Very few Pakistanis – the fringe of a fringe – have ever seen the Shamsi airbase. The rustic backwaters of Balochistan were never exactly a tourist hotspot. That, and the fact that there are multiple, contradicting theories about what actually goes on there, has turned the airbase into some sort of fantasy island, albeit one that has the potential to be at the centre of a grave international dispute.
In the blue corner is the Pakistani government, lanky and awkward as always, with the air force chief giving a statement to the effect that it is, in fact, the Emirati Arabs, not the Americans, who run the show at the base. The defence minister, however, told the press that his government had asked the Americans to vacate the same base!
In the red corner are the Americans, refusing to be embarrassed or apologetic, specially now that they have been emboldened in the aftermath of the whole Osama incident. “That base is neither vacated nor being vacated,” told a US official to a foreign newspaper. The official’s statement was in relation to the Pakistani government’s demand for the US to withdraw from the base.
This withdrawal has some internal political implications. US drone strikes into North Waziristan, which are a rallying point by opposition political parties, are said to be carried out from here. As the defence minister told Reuters, “When they will not operate from there, no drone attacks will be carried out.” A curious statement, given that he had already told the Financial Times that Pakistan had already stopped the US drone flights from the airbase. A class act, the honourable minister for defence, Mr. Ahmed Mukhtar.
The drone strikes are an issue of sovereignty. Regardless of the fact that we agree with the operations against the terrorists stationed in Waziristan, there is the principle of national sovereignty involved. The other side of the debate claims sovereignty is a privilege that has to be earned; that responsibility for what goes on in an area is a prerequisite for sovereignty. All that can be thrashed out eventually at some forum of international dispute resolution.
But if indeed the drone strikes are carried out from within the country, it would appear that our government is even lesser empowered in the whole equation than was previously thought. A plight made worse by the Americans’ refusal to leave the airbase.
