It has nearly been three weeks since the Osama bin Laden operation, but the embarrassment and opprobrium that was heaped on us – to be precise on Pakistan’s establishment and the most vaunted amongst our intelligence agencies – in its wake is not going anywhere soon. The best that our parliament had to offer in a marathon joint in-camera session that had the brass ensconced with them was a unanimous resolution that calls for an independent commission to investigate and fix responsibility for the debacle.
This was a dilution of the PML(N)’s justified demand for a judicial commission, perhaps on the lines of the Hamoodur Rehman Commission of 1972 constituted in the aftermath of the 1971 war in what was then East Pakistan. But with six days already having passed and the commission still unnamed, it is obvious to all that neither the government nor the parliament seems particularly keen to be seen scampering for it.
During the session, the ‘super-patriots’ amongst the parliamentarians were in any case reportedly only too quick on their feet to subvert such a rare discourse in favour of the powers-that-be. The PPP government apparently interested only in entrenching itself to finish its term and align itself with the right political entities to win the next election too, will gloss over the politically volatile issues which might lose it votes. So, even with the Q league and the MQM as its allies, and despite the majority it affords, the PPP cannot be expected to push through the much-needed RGST through the parliament. To be seen spearheading a meaningful probe when it is aware of the pitfalls, having suffered the most at the hands of the military establishment in the last 30-odd years, seems beyond the PPP at this stage
This is a position that would be most welcome to the brass. Once again they’ve been allowed to walk away, if not with the old familiar swagger, in the context of “strengthening the institutions”, to quote P.M Gilani.
For its part, the brass did seem contrite, though not contrite enough, for in the hearing the ISI chief would only go as far as accepting ‘negligence and not failure’. The ISI chief’s assertion before the joint session of parliament that “terrorist attacks had also taken place in the US and India” with “no fingers pointed at the intelligence agencies” of the two countries, was a false analogy. For one, the sortie that got Osama was not a terrorist attack. Second, the proximity to a certain army location that is swarming with intelligence people and the length of Osama’s undetected stay in that particular abode raises its own set of questions – the notion of either ‘complicit or incompetent’ among them.
Then there is the case of ‘guilt by association’ in the eyes of the world (meaning the US) of our supreme intelligence agency’s links with those it considers terrorists. Musharraf’s candid admission of those “multiple games of cat and mouse” in his book (it would have been better had this boastful ‘history of the universe with only one hero’ remained unwritten) do not really inspire trust among those who deal with our spymasters.
What all this leads one to think is that yet again the powers that have bossed over this hapless country either directly or indirectly for the last six decades do not intend to change tack and reform. To them, prima facie, this is a bit of a storm that they would be able to ride through, and then it would be business as usual. They’ve managed such things before, and they perhaps have faith in their ability to do so again. Just as the devastating A.Q Khan nuclear proliferation scandal was brushed under the carpet, and before that the Kargil probe was avoided through a coup, this too would pass. Of course, they’d kill or capture a few baddies, hand over some others, but basically, just as we were? Would this calculation hold now?
The Americans remain implacable, and now the whole world (minus perhaps China and Iran) is behind them. Osama’s killing in a hideout in our military’s heartland has quite neatly split the post 9/11 period for us in two halves. Since 9/11 till now, our spooks and their bosses had gone on to indulge in their alleged games of hide and seek, and they had gotten away with it. Not any longer.
While our brass and our civilian ruling elite decides whether it can survive without the American dole (considering the deep pit where it goes no prizes for guessing what they’d opt for), Pakistan and its people suffer. They’re in a spot most unenviable, between the hammer and the anvil so to speak. On the one hand, the American drone strikes every other day dent their morale and self-esteem. On the other, the reign of terror, killings and mayhem leaves them devastated.
The economy is in terrible shape, not only because it is poorly managed, or because those who can do not pay taxes, but also because foreign investment stays away from a country so wracked by terrorism and where terrorists from all over the world find sanctuary.
With the exception of circa 1971, diplomatically we have never been as isolated as now.
Regardless of what our brass and our agencies think constitutes national interest (and by now it has been proven beyond doubt several times over what a disaster their interpretation has been), we have to redefine ourselves – not just in rhetoric but in substance.
Though it is easier for Nawaz Sharif to take on the army and the agencies for he is unencumbered by incumbency, but he has all along made the right kind of noises – the kind that could provide a panacea. “The nation must stop treating India as the biggest enemy” and a reappraisal of ties with New Delhi is a must if we intend “to go forward and progress.” On the economic side, his suggestion: “cut down all [non-developmental] expenditures by 50 per cent” to set aside for debt servicing. And “make structural changes” as the inquiry has “provided an opportunity to move forward and put the country on the right track, and by putting our house in order establish the rule of law and bring all institutions under civilian control”.
An apt, and not too difficult an agenda, but…
The writer is Sports and Magazines Editor, Pakistan Today.
