things may have changed since then.

Read: US State Department approves Pakistan's request for arms worth $1b

Haqqani felt the weapons sale will fuel conflict in South Asia without fulfilling the objective of helping Pakistan fight terrorism. “Pakistan’s failure to tackle its jihadist challenge is not the result of a lack of arms but reflects an absence of will,” wrote Haqqani, arguing that the arms race with India remains to be the dominant force in Pakistan’s foreign and domestic policies.

The former ambassador has been residing in the US since 2012 after being accused of sending a memo to US Defense Department that asked for help in reining in the Pakistan military. “The US has fed Pakistan’s delusion of being India’s regional military equal. Seeking security against a much larger neighbor is a rational objective but seeking parity with it on a constant basis is not,” wrote Haqqani.

Read: Billion-dollar US arms sale to help Pakistan in counter-terrorism operations: FO spokesperson

He believed that US officials should convince Pakistan to give up its hopes of attempting to rival a country with a population six times as large and economy 10 times as big.

“It’s a mystery why the president suddenly trusts Pakistan’s military—after mistrusting it at the time of the Navy SEAL operation in May 2011 that found and killed Osama bin Laden living safely until then in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad,” Haqqani wrote, while wondering if the US government is just simply lazy in its approach with Pakistan. “Selling helicopters and missiles is easier than thinking of alternative strategies to compel an errant ally to change its behavior."

The former ambassador believes the equipment to be provided by the US – 15 AH-1Z Viper helicopters and 1,000 Hellfire missiles – will be used against insurgents in Balochistan, bordering Iran, and along the disputed border in Kashmir rather than against militants in tribal areas.

Read: These are the countries exporting weapons to Pakistan and India

“If the Obama administration believes Pakistan’s military has really changed its priorities, it should consider leasing helicopters to Pakistan and verify where they are deployed before going through with outright sales,” the ambassador suggests.