Secrets kill

Why Pakistan must declassify wars in order to stop them

It was 2004 when a bird like object turned into a missile mid-air and killed Nek Muhammad, who was a tribesman leading a tribal revolution with allies in the government and the Taliban. The drone strike was one of the first where CIA had agreed to kill him and Pakistan government allowed them to enter the air space of Pakistan to hunt down the American enemies on the soil.

The spokesperson of Pakistani military was quick to take responsibility for the attack and announced that Pakistani forces had fired at him. It was a blatant lie and not the first for the government of Pakistan.

Deals struck in closed rooms with the CIA about drone strikes and exchange of military information have long been the mainstay of American missions which seek to exterminate the militants from the country. The attacks have now become a subject of the debate about the integrity and honesty of the Pakistani government which let the country become a laboratory for targeted killings and civilians became victims of the mistakes of the war, more than once.

On one side is the world’s strongest country which practically dictates the terms for the rest of the world and on the other lies a country divided between its own devils. With Taliban on one hand and Al Qaeda on the other, the government has found itself amidst a constant haunt of siege on its authority by these extremists or from the military itself which has always sought a chance to overthrow the parliament and establish itself in the troubled country.

The one deal that was under the wraps absolved the US government of any responsibility towards the deaths and the quantum of drone attacks since the Pakistan military found itself toothless in the wake of the deal which was hidden from the public eye. The pleas of the Pakistan government to stop drone attacks which are attacking civilians are a futile exercise now that it chose to lie instead of reveal the truth to the country.

The one deal that was under the wraps absolved the US government of any responsibility towards the deaths and the quantum of drone attacks since the Pakistan military found itself toothless in the wake of the deal which was hidden from the public eye. The pleas of the Pakistan government to stop drone attacks which are attacking civilians are a futile exercise now that it chose to lie instead of reveal the truth to the country.

Pakistan might have a considerably big nuclear arsenal that adds to the sense of security to the country from perceived enemies including India, but the biggest danger to the country stems from its own habit of lying and deceiving the people. Governance has never been the most transparent thing in the country where political parties merge and fall apart within a matter of days and change their stands and subsequently, laws.

The murder of Benazir Bhutto is still fresh in the public memory and Musharraf’s rubbishing of the issue as something Bhutto called upon herself by looking “close to the Americans” was enough to generate disgust. It turned out to be a vile attempt to shift the discourse against the Americans, Pakistani Taliban and everyone else, but nobody raised questions about an enquiry which was much needed given the murder happened just two days before the elections.

Corruption in Pakistan has become a way of life and it is this propensity to hide than to reveal which makes the country even more vulnerable to itself. Someone with the knowledge of matters can arm-twist agencies into getting their ends and such has been the case with international agencies and missions which have continuously sought their own objectives, leaving the political system at the mercy of their secrets which they don’t want revealed.

The military has ruled the country for 32 years out of its 67 years of independence and still thwarts the functioning every now and then. Politically inspired movements seek to fuel separatism as the Waziristan region finds itself in conflict every few months. A little more of anarchy fuelled by the downward spiral of economy and continued hijacking of law and order, might push this state into another military rule.

The political ballgame has reduced to saving the chair until the term ends and successfully dodging any risk to the position but it ends up hurting the state in the long run as ministers choose to hide rather than reveal. They forge agreements which aren’t necessarily agreeable and the incumbents leave a more troubled state of the country in the hands of incoming party.

Classified treaties, under the table deals cut with Taliban and Al-Qaeda, drone attacks sanctioned by the government behind the curtains are all testimony to the fear that the state harbours from its perceived enemies and it ends up playing to the wishes of the other parties. The drones have killed 2,400 by now, most of them civilians but there is nobody to hold accountable for these deaths because the short-sighted government never intended to hold any party accountable in the first place. Akin to signing a blank check, the state only hopes that the other party will stop hurting on its own out of some epiphany that might come after many more deaths.

The political ballgame has reduced to saving the chair until the term ends and successfully dodging any risk to the position but it ends up hurting the state in the long run as ministers choose to hide rather than reveal. They forge agreements which aren’t necessarily agreeable and the incumbents leave a more troubled state of the country in the hands of incoming party.

The day this lying stops, the cycle will end. Until then, government officials should pay heed to what George Washington once said, “It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.”