Page 3 of
3 SPEAKING
FREELY The plan to topple
Pakistan's military By Ahmed Quraishi
millions of dollars to build
new schools to compete with the madrassas.
We should be in there building democratic
institutions. We should be in there, and get the
rest of the world in there, giving some structure
to the emergence of, hopefully, the reemergence of
a democratic process."
The International Crisis Group (ICG) has
recommended gradual sanctions on Pakistan similar
to those imposed on Iran, e.g.
slapping travel bans on
Pakistani military officers and seizing Pakistani
military assets abroad.
The process of
painting Pakistan's nuclear assets as pure evil
lying around waiting for some do-gooder to come in
and "secure" has reached unprecedented levels,
with the US media again depicting Pakistan as a
nation incapable of protecting its nuclear
installations. On October 22, Jane Harman from the
US House Intelligence Panel gave the following
statement: "I think the US would be wise - and I
trust we are doing this - to have contingency
plans [to seize Pakistan's nuclear assets],
especially because should [Musharraf] fall, there
are nuclear weapons there."
The US media
has now begun discussing the possibility of
Pakistan breaking up and the possibility of new
states of "Balochistan" and "Pashtunistan" being
carved out of it. Interestingly, one of the first
acts of the shady Maulana of Swat, after capturing
a few towns, was to take down the Pakistani flag
from the top of state buildings and replace them
with his own party flag.
The "chatter"
about Musharraf's eminent fall has also increased
dramatically in the mainly US media, which has
been very generous in marketing theories about how
Musharraf might "disappear" or be "removed" from
the scene. According to some Pakistani analysts,
this could be an attempt to prepare the public
opinion for a possible assassination of the
Pakistani president.
Another worrying
thing is how US officials are publicly signaling
to the Pakistanis that Bhutto has their backing as
the next leader of the country. Such signals from
Washington are not only a kiss of death for any
public leader in Pakistan, but the Americans also
know that their actions are inviting potential
assassins to target Bhutto.
If she is
killed in this way, there won't be enough time to
find the real culprit, but what's certain is that
unprecedented international pressure will be
placed on Islamabad while everyone will use their
local assets to create maximum internal chaos in
the country. A dress rehearsal of this scenario
has already taken place in October when no less
than the UN Security Council itself intervened to
ask the international community to "assist" in the
investigations into the assassination attempt on
Bhutto on October 18. This generous move was
sponsored by the US and, interestingly, had no
input from Pakistan which did not ask for help in
investigations in the first place.
Some
Pakistani security analysts privately say that US
"chatter" about Musharraf or Bhutto getting killed
is a serious matter that can't be easily
dismissed. Getting Bhutto killed can generate the
kind of pressure that could result in permanently
putting the Pakistani military on a back foot,
giving Washington enough room to push for
installing a new pliant leadership in Islamabad.
Getting Musharraf killed isn't a bad
option either. The unknown Islamists can always be
blamed, the military will not be able to put
another soldier at the top, and circumstances will
be created to ensure that either Bhutto or someone
like her is eased into power.
The US is
very serious this time. They cannot let Pakistan
get out of their hands. They were kicked out of
Uzbekistan last year, where they were maintaining
bases. They are in trouble in Afghanistan and
Iraq. Iran continues to be a mess for them and
Russia and China are not making it any easier.
Pakistan must be "secured" at all costs.
This is why most Pakistanis have never
seen US diplomats in Pakistan active like this
before. And it's not just the current US
ambassador, who has added one more address to her
other most-frequently-visited address in Karachi,
Bhutto's house. The new address is the office of
GEO, one of two news channels shut down by
Islamabad for not signing the mandatory
code-of-conduct. Thirty-eight other channels are
operating and no one has censored the newspapers.
But never mind this. The Americans have developed
a "thing" for GEO. No solace of course for ARY,
the other banned channel.
There's also
Bryan Hunt, the US consul-general in Lahore, who
wears the national Pakistani dress, the long shirt
and baggy trousers, and is moving around these
days issuing tough warnings to the Pakistani
government and Musharraf to end emergency rule,
resign as army chief and give Bhutto access to
power.
Pakistan's options So
what should Islamabad do in the face of such a
structured campaign to bring Pakistan down to its
knees and forcibly install a pro-Washington
administration?
There is increasing talk
in Islamabad these days about Pakistan's new tough
stand in the face of this malicious campaign.
As a starter, Islamabad blew the wind out
of the visit of US Deputy Secretary of State John
Negroponte who came to Pakistan recently "to
deliver a tough message" to the Pakistani
president. Musharraf, to his credit, told him he
won't end emergency rule until all objectives are
achieved.
These objectives include:
Cleaning up northern and western parts of the
country of all foreign operatives and their
domestic pawns.
Ensuring that Washington's plan for
regime-change doesn't succeed.
Purging the Pakistani media of all those
elements that were willing or unwilling
accomplices in the plan to destabilize the
country.
Musharraf has also told
Washington publicly that "Pakistan is more
important than democracy or the constitution".
This is a bold position. This kind of boldness
would have served Musharraf better had it come a
little earlier. But even now, his media management
team is unable to make the most out of it.
Washington will not stand by watching as
its plan for regime change in Islamabad goes down
the drain. In case the US insists on interfering
in Pakistani affairs, Islamabad, according to
sources, is looking at some tough measures:
Cutting off oil supplies to US military in
Afghanistan. Pakistani officials are already
enraged at how Afghanistan has turned into a
staging ground for sabotage in Pakistan. If
Islamabad continues to see Washington acting as a
bully, Pakistani officials are seriously
considering an announcement where Pakistan, for
the first time since October 2001, will deny the
US use of Pakistani soil and air space to
transport fuel to Afghanistan.
Reviewing Pakistan's role in the "war on
terror". Islamabad needs to fight terrorists on
its border with Afghanistan. But our methods need
to be different to Washington's when it comes to
our domestic extremists. This is where Islamabad
parts ways with Washington. Pakistani officials
are considering the option of withdrawing from the
war on terror while maintaining Pakistan's own war
against the terrorists along Afghanistan's border.
Talks with the Taliban. Pakistan has no
quarrel with Afghanistan's Taliban. They are
Kabul's internal problem. But if reaching out to
Afghan Taliban's Mullah Omar can have a positive
impact on rebellious Pakistani extremists, then
this step should be taken. The South Koreans can
talk to the Taliban. Karzai has also called for
talks with them. It is time that Islamabad does
the same.
The US has been telling everyone
in the world that they have paid Pakistan $10
billion over the past five years. They might think
this gives them the right to decide Pakistan's
destiny. What they don't tell the world is how
Pakistan's help secured for them their biggest
footprint ever in energy-rich Central Asia.
If they forget, Islamabad can always
remind them by giving them the same treatment that
Uzbekistan did last year.
Ahmed
Quraishi is an investigative reporter,
currently hosting a weekly political talk show
titled Worldview From Islamabad, which he
created for state-run PTV News, Pakistan's largest
television network. See
http://www.ahmedquraishi.com
(Copyright
2007 Ahmed Quraishi.)
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