Obscurity has settled over South Asia with the ambiguous US war policies with regards to Afghanistan. This plays havoc with people’s perceptions as it provides an open space for multiple interpretations of an affair that otherwise ought to be absolutely transparent. In this backdrop, where friends turn into foe, allies accuse and attack each other, and victory is claimed yet defeat is apparent, one naturally loses sight of what is right and what is wrong.
The sorrow that accompanies the death of 24 soldiers who were killed by a Nato air attack is far greater than the delight that ought to be felt at the killing of the same number of militants. A political solution is the only means of bringing a definite end to the otherwise indefinite insurgency that rocks both Afghanistan and Pakistan for the past decade. It must be realised that the more militants you kill, the more they grow in number and attack with an increased vengeance.
Another example of the lack of evident clarity is that of Dr Shakil Afridi who was on CIA’s payroll and was working in collusion with them without the knowledge of the Pakistani authorities and was providing intelligence information from within the Pakistani territory.
This double crossing of both the CIA and the Pakistani individual cannot be justified by any argument whatsoever, when both the CIA and the ISI were already working in collaboration with each other successfully. One needs to ask what the US aimed to achieve by launching such a clandestine vaccination campaign that Dr Afridi carried out at the CIA’s behest without even considering the hazard to the people or the fact that it amounted to backstabbing those that you work with.
Why couldn’t all this have been done by taking Pakistan on board? Is it because the feather of the killing of OBL was to adorn the US cap only? Without sharing the booty with the allied forces or anyone else. People such as Dr Afridi ought to be punished for their betrayal to the state. They are the ones Pakistan can do without for bringing ignominy to the country. It must be realized that Pakistan and its people ought to be our priority and all else can follow behind.
PROFESSOR KABIL KHAN
Peshawar