The divide and confusion among top government functionaries on national issues of crucial nature appeared again on Sunday when the prime minister’s office, after summoning Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar to reach Pakistan immediately, backtracked from its earlier decision and asked Khar to stay in US and address the UN General Assembly session on September 27.
Apart from the confusion and disconnect among top representatives of civilian set-up, no one knows exactly in the capital as to who is calling the shots on country’s foreign policy matters vis-à-vis ongoing standoff between US and Pakistan that surfaced after US generals’ scathing remarks against Pakistan’s military institutions’ ‘clandestine relations’ with terror outfits.
The press release issued from PM House on Sunday said: “Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar has been summoned to reach Pakistan soon to be present in the briefing, which will be given by all the concerned authorities.”
Within two hours after the issuance of the statement, the decision-makers surrounding the PM realised that Pakistani foreign minister was not on her official visit to the US, rather she was there to represent the country in the United Nations.
The blooper was rectified by another press note issued saying: “The spokesman of the Prime Minister House has said that Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani twice spoke to Foreign Minister Ms Hina Rabbani Khar and directed her to forcefully project Pakistan’s point of view in the General Assembly on the 27th of September. The spokesman said that the prime minister directed the foreign minister to return to Pakistan immediately after delivering her speech in the UN General Assembly.”
This kind of bafflement among top government officials was also witnessed after Mumbai attacks in 2008 when the then National Security Advisor Mahmud Ali Durrani, without taking civilian or military leadership into confidence, confirmed Ajmal Qasab’s Pakistani nationality causing a huge embarrassment for the officials who were disowning Qasab to avert international backlash.
The same baffling episodes were witnessed in Raymond Davis case and the divisions in government circles reached to such extents that they forced the then foreign minister Shah Maehmood Qureshi to resign and they also cut his years-long association with the Pakistan People’s Party.
During weeks-long nerve-wracking tussle between the US and Pakistan on Raymond Davis’ detention, neither any department of the government nor any of its functionary came clear before the nation on the Davis issue till the masses listened the shocking news of CIA agent’s dramatic release from jail under Diyat law.
The unilateral action by US troops on May 2 to kill bin Laden in Abbottabad again exposed fault-lines in Pakistani administration when Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani termed bin Laden’s termination a ‘great victory’ in a knee jerking response but later on under tremendous pressure from furious military establishment, the government ministers and prime minister himself starting condemning the US act of breaching Pakistan’s sovereignty to accomplish Obama’s get-Osama mission.
A number of PPP parliamentarians who previously made botched attempts to block Khar’s ways to become full-fledged foreign minister on the grounds that she was novice in the party and therefore deserved no such important portfolios, are all set to target the lady in the upcoming National Assembly session for her photo sessions with US President Obama in the times when every other official of US civilian and military administration was hurling threats to Pakistan.
“She not only had a photo session with Obama and his spouse but also managed its proper coverage in national press. To whom she wanted to impress,” said a PPP MNA seeking not to be named.
Meanwhile, Senator Akram Zaki, former Secretary-General Foreign Affairs, in a statement said that it was unfortunate that while USA and Pakistan were allies in war against terror, the frustrated generals and policy makers of USA were indulging in a blame game and using coercive diplomacy against Pakistan. “This Policy is ill-conceived and counter-productive. It is alienating a valuable ally, whose support is indispensable for establishing peace and stability in the region,” he said.
Zaki said that the US and Pakistan must engage in a constructive dialogue to remove mutual misunderstandings. “Both parties must appreciate and accommodate the sensitivities the each other. This requires creative diplomacy and patient dialogue. The security interests should not be sacrificed at the altar of domestic American politics. The focus must remain on strategic stability and requirements of peace and development,” he added.
