If the remarks attributed to Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar in reports coming from Washington are correct, she is dangerously out of step with reality. Not only that. She went against her brief and official stand that has so far been known to the people of the country and, indeed, the world.
A senior American official told the media, after her three-hour-long meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, that Ms Khar conceded that the Haqqani network was a threat to the Americans and Pakistanis alike. Unless it is categorically denied by top political leadership, the words of the official would be taken as a truthful reflection of what went on in the meeting.
Otherwise, with one stroke, Ms Khar justified the US criticism of Pakistan for its failure to take armed action against North Waziristan and the persistent demand to “do more”.
North Waziristan is the ancestral abode of the Haqqanis, though like almost all other Pashtun tribes, they straddle the Pak-Afghan border and a sizeable number of them live in Afghanistan. The reality is that the Haqqani tribe in North Waziristan has steadfastly stayed away from causing any trouble to Pakistan and has not been involved in the cross-border raids that the US accuses it of.
The pressure that Secretary Clinton put on Minister Khar should have been boldly deflected with the assertion that Pakistan saw no justification for moving against the Haqqanis in North Waziristan. She ought to have pointed out to her counterpart that the resistance enjoyed internal support within Kabul and that was the reason behind the frequent breaches of security in the so-called stronghold (the capital) of the ISAF forces.
By her statement, we have weakened our case in other aspects of the war on terror; for, it would be easier for the US to convince the international community that Pakistan has the ‘habit’ of first denying a point and then with some pressure, conceding it. For instance, there is the standing charge of the presence of the Quetta Shura. The Pakistanis had been expecting the Foreign Minister to raise the issue of Kashmir where brutal human rights abuses by the Indian security forces have only recently unearthed mass graves of over 2,000 tortured and mutilated bodies of the Kashmiri youth.
The pity is that the spineless Pakistani leadership has always been on the receiving side of pressure and not putting across its even genuine demands. It is incumbent on the US to extend its help in finding a just resolution of the dispute, not only because we are its crucial ally in the war on terror, but also because of its responsibility as a one-time ardent supporter of the UN resolutions on Kashmir and the promoter of democratic rights the world over.
HUMAYUN KHAN
Karachi
well i guess its advisable to appoint foreign ministers from army.a civilian educated youth would always make such a mess when convinced by the evidence.and Mr qureshi was such a good choice he knew how to stick to his point come what may
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