- PPP senator says hype over Haqqani’s article aims to malign Zardari; Babar shares examples of Sartaj’s book, articles on foreign policies; ‘Real issue will not be addressed until civilians have upper hand in policy making’
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Senator Farhatullah Babar, taking part in the discussion on former ambassador Husain Haqqani’s article in The Washington Post newspaper, said that there was no confession and no new revelation in the writing piece.
However, this hype had been deliberately created to malign and tarnish image of then president Asif Ali Zardari. “This is obvious from the very wording of the motion namely facilitation of CIA agents to enter Pakistan with the approval of the leadership of the ruling party at the time,” he said.
“I hold no brief for Haqqani, he is now an independent scholar and researcher. He is no longer in the PPP and the party has already distanced itself from him. I also do not agree with many of his views but I cannot allow this tirade against Asif Zardari,” he said. Babar said that visas were issued after following a laid down procedure and not by Zardari or (then prime minister) Yousaf Raza Gilani.
He said that this question must also have been addressed by the Abbottabad Commission so why not make the commission report public to resolve once and for all to how and who issued visas. But the movers of the motion dare not ask for making the report public because they fear that it might expose some whom they do not wish exposed, he said, adding that it is convenient to throw mud on Zardari.
He said that it was not uncommon for former presidents, prime ministers, ambassadors, spokespersons and public officials writing books and articles which may not be the official line but no fuss is created and gave the example of Adviser Sartaj Aziz’s book ‘Between Dreams and Realities,’ who was also sitting in the House.
In a newspaper article, Sartaj wrote that critical areas of foreign policy including India, Kashmir, Afghanistan and nuclear, the policy was framed somewhere else and not in the Foreign Office, the PPP lawmaker said. He said that Sartaj Aziz was a patriot and deserved to be complimented for speaking the truth but there should not be double standards in commenting on books and newspaper articles, he said.
“Instead of focusing on Haqqani and Zardari, let us focus on the real tragedy of Pakistan, namely how it became possible for Osama bin Laden to live in Abbottabad,” he questioned. Talking to media, he said that the visa question was important to know and the nation must also know who gave the Shamsi Airbase to the Americans from which drones flew, was any immigration check post set up at the airbase to check who was coming and who was going, he said.
“These are questions which will haunt us for all time to come until we faced them squarely and boldly instead of using them to malign political opponents,” he said. He said that he disagreed with Haqqani on many counts. Recently, two right wing think tanks – the Hudson Institute and the Heritage Foundation – issued a one-sided panel report that was co-chaired by Haqqani.
Many disagree with findings and recommendations contained in the report but it cannot be blamed on Zardari or on any political opponent, he said. The real issue is to make the Abbottabad Commission report public, he said. But it will not be addressed until the civilians had an upper hand in policy formulation which was not the case as has been lamented by Sartaj Aziz himself in his articles and book.