From Norway with love
It was a revelation that cost the Norwegian spymaster her job. And one that prompted our foreign office to seek an explanation from the country’s mission in Islamabad. Janne Kristiansen made a disclosure in the Norwegian parliament the other day about the presence of her intelligence operatives within Pakistan. It was a bad move, regardless of how one chooses to slice it. For the Norwegians, it was bad because it would compromise the security of their nationals in the country, what to say of whatever the objective of their mission was. For the Pakistanis, because it is yet another affirmation of our position as an international pushover. Ms Kristiansen offered her resignation, which was readily accepted for having “breached confidentiality through the disclosure of classified information.”
Is every country in the world now going to have their spooks nose around this neck of the woods? The Americans, British and the Indians one could understand would be in on it, with us returning the favour but the Norwegians come as a surprise. Who is next, Burkina Faso?
And things would have been different were it only intelligence gatherers that were under discussion. Bringing up Raymond Davis at the drop of a hat might be the constituency of the far-right hawks, but it merits mentioning here that the intelligence community is not without its share of muscle-heads.
Speaking of foreigners with guns, it is also an unfortunate reality that Pakistani territory is also being used as springboards by militants. If the country has become known as an international terrorist supermarket, we cannot expect other countries to be pedantic about issues like sovereignty, especially when they are targetted themselves. A shamefully large proportion of terrorist attacks after 9/11 were either hatched in Pakistan or had some sort of involvement by Pakistani nationals.
The correct action for the republic would be to tackle this twin encroachment on our sovereignty simultaneously.
