The plot thickens

A system corrupted beyond cure?

A vile premonition has followed the incumbent government each day of its four years in the halls of power. And there is really nothing it has done to cast it away. On the contrary, much of the stuff strutted in the name of democracy has been nothing more than bitter ‘revenge’ heaped upon an aghast people.

The trail of misadventures of the PPP-led government can be easily traced to hell itself. Every project its mafia dons have dipped their fingers in has started smelling foul. Even its ministers have been forced to cough up billions of ill-gotten money, yet they have continued to enjoy the comforts of their offices and the confidence of their leader. Wearing the albatross of the NRO, the government stutters from one misadventure to the next adamant that it solely deserves the credit for the induction of democracy in the country and cites with unending pride the sacrifices its leaders rendered towards the cause.

The duplicity its leaders have consistently practised with regard to the armed forces and the security agencies and the webs of woeful deceit they have woven to weaken them defies description. Every time they have been caught in the act, they have taken to wearing the cloak of democracy and crying hoax. But, while each such failed attempt added to their frustration, it also drove them to taking more desperate measures to perform their part of the NRO quid pro quo, leading Pakistan to subservience to the US diktat. The reason they have failed in doing so is inherent in the manner and the extent to which the military, the national security institutions and the people are generally sensitised to the defence requirements of the country.

Their lesser sins apart, the May 2 incident near Abbottabad sparked off a trail of reactions immeasurable in its intensity. Immediately, there were wide-spread concerns expressed that the ruling political leadership may have been in the know of things. This doubt received credence through the publication of an op-ed in a leading US paper the very next day in the name of President Zardari and the warm felicitations extended on the floor of the parliament by the PM on the successful completion of the get-Osama operation on Pakistan’s soil. The concerns with regard to blatant infringements of the national security and sovereignty were completely overlooked as they were not reflected in the initial reaction of the government.

The stealth operation elicited a bitter reaction from all sections of the society. The concerns expressed centred round the vulnerability of our security and the possible complicity of some of the leaders in facilitating the night assault. Pakistan’s High Commissioner in the UK Wajid Shamsul Hasan, speaking to the BBC, CNN and NDTV on May 3 and later, acknowledged that “the Pakistan government was in the know of certain things” adding that “whatever happened, happened with our consent. Pakistan was not totally in the dark”. On another occasion, he said that “the Pakistan government was throughout cooperating with American intelligence”. The mystery was further compounded by the 6-hour visit of the now deposed Pakistani Ambassador Haqqani to the UK. Why was he in the British capital on that eventful day and what were his engagements there? Who all did he meet and what was discussed?

Fast forward to the memo that was ostensibly dictated by former Ambassador Haqqani to the US government promising to incorporate wide ranging structural and functional changes in the way the military and the security agencies operated in the country. It also outlined the contours of specific initiatives that would be undertaken to make the governmental system more compliant with the US interests and requirements. The promises encompassed the disbanding of Section ‘S’ of the ISI and the prospect of accepting the US boots on ground to conduct necessary operations to capture or kill militants on Pakistani soil.

The allegation was immediately met by the customary rejection of the existence of the memo. That stance could not stick for long as the US intermediaries including Admiral Mullen and General Jones acknowledged the existence of the memo which had been delivered to the US authorities as carte blanche offer of unbridled cooperation in exchange for their assured support to the incumbent government in battling the influence of the military and the security agencies. That’s when the dots were traced back to May 2 and the puzzle began to untangle. The matter was given a potentially fatal twist when it was taken to the Supreme Court with the plea for initiating a comprehensive and transparent enquiry. The move was berated by the PPP leadership as another assault on democracy.

As pressure mounted and the fingers were pointed in the direction of Mr Zardari, he needed to strategise an escape from the incriminating fallout of the twin-debacle. Health concerns came in handy and he took off for the ‘safer’ environs of Dubai and the (symbolic) American Hospital where, understandably, he may be negotiating his ‘exit’ strategy in an environment ripe with rumours of a ‘soft coup’ or judicial intervention. While none of his close stalwarts was willing to give a definitive date of his return, interestingly, it was the US Foreign Secretary Clinton and the US Ambassador in Pakistan Munter who confirmed that he would indeed return to Islamabad.

When there are doubts expressed about the commitment of the highest national leadership, the art of politics should take a backseat. December 19 is the date when the SC tackles the memo issue again which, understandably, would chart the course that Pakistan is to take in battling the cancer of subservience to foreign diktat filtering through a dubious leadership and a system that has been corrupted beyond cure.

The writer is a political analyst and a member of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. He can be reached at [email protected]