Deep chill envelopes US-Pakistan ties
By Karamatullah K Ghori
Cassandras are having a field-day as far as the future of United
States-Pakistan relations is concerned. They're saying that epitaph on the
tombstone of these relations has already been written; it was done last
November 26.
That was the day North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces from
Afghanistan ventured deep into Pakistan territory and bombed an army post at
Salala, in Mohmand region of the tribal belt along the border with Afghanistan,
killing 24 soldiers and officers.
NATO and American spokesmen have tried to explain away the gory incident as "an
accident" that occurred because the Afghan troops on the border had come under
fire from the Pakistan side.
Islamabad has ridiculed this version. Briefing the Foreign relations
Committee of the Pakistan Senate in Islamabad, Major General Ashfaq Nadeem,
director general of military operations at General Headquarters, categorically
claimed that it was a deliberate and planned incursion carried out not by
NATO but US forces based in Afghanistan.
Pakistan's reaction to what the media and policy pundits in the country
described as "mayhem" of its troops was swift and decisive, reflecting its
extreme annoyance at the ghastly incident. It immediately sealed its border
with Afghanistan to the movement of NATO and US trucks ferrying all kinds of
supplies and logistics across its territory. That was like cutting off the
umbilical chord of the allied troops in Afghanistan that are dependent on
Pakistan for the bulk of their essential needs.
Islamabad also boycotted the Bonn conference on Afghanistan in early December
and refused to reconsider its decision despite fervent pleas from US and its
European allies.
Pakistan also told Washington it wouldn't be joining the US investigation into
what triggered the tragedy and how it happened. And, in a move that made the
boldest media headlines, it asked the Americans to vacate Shamsi air base in
Balochistan province, leased to them, within 15 days.
The severity of Pakistan's response to what its news media has variously
lamented as a planned operation to challenge Pakistan's national sovereignty
and territorial integrity copiously sums up the nation's mood.
For the first time since Pakistan agreed to hitch its wagon with the Americans,
in the wake of 9/11, to join the "war against terror" as a front-ranked ally,
the government and the people of Pakistan seem to be on the same page.
Pakistan's involvement in the Afghan war has been deeply unpopular with most of
its people. Poll after poll, conducted by indigenous and foreign sources, has
reached the same conclusion: to an overwhelming number of Pakistanis, it's not
Pakistan's war and they shouldn't be in it.
The wave of terrorism that has engulfed the country as a result of Pakistan's
"collusion" with the US - claiming a toll of more than 35,000 civilian lives,
to date - has been regularly cited as evidence of Pakistan having called the
wrong bluff.
It's obvious, however, that, as always on crucial issues in Pakistan, it's the
army calling the shots, once again guiding the hand of the civilian government.
After his one-on-one meeting in Islamabad with army chief General Ashfaq Kiani,
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, otherwise laconic and inarticulate, waxed
unusually eloquent and used strong words to send a tough message to Washington
that any repeat of the incident would see Pakistan responding decisively to
safeguard its honor and national dignity.
Gilani's government has already burned its fingers badly in the ''Memo-gate''
scandal in which the main target was the Pakistan army and its privileged
status in the governance of Pakistan. The fallout has already claimed the scalp
of Hussain Haqqani, the alleged pivot of the "conspiracy" against the army and
President Asif Ali Zardari's erstwhile page-boy in Washington as his
ambassador.
Memo-gate is also said to be the reason why Zardari has mysteriously sneaked
out of Islamabad and sought refuge in Dubai, ostensibly for medical treatment.
Islamabad is rife with rumors of his nervous breakdown; political pundits and
media gurus are wagering their reputations that this is the end of the road for
Zardari.
Understandably, therefore, the Gilani government could ill-afford to not being
seen standing tough and tall against a major breach of Pakistan's honor and
sovereignty.
So a deep chill, has enveloped US-Pakistan relations. There's a complete
stand-still at the moment. NATO supply trucks aren't moving, at all. Six
hundred of them are jammed at the border check-posts at Khyber Pass and at
Chaman. Thousands of containers destined for Afghanistan are cluttering the
ports of Karachi and Gwadar. Gilani's latest pronouncement says the freeze may
persist for months to come.
Cynics might say, and are already arguing, that Pakistan is over-reacting and
taking the matters to a point of no-return. But with the whole nation thrown
into paroxysm of rage over the issue could the Gilani government afford to be
out of step with the national consensus? More importantly, could it resist
dancing to the tune set off by General Headquarters after the cold-blooded
murder of 24 of its men in uniform?
The Americans, on their part, aren't helping matters much. Senators from both
sides of the aisle are insisting on cutting off all military aid to Pakistan.
The armed forces chief, General Martin Dempsey, may have remonstrated on Friday
that relations with Pakistan were in "a mess", but wasn't prepared to concede
the basic Pakistani argument that the incursion was planned or deliberate.
The US commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Kabul,
General George Allen, sounded completely out of sync with the prevailing mood
in Pakistan by insisting he couldn't give a guarantee that there would be no
repeat of the Mohmand incident in the future.
After such a bland expression of nonchalance and arrogance of power from the
Americans, it looks increasingly hard to counsel the Pakistanis to hold their
horses and not let them gallop out of the terrain. "What's there left to a
relationship that has, from the beginning, been a marriage of convenience, at
best," is the argument being heard increasingly in Pakistan. Is anyone in Team
Obama listening?
Karamatullah K Ghori is a former Pakistani ambassador; he can be reached
at K_K_ghori@yahoo.com
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