To be seen, not heard

I was amazed to read the statement imputed to the DG ISPR that retired ISI officials might have been associated with the events of Mumbai but the ISI was in no way associated with it. The way this statement was presented, it gave the impression that Major General Athar Abbas was admitting the direct involvement of the ISI. When I contacted him to find out the truth, he said that this statement attributed to him by the CNN and IBN was distorted. In reality, he was asked a question about retired army officials and he had desisted from commenting on that. The Indian newspaper The Hindu correctly details his answer in a report by Anita Joshua. Thus, it is evident that CNN and IBN have deliberately attributed this statement to the DG to further the anti-ISI campaign by certain American institutions.

But the more surprising fact was that this statement (which was of an extremely sensitive nature) was printed verbatim by some of our papers even though they had the sources to verify its veracity. The ISI is a special target of the Western media these days. It is our responsibility to check up on the accuracy of reported facts and not become the unwitting transmitters of negative propaganda.

The best acknowledgement for the secret agency of any country is negative propaganda against it. When India levels a new allegation against the ISI to defame or debase it, it should be credit to the ISI’s efficient performance. A few days back, Indian media sources reported the incredulous report that PM Manmohan Singh had directly contacted Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani via secret channels. If we look for the concealed venom in this report, it is quite apparent that it was a botched attempt at painting the General as a headstrong and extremely influential official; the implication being that Pakistan’s democratic system and state machinery are both ineffectual and useless and that the real power lies with General Kayani who is willful enough to independently contact a country with which we have fought many wars and are still on relatively hostile grounds.

Even though this ‘news’ was categorically disavowed by PM Singh’s office itself but the real aim behind the publication of this news had been realised. This ‘news’ is drafted by modern experts of propaganda science who are employed formally by many secret agencies. They have a proper cell within which they operate.

Another fresh news report about the ISI has surfaced from the American wire. It is being claimed that this news is based on WikiLeaks. This WikiLeaks drama is an extremely tangled-up business. Whenever America wants to create a negative perception against a country or an institution, it can turn to this handy bag of magic tricks called WikiLeaks and extract something useful.

The ISI-CIA situation is recent. The ISI expressed its reservation when it saw an unusual number of covert operatives functioning in Pakistan. Raymond Davis crossed all lines when he killed two men in broad daylight and another Pakistani was trampled by the car that came to his aid and the situation was complicated to no end. Questions regarding our own security agencies were raised at home. This no-holds-barred behaviour of American agents enraged the public which created many difficulties for the Government of Pakistan and our security agencies. The way Davis was released amidst all this commotion and public resentment, the US should have been grateful about it. But the reaction of the Americans is dumbfounding. They used this incident as the basis to raise objections against the ISI. The state of affair is now such that any American official who now visits Pakistan has to comment in some way or the other on the ISI.

Recently, we were graced by Mr Mullen and he parroted the same litany as those before him: Your army has contacts with the Haqqani group whose terrorists kill American officials in Afghanistan; finish their strongholds in Pakistan etc. But when making such demands, these Americans forget what they have been upto in Afghanistan for the past decade. The UN declaration that the US used as the basis for invading Afghanistan did not in any way give them the right to prop up a government of their own liking there. Neither did it allow them train the Afghan army to fight foreign insurgents nor did it in anyway give them the right to set up military bases or stay there for ten years. It’s reasonable to ask of the US that if they did not have the capability of dealing with Al-Qaeda within two to four years, then why did they come to Afghanistan? If they themselves couldn’t bring peace to Afghanistan and couldn’t end the resistance against their own forces, what can we do about it? Our claim that the responsibility to secure the Pak-Afghan border is as much theirs as ours falls on deaf ears. If we are unable stop the infiltration of a certain group into Afghanistan, then why don’t they do it themselves?

The truth is that the American occupation of Afghanistan in itself is blatantly unjust and the misuse of power by a superpower. The US lied in the UN about the pretext of invading Afghanistan. Ostensibly, it was to uproot the network of Al-Qaeda but looking at its performance in the past ten years, it seems that this wasn’t even on its priority list. It seems that the top priority of the US was to cement its military occupation of the country.

It was inevitable that there would have been resistance against this military occupation. Pakistan has borne the brunt of it for no reason. We cannot bear the burden of such a long and protracted war and this war has become a bane for our society and economy. Our communication infrastructure worth billions of dollars has undergone unspeakable damage. Thousands of miles of our roads from Karachi to Chaman to Torkhum are cracking under the weight of American containers. These roads weren’t made for such trafficking.

America itself is patronising terrorists that are conducting their activities within Pakistan. And when our security agencies protest against such acts to protect national interest, these agencies are then the targets of campaigns to malign them. This “friendship” with America is fast becoming an onerous burden for Pakistan. The wise course of action would be for America to make it more agreeable for Pakistan to be its friend. Unrelenting and unreasonable demands are not the stuff friendships are made of.

The writer is one of Pakistan’s most widely read columnists.