Exposé not much of a surprise

But Pakistan needs to clear its deck from terrorists

The Washing Post revelations based on the leaked US intelligence documents obtained through Edward Snowden, the now-defected intelligence contractor, may be official secrets but apart from the detail and the magnitude of the US spying apparatus active in Pakistan, there is not much of a surprise there. The scale and numerical strength of the US intelligence operatives too had approached a high-point in the last couple of years was known, and already making their Pakistani counterparts bristle. The mistrust between the two so-called strategic allies has a history, well recorded and thoroughly documented. The US Seals raid that killed Osama bin Laden only brought it out in extremely sharp relief. In the backdrop of that and other recent events, the suspicions so obviously run rather deep. This trust deficit has only amplified in the recent years, or why an ally would withhold actionable intelligence from its strategic partner?

In this backdrop it was but natural for the US and its myriad spymasters to keep a more than normal tab on Pakistan’s nuclear installations and assets. But it tops that, keeping Pakistan at one end of the scale with the rest of world combined. But the incidents in Pakistan too have been quite few and not that far between not to pique the American interest. A number of brazen, and mostly highly damaging, attacks on Pakistan’s defence-related locations and installations across the country by the militants – especially on the Pakistan Army’s fortified headquarters, the GHQ, in 2009 – were bound to raise alarm. The question of Pakistan’s nuclear material getting into the hands of militants has also been raised often, and not through insinuation or innuendo but quite directly, as the report suggests: “…concerns persist that extremists could seize components of the stockpile or trigger a war with neighbouring India”.

The Pakistan government’s official response to the report is traditional in template, and not really specific to the WP report. It deals in reassuring verbiage with regard to the country’s commitment to non-proliferation and security of the country’s nukes. There is no gainsaying in, howsoever much we try reassure the international community of having established “extensive physical protection measures, robust command and control institutions” and “comprehensive and effective export controls”, such fears will continue be expressed till Pakistan manages to conclusively eliminate terrorist networks and convincingly establish the writ of the state across the country. Apart from the nuclear issues and its various dimensions, the concerns about extrajudicial killings need to be removed by putting an end to the practice. After the enactment of new anti- terrorism law, forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings must be brought to an end – to the satisfaction of HRCP and other such human rights bodies. But would they? A clarification with regard to the alleged plot to kill human rights activist Asma Jahangir, mentioned in the classified documents, must also be sought from the quarters concerned.