- Avoid raking up dead issues
Every country in the world including the superpower US has limitations beyond which it cannot afford to act. The economically weaker countries have more limitations than the ones who are well off. It was therefore realistic on the part of government not to go beyond registering its strong resentment against the US drone strike while underlining its implications for Pak-US relations. The US has to realise that it can neither win the war in Afghanistan without Pakistan’s support nor ensure that after its withdrawal the region would not turn into a terrorists hotbed. It is meanwhile in Pakistan’s supreme interest to go the extra mile to bring peace to Afghanistan.
It is time the self-proclaimed super patriots also come out of their ivory tower and learn to make a realistic appraisal of the ground realities. Pakistan faces a precarious security situation today. With the exception of China, Pakistan’s relations with all its neighbors are strained to various degrees. With an ailing industry, declining exports and a narrow tax base, the country faces financial crunch. Pakistan needs to rely on a diplomacy aimed at reducing enemies rather than increasing them. Relations with India are not likely to improve in the near future, so better put these on the backburner. Pakistan should meanwhile do all it takes to win over Afghanistan and take measures to neutralise the US even if this implies dumping the Afghan Taliban and Haqqanis.
It is also time to put an end to judging civilians and non-civilians with different standards. Many believe the Memogate scandal was a ploy to destabilise the PPP government and Hussain Haqqani was a scapegoat. While one may differ with him on a number of issues, Haqqani presented in his books a vision of polity in Pakistan which is inclusive, pluralistic and characterised by civilian supremacy. Unlike Musharraf he did not violate the constitution, arrest SC judges, create turmoil in a peaceful Balochistan by ordering the elimination of Akbar Bugti or handover Pakistan’s air bases to the US. It would amount to applying double standards by exonerating Musharraf and calling Haqqani a traitor as maintained in FIRs launched in two police stations in Kohat.
