Light at the end of the tunnel

For much of the year 2011 Train Pakistan had been hurtling through a dark tunnel. As the year drew to a close, however, it was possible to glimpse light at the end of the tunnel. The twin-headed monster of Zardari-Gilani, primarily responsible for pushing the train into the dark tunnel, is rapidly losing its strength and may well be in its death throes.

It seems the traitorous duo of Zardari-Gilani has fallen into its own trap and may be unable to escape this time. The Supreme Court of Pakistan has established a commission to investigate the so-called “Memogate” act of treachery by Pakistanis in highly influential positions. The first casualty has been Hussain Haqqani, Pakistan’s erstwhile ambassador to the USA, who liked to defend USA interests with great vigour. Not for nothing was he known as the USA’s ambassador residing in Pakistan’s embassy in Washington. He is the prime suspect in a plot to make Pakistan’s nuclear capability ineffective and to force Pakistan’s armed forces to serve American government’s interests. He is said to have instigated this act of treachery against his own country at the behest of his “boss”, generally believed to be a reference to Zardari -  who claims he is untouchable because, as President, he has “immunity” under the constitution of Pakistan.

Let’s await the findings of the judicial commission, which is expected to complete its investigation by the end of this month. If Zardari is nailed, it will then be a no-holds-barred contest between the Supreme Court of Pakistan and the criminal Government of Pakistan. Will the noble Chief Justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, be able to cut off the head of the monster threatening the very existence of Pakistan? If he wins then Train Pakistan will indeed emerge into brilliant light.

As the Train comes to a stop it will be time for a new driver to step up and take charge. Standing on the platform is the intrepid Imran Khan, the most popular man in Pakistan at the moment, ready to take charge when it is time for the Train to move on. Will these two valiant men be enough to save Pakistan from the web of conspiracies being hatched by in-house traitors and external enemies?

I think we need a third presence. You may be surprised by my choice. Some may accuse me of eating my own words. The fact remains that, following USA/Nato military’s cowardly attack on one of Pakistan’s border posts on 26 November 2011, which ended in the cold-blooded murder of 24 men and officers of Pakistan’s army, Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the head of Pakistan’s army, is a changed man. He immediately blocked the flow of supplies through Pakistani territory to the USA/Nato troops stationed in Afghanistan, and he finally summoned the courage to tell the Americans that their drone attacks on Pakistani territory would no longer be tolerated. Better late than never. So far he has stood firm against tremendous pressure being exerted by the Americans. General Kayani needs the support of the entire Pakistani nation in the courageous stand he has taken against Pakistan’s back-stabbing “friends”.

So, looking to the immediate future, I think that the three men I have mentioned above will be, at least initially, the architects of a New Pakistan, self-reliant, proud and truly independent.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry

General Ashfaq Kayani

Imran Khan, chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf

The farce of Abbottabad, part 3 : the consequences

This blog post is a continuation of the issues discussed in the previous two - hence the words "part 3" in the title. 


What made the farce of USA's "daring" raid on Abbottabad - in which the hapless Osama died a second death - believable was not so much the brazen lies of the USA president as the humiliating response of Pakistan's President and the Prime Minister. It was as if both these puppets had been pre-programmed to utter nonsensical and demeaning words in response to a seemingly illegal act which violated Pakistan's sovereignty. The Chief Puppet Zardari described the operation as something which was "highly appreciated" while his sidekick Gilani called the degradation of Pakistan "a great victory". This was clear proof that the US held the Pakistan government by the throat, a dysfunctional government which had lost all notions of independence and sovereignty. No wonder the USA's Psychological Operation (PSYOP), targeting Pakistan's Army and its intelligence service, the ISI, had succeeded brilliantly. 


Over the last few years the CIA has succeeded in establishing a huge network of agents and local collaborators, including retired officers of Pakistan's armed forces with close links to serving officers. This was made possible by the Zardari-Gilani duo giving authority to Pakistan's ambassador in the US, Haqqani, to issue hundreds of visas to Americans without any checks whatsoever. This exercise was later repeated in Dubai when the Pakistan embassy was opened up in the evening for the sole purpose of freely issuing visas, bypassing the standard procedures of verification of personal data by the Foreign Ministry and by the ISI.


The rot began many years ago when the USA administration adopted a conscious policy of buying off influential people in Pakistan, starting with the top man Musharraf [see the blog post The case of missing persons ]. However, this policy of recruiting Pakistani traitors to assist with implementation of US policies in Pakistan has seen a huge expansion in recent years. Pakistanis who have sold out to the Americans can be found in all walks of life: the government, the civil service, the armed forces and the media. Pakistan's English language press, especially, is teeming with USA sympathisers who will never criticise US policies but they will virulently attack anyone and anything that offers resistance to the success of those policies. The Army, the ISI, Imran Khan and the Urdu language press (and patriotic Pakistanis writing in the English language press) are obvious targets.

Pakistan's tattered reputation
On Friday, 11 May, the Heads of Pakistan's Army and Air Force addressed a joint session of both the Upper and the Lower houses of Pakistan's Parliament. This session was a great disappointment. The assembled Generals could not summon the courage to clash head on with the Pakistani government and its USA masters, and sweep away the web of lies the two governments had erected. To do this the Generals would have had to admit that they, or a section of Pakistan's armed forces, had colluded with a foreign power to violate the country's airspace and murder a man in violation of Pakistan's laws. It is this sordid collaboration between the Pakistani leaders and the USA which is so hurtful. 


All the indications are that Pakistan's armed forces are infiltrated with traitors in powerful positions. There is immense pressure being exerted by the Americans and their Pakistani collaborators for Generals Kayani and Pasha (the Head of ISI) to toe the line. Pasha, especially, is being targeted and a way may be found to prise him out if he resists the expanding American influence in Pakistan. He appears to have been the driving spirit behind the unanimous Resolution that the two Houses of Parliament had agreed after a mammoth 10-hour session. This Resolution had 12 points, among them were:


* The USA's action in Abbottabad, constituting a violation of Pakistan's air space and sovereignty, was condemned.


* The USA's drone attacks on Pakistani territory were condemned. The USA was warned that if these attacks did not stop, the government would consider the closing down of routes used for the transport of supplies to the US and Nato forces in Afghanistan. Generally, Pakistan would review its working  relationship with the USA.


* An independent commission will be established to investigate the Abbottabad debacle. So far, not a single name has been announced as a possible member of that commission!


Three minor revelations - which people suspected anyhow - were made by the assembled military men:


* Pakistan's Shamsi airbase was not under the control of Pakistan Air Force! Apparently, it was owned by the United Arab Emirates and was sub-contracted to the USA, giving that country a free hand to fly aircraft from Shamsi for its nefarious designs. No one seems to have asked if the base will now be taken back into Pakistan's control!.


* Pakistan Air Force has the technology to shoot down the US drones which have killed well over two thousand Pakistani citizens. It is up to the government to give an order for shooting down the drones if the US continues to violate Pakistan's sovereignty [as the readers of this blog know well, Pakistan is a willing party to this arrangement].


* Raymond Davis was freed on the order of the central government - but the ISI top man, Pasha, declined to provide further details relating to that mysterious case.

The USA's hammer blow
The show of defiance by Pakistan's National Assembly was too much for the American masters. Scarcely had the ink dried on the 12-point Resolution than the world's only Superpower delivered a hammer blow by launching drone attacks on Pakistan and daring it to implement its worthless Resolution. Separately, the USA's creation, the Pakistani Taliban, launched a suicide attack which destroyed almost a hundred Pakistani lives (most died on the spot, others in hospital later). Further terrorist bombings followed on a smaller scale, culminating in a sophisticated assault on the Mehran Naval base on 23 May, which destroyed reconnaissance aircraft on the ground and inflicted immense damage. This was not a random act of terrorism. The attackers had precise instructions about the layout of the naval base and the targets to destroy. This attack came a couple of days after the announcement by Pakistan's Defence Minister, Ahmed Mukhtar, to the effect that China would be asked to build a new naval base in Gwadar and the  operational control of Gwadar port would be transferred from a dubious Singapore company to reliable Chinese hands.


With the exception of those who have sold themselves for dollars, Pakistanis are coming to a realisation that the sophisticated weaponry supplied to the terrorists through Afghanistan and, more importantly, the timing of attacks which coincides  with American warnings to Pakistan, can only mean one thing: the mastermind behind this human slaughter is the world's foremost terrorist state (aided and abetted by other arch enemies of Pakistan). Having terrorised Iraq and destroyed the spirit of its people through indiscriminate killings, the USA is engaged in similar bloodletting in Afghanistan (which it already occupies) and Pakistan (which it occupies through its proxies). This immoral superpower will go to any lengths in pursuit of its selfish policies.

A glimmer of hope
The government and the opposition are both silent, having already forgotten the brave wording of the 12-point Resolution. No orders were given to shoot down the drones and the supply routes to Afghanistan remained open. It fell to Imran Khan to stage a sit-in in Karachi over the two days 21-22 May, which resulted in the temporary suspension of USA/Nato supplies. Imran is expected to announce a long march in protest against the USA's drone attacks on Pakistan's citizens and the US's interference in Pakistan's affairs.


In the midst of the destruction unleashed on Pakistan following Parliament's  Resolution, Imran Khan's dharna (the sit-in) has been the only show of defiance. The day after his dharna ended,  John Kerry, chairman of the US Senate's foreign relations committee, came to Pakistan, wagging his finger and telling the Pakistanis that he had not come to apologise for the raid on Pakistani territory. The sheer arrogance of his words and his body language, and the way the Pakistani leaders cowered before him, may have been the last straw for the long suffering Pakistani nation. More and more people, including the judiciary, are able to see that Pakistan's fake democracy - effectively, subjugation to the USA - needs to be replaced with the genuine article. The first priority is to clean up the electoral register which contains no less than 37 million bogus names (some 44% of the eligible voters). Millions more who are eligible to vote need to be added to the voting lists. Free and fair elections in the near future are needed desperately to get rid of the criminals and traitors who rule Pakistan.

The Tojan Horses in Pakistan
In the blog post The Fall of the American Empire I mentioned the American-financed newspaper, The Express Tribune, which defends the policies of the US government irrespective of the harm they inflict on Pakistan. The online version of that publication had censored my comments on its editorial relating to the notorious Raymond Davis case. More recently, I offered comments on ET's story relating to the discussions in Pakistan's National Assembly. People were being provoked to demand that "heads must fall" - a euphemism for the heads of Kayani and Pasha - but my comments, which opposed that view, were censored. My unpublished comments are given below, which also show how badly my judgement was affected at that time by the "tsunami of lies" unleashed by the Americans:


Are the Americans taking the Pakistani nation for a ride? Why do so many people echo the Americans' sentiments and accusations?

Go back to 9/11 when the sole super power was hit at the heart of its military and commercial centres. Were there any resignations? Not one!

Let us, therefore, keep things in perspective and avoid shooting ourselves in the foot. No one is perfect and mistakes will always be made. After each mistake, we need to re-assess the situation and correct any weaknesses that come to light. If we weaken our military and the ISI at this time the obvious winners will be the USA and India.

Osama was supposed to have died some years ago as a result of kidney failure. That, I think, was the view of the ISI as well. However, it was obvious that the Americans were driven insane by their own obsession with Osama, but they wouldn't say why they thought he was alive and they wouldn't share with the ISI the underlying reasons for holding that view. That being so, ISI was simply passing on any information it picked up about Al-Qaeda to the CIA - which eventually succeeded in pinpointing Osama. All the time the CIA kept the ISI in the dark about the follow-up investigations based on the intelligence that the latter had made available.

It is clear that the Americans, our so-called "friends" and "allies", have stabbed Pakistan in the back and, very cunningly, rubbed our collective nose in the dust while the whole world stood watching aghast.

دیکھا جو تیر کھا کے کمیں گاہ کی طرف

اپنے ہی دوستوں سے ملاقات ہو گئی

A tsunami of lies

Those who feel overwhelmed by the tsunami of lies which has come roaring from the governments of the USA and Pakistan following the OBL drama in Abbottabad should not despair. Help is at hand!


FIRST, let us go back to an earlier blog, Anne Patterson, Queen of Pakistan , at the end of which there is a quote from Roedad Khan, a retired senior civil servant who had worked closely with several Pakistani rulers:


The independence of Pakistan is a myth. Pakistan is no longer a free country. Today it is not just a “rentier state”, not just a client state. It is a slave state with a puppet government set up by Washington.


Bear these words in mind as you read on.


SECOND, today the British newspaper The Guardian has published a stunning report by its Pakistan correspondent, Declan Walsh, a first rate journalist with extensive contacts. You can read the full report here .


Briefly, what Walsh is saying is that some 10 years ago the USA and Pakistan had signed a secret agreement - a humiliating sell-out by the dictator Musharraf - under which the Americans had been given a free hand to launch raids into Pakistani territory in the event of the Al-Qaeda leadership being spotted in Pakistan. The term "leadership" included Osama himself, his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri and whoever happened to be the Al-Qaeda No. 3. If such a raid did take place, "Pakistan would vociferously protest against the incursion"! Later, in 2008, when Musharraf was still president but a PPP civilian government had been formed, this dirty deal was renewed. By then Ashfaq Kayani was the Commander-in-Chief of Pakistan's army and he would have been fully in the picture.


So, the "bravery" and "courage" of US Navy Seals is little more than a myth which has been created by the US publicity machine. The truth is that the Pakistanis knew what was taking place and they looked the other way, which made it an easy, risk-free operation for the Americans. Indeed, shortly after midnight on 1 May, men of Pakistan army had gone round knocking on the doors of people living in the vicinity of the run-down house occupied by Osama, warning them to stay indoors. 


The Pakistan Prime Minister, Yusuf Gilani


This slippery, chameleon-like individual is an expert at saying contradictory things to different people and reversing his own statements without batting an eyelid. Following the US raid into Pakistan, which humiliated and stunned the Pakistani nation, this man strutted around smugly, justifying the USA's seemingly illegal action and violation of Pakistan's sovereignty. He declared that the operation was "conducted in accordance with the declared US policy"! People wondered what was Pakistan's declared policy when international laws are broken and the honour of the country is trampled underfoot. Thanks to Declan Walsh, we now know the answer.


The reaction to Gilani's idiotic statements was a rising crescendo of demands for him and Zardari, the president, to resign. Eventually, a week after the event, General Kayani was able to knock some sense into this two-headed monster, and Gilani stood up before Pakistan's National Assembly on 9 May, "to take the nation into confidence". This calculating man, who seems devoid of common sense, chose to deliver his lies in English for foreign consumption! The Pakistani nation understood only that some sort of trick was being played on it and Gilani was up to his old tricks which had been fully disclosed by Wikileaks (see "Anne Patterson, Queen of Pakistan" for full details). In a nutshell: for domestic consumption, publicly issue loud warnings to the USA but, privately, tell the Americans not to worry and go ahead with whatever they planned to do.


Ashfaq Kayani's opportunity to emerge as a hero


In 2008 General Kayani would have been aware of the humiliating terms of the deal that Musharraf-Zardari-Gilani had entered into with the Americans. He can claim that his hands were tied by that deal and he could not have stopped the American violation of Pakistani airspace. Many people think highly of him, some even consider him to be a man of honour. If he is that, then he needs to divulge the terms of the secret deal to the nation and seek a consensus on the type of working relationship Pakistan should have with the USA. Musharraf had heaped humiliation upon humiliation upon Pakistan. Does Kayani have it in him to redress the wrongs of the past and end the lopsided, demeaning relationship with the USA?


Kayani can seize this opportunity and emerge as a hero or he can sink into oblivion. 


Is Osama really dead?


A lot of people - I among them - had believed that he had already died as a result of kidney failure. In view of developments over the past week, I now think that the sick Osama had survived somehow. Pakistan's ISI had handed over significant pieces of information to the American CIA, which eventually led them to Osama's hideout. The way the Americans have humiliated Pakistan and hogged all the plaudits for themselves has been an unedifying, disgusting spectacle. 


I agree with the Pakistani journalist Saleem Safi, who writes for Jang newspaper, that Osama has probably been abducted by the US raid party and he is being held in secret for questioning. If he is waterboarded and tortured, no one will know since the world has been led to believe that he is already dead. 


Tailpiece (added 12May)


This blog post has attracted abusive comments, which will not be published.  If people wish to post here an essential requirement is to avoid abuse. The opinions expressed should be well argued and backed up with identifiable sources of information. You should also be aware that a citizen of Pakistan is called Pakistani, and there is no acceptable abbreviation. If you insist on using an abusive term then your comment will not be published.

One person says that I have erred in saying that prior to the helicopter attack men of the Pakistan army had spread out in the neighbourhood, warning people to stay indoors. My recollection is that this is what the unfolding story on The Daily Telegraph’s website said, which I was following. I tried to look up a record of the commentary at the newspaper’s website but it no longer seems to be there.  The BBC website, however, has kept a record of the developments in the aftermath of Bin Laden’s assassination.  Relevant extracts are given below, the link to the report is:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13257330

“Early reports suggested that residents had been commanded in Pashto - not the common language of the area - to turn off their lights, and that the order may have come from Pakistani security forces.

But residents told BBC reporters that Pakistani forces had not arrived on the scene until after the raid was finished, and that US personnel involved in the raid may have warned residents off in rudimentary Pashto.

A senior official at the Pakistani foreign ministry, Salman Bashir, said Pakistan was only alerted to the raid when one of the US helicopters crashed.

But a Pakistani intelligence official has also told the BBC off the record that the US did inform Pakistan that a raid was under way against an unidentified "high value" target, once their helicopters entered Pakistani air space.

This led to the scrambled Pakistani jets being called back in, the official said.”

Make of it what you will. Most people would consider this a roundabout way of saying that Pakistan knew what was going on.

The End of Conspiracy Theories

In global terms the single most significant event of 2010 may have been the WikiLeaks disclosure of the USA diplomatic cables. I am not surprised at the merciless hounding of Julian Assange by the USA government. Assange has committed the unpardonable sin of whipping away the fig leaf of “conspiracy theories” with which successive US administrations tried to discredit people who dared to uncover their illegal and criminal actions throughout the world. In the past, when everything was kept strictly under wraps, away from prying eyes, it was easy for the formidable publicity machine of the USA government to laugh away any accusation of USA involvement in monstrous activities as “conspiracy theories”. But not any more.

I like to think that the farce of 9/11 that the American neoconservatives staged nine years ago to provide an excuse for their foreign adventures would not have been possible in today's world where whistleblowers abound and rebels like Julian Assange are there to welcome them with open arms. The devilish tactic of repeating a lie endlessly and using the phenomenal powers possessed by the US government to banish reasoned arguments from the mainstream media which expose that lie, has had its day. I look forward to the day when it will not be necessary to call my blog "Reality and Illusion", a reference to the post-2000 world where reality is buried under a heap of lies thereby creating an illusion of a manufactured pseudo-reality.

What WikiLeaks has revealed no one has denied for the simple reason that the evidence is in the form of diplomatic cables sent by America’s so-called “diplomats” (read: spies and conspirators). The evil scenario that emerges is one of the USA government, and its diplomatic missions abroad, being enmeshed in an intricate worldwide web of intrigue and conspiracy, the full extent of which few had suspected. The core activities of USA diplomatic missions appear to consist of spreading lies and disinformation, deceiving the host nations, bribing and blackmailing local biqwigs, the sordid details of whose lives are well known to the CIA, facilitating ruthless military action by the USA in someone else's name, removing local leaders unacceptabbe to the US government and installing puppets controlled from Washington, etc.

In Iraq we witnessed wanton murder on a massive scale, coupled with the use of torture and sexual humiliation as tools to destroy those who dared to oppose American designs on their country. The policy of treating non-American/ non-European human lives as being in some way sub-human, mere “collateral damage”, whose destruction is necessary in the grand American Design, is being pursued with manic ferocity in Afghanistan and Pakistan. As increasing numbers of innocent Pakistanis die as a result of unmanned “drones” raining death and destruction from the skies - with the Pakistani puppets comprising the president, the prime minister and the army commander in chief nodding their heads in agreement – it seems only a matter of time to me before the American masters and their Pakistani slaves lose their seemingly impregnable positions.

The Pakistani puppets

[Gilani, Kayani, Z, NS]

The foreseeable future

The Hitlerite disregard that the Americans have shown for human lives, and the contempt with which they have trampled democratic principles underfoot in order to install their puppets as rulers in their client states, have generated an upsurge of hatred and disgust for the American governments. A steady decline in the USA’s influence in the world is inevitable, to go hand in hand with its economic decline.

As for Pakistan, I do not see the American puppets surviving very long. Zardari, Gilani and Nawaz Sahrif are goners, while the reputations of people like Kayani, Altaf Hussain, Asfandyar and Fazlur Rehman have taken a direct hit, from which they will find it difficult to recover.

Pakistan needs new leadership, which may take a little time to emerge. Right now, Imran Khan looks to be the one potential leader around, the only one who has the guts to look the Americans straight in the eye and outstare them. His integrity is beyond question and his popularity in the country, especially among the young, seems to be growing exponentially.

He faces two dangers:

* the discredited civilian and military leaders ganging up against him, to spread disinformation and to deny him publicity in the media

* the provincial governments, especially the PML(N) government in Punjab, misusing the province's administrative machinery to prevent Tehreek-e-Insaf Party holding public meetings and to sabotage its efforts to prepare itself for elections in the foreseeable future.

Imran himself is not entirely risk-free. My impression is that he may be influenced to an unhealthy extent by people who subscribe to what Iqbal called "Ajami Islam" [عجمی اسلام ]. However, this is a risk worth taking in view of Imran's qualities as a leader. Let's hope he shares with Iqbal the latter's insight into the charade of madrassahs and khanqahs.

اٹھا میں مدرسہ و خانقاہ سے غمناک

نہ زندگی، نہ محبّت، نہ معرفت، نہ نگاہ

I rose in sorrow from the madrassah and the place where sufis gather

Lifeless, loveless places, devoid of Higher Experience, without insight

Anne Patterson, Queen of Pakistan

In her small womanly frame Anne Patterson packed a punch that the manliest of men would feel proud of. Thanks to WikiLeaks disclosures, it is public knowledge that during her 3-year sojourn in Pakistan as the USA Ambassador, she was effectively the uncrowned queen of Pakistan, before whom the half-men at the top of Pakistan’s power structure humiliated themselves shamelessly.

By an odd coincidence, I have recently been reading Fahmida Riaz’s collection of poetry, titled “Main mitti ki moorat hoon”. Two couplets struck me as particularly apt in describing the character and inner nature of those who kowtowed before Queen Anne. Though they appeared to possess the outward form of men they were, in reality, devoid of manhood.

فہمیدہ ریاض ؛ میں مٹی کی مورت ہوں

لب ہیں مصروف قصیدہ گوئی

اور آنکھوں میں ہے ذلّت عریاں

With utter degradation dancing nude in their eyes, they laid their personal and national honour at the queen’s feet! And who were ‘they’? Why, none other than our President, our Prime Minister, the leader of the main opposition party, the commander-in-chief of Pakistan’s army, and many lesser names – including a “maulana” who came bearing his religion on a tray, to be traded for personal gain.

کس سے اب آرزوے وصل کرے

اس خرابے میں کوئی مرد کہاں

When men lose their inherent manliness, what are poor women to do? Oh, the futility of longing for physical union when manliness has vanished from the scene!

After the storm

Nothing much seems to have changed. Those shameless men appear to be as busy as ever in their wheeling and dealing. If anything has changed it is an awareness that they need to "unite" so they can better serve themselves by deceiving the nation and lying to it! Fahmida Riaz, again:

اور دیس کے سب چوروں کو

ان پٹے ہوۓ مہروں گو

پھر جشن مناتے دیکھیں

شہنائی بجاتے دیکھیں

WIKILEAKS’ ROLL CALL OF SHAME [added 22 Dec 2010]

ZARDARI (President)

A glimpse of Z’s self-abasement before Queen Anne in January 2008: the loyal servant claimed the US was “our safety blanket”, and he reminded his queen that Benazir Bhutto had only returned to Pakistan because of “clearance” from the US. He begged: “I need help, especially from the US”. Anne’s assessment, cabled to her superiors in Washington, was that Z had designs to be PPP’s candidate for Prime Minister with Washington’s blessing. For once the Queen had underestimated the stupendous levels of her underling’s ambitions and his low cunning!

Zardari had no qualms humiliating himself before visiting Americans. At a meeting with two US congressmen in May 2008, he blurted out: “We are here because of you... We won’t act without consulting you.” The faithful servant has lived up to his word: he has been consulting the American Ambassador regularly on policy questions and political appointments (the governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Senate chairman, the National Security Adviser, etc).

In Zardari Anne had found a perfect stooge to serve American interests in Pakistan. She recognised that Zardari’s government was “weak, ineffectual and corrupt”, but that was neither here nor there. What mattered was the value of that deeply unpopular Pakistani to the USA interests in Pakistan: “Zardari is our best ally in the government,” Anne cabled from Islamabad. A cable sent by her in February 2009 recommends: “we should help the Zardari/Gilani government complete its full five-year term in office”.

GILANI (Prime Minister)

This sorry specimen of humanity vies with Z to plumb the depths, to see who can sink lower. If it is possible to imagine a man entirely devoid of principles, the image of Gilani would come to mind (unless your favourite hate figures happen to be Z or Mush). Anne knew him inside out: ‘Gilani knows his place and will toe Zardari’s line’.

Gilani and Zardari are the only two people who showed extreme willingness to deceive the Pakistani nation and Pakistan’s National Assembly and to promote USA interests by sacrificing Pakistan’s. While loudly condemning drone attacks in public, they tell the Americans to carry on and not to worry. “We’ll protest in the National Assembly and then ignore it” Gilani told Anne in August 2008. Zardari, for his part, has been uncovered by American journalists: this sick man is reputed to have told the Americans that the heavy loss of innocent Pakistani lives that accompanies each drone attack does not bother him in the least – which he brushed away as “collateral damage” : wanton waste of human life treated in the same way as loss of property!

These two inhuman monsters, held in virtual bondage by the USA, have kept up with their sickening stream of incessant lies to the Pakistani public to this day.

ASHFAQUE KAYANI, Chief of Army Staff (C-in-C)

He was fond of sharing state secrets of the most sensitive kind with Queen Anne. He confided in her his distrust of Nawaz Sharif and the selection of a successor to Zardari after his possible removal from the Presidency!

At the time Musharraf was kicked out in August 2008, and in February/March 2009 over the restoration of the judiciary, Kayani nudged his Queen – possibly, also the British High Commissioner - to interfere in Pakistan’s domestic politics.

NAWAZ SHARIF (leader of the main opposition party)

Nawaz Sharif tried as hard as anyone to convince the Queen of his “pro-Americanism.” Freely joining the self-abasement ritual in January 2008, Nawaz reminded Anne that he had overruled his army chief and had contributed Pakistani forces to the US coalition in the first Gulf War. Nawaz expressed “hurt” that the US did not remember the valuable service he had performed in the face of PPP’s defiance: organising street demonstrations against the policy of Pakistan joining the coalition!

Nawaz also thanked the US for having arranged the appointment of Kayani as the army chief! So, was Kayani’s appointment the result of a USA act of benevolence or was it a USA conspiracy?

These gems came from a former Prime Minister of Pakistan who has ambitions to control the reigns of power once again!!

“maulana” Fazlur Rehman (leader of a divisive politico-religious party)

In November 2007, he requested Patterson for her backing to become Prime Minister, no less! He hoped to visit the US because, according to his party’s political principles, “all important parties in Pakistan have to get the approval of the US.” Anne’s dismissive comment was that F had made it clear to her that “his still significant number of votes are up for sale.”

LAST WORD

Where do we stand today? On August 14, 1947, we thought we had found freedom, but it has turned out to be another kind of slavery. The Wikileaks dispatches make it abundantly clear. The independence of Pakistan is a myth. Pakistan is no longer a free country. Today it is not just a “rentier state”, not just a client state. It is a slave state with a puppet government set up by Washington.

[taken from http://thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=20219&Cat=9 ]

Terrorising Pakistan: part 2

A guest post by Asif Haroon Raja 

In accordance with the chalked out plan, terrorism was intentionally pushed into Pakistan to destabilize the country. The two extreme flanks of Pakistan , FATA and Balochistan were inflamed to make things difficult for Pak Army, fundamentally poised to guard eastern border. Apart from CIA and FBI gaining a strong foothold in Pakistan under the pretext of chasing and nabbing terrorists’ right up to Karachi , the US Administration increased its influence inside Pakistan so comprehensively that Boucher and Negroponte started to micro manage its domestic affairs including local bodies’ elections and 2002 general elections and reduced the parliament into a rubber stamp. American intelligence agencies helped RAW to make inroads in trouble spots.    

Pakistan was first harried on account of nuclear proliferation in 2004. Hue and cry was made over AQ Khan Network, and Iran and Libya put under intense pressure to establish a connection. Although Pakistan refused to make available Dr AQ Khan for interrogation after he made a public confession under duress, Pakistan inadvertently accepted that nuclear proliferation had taken place. It assured USA and IAEA that network had been effectively disabled. Pakistan thought that the matter was closed but it was never let off the hook and its nuclear program came under unceasing vicious smear campaign.

After 2005, The US began to change colors and became more intrusive and difficult. This change occurred because of resurgence of Taliban in southern and eastern Afghanistan , development of Gwadar Port with Chinese assistance, Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project, and Pakistan economy getting robust. Pakistan was whipped by USA , India and even landlocked Afghanistan holding it responsible for their difficulties in Afghanistan. Pakistan bore the pain of whips and degradation to ensure US support and flow of US dollars. Pakistan kept chasing the faceless enemy without a comprehensive plan, intelligence, low intensity conflict training, counter terrorism equipment and motivational program. These shortcomings became serious impediments in tackling terrorism and allowed the Tehrik-e-Taliban to gather strength and expand its influence.

Having sufficiently embroiled the Army in war on terror and weakened its institutions the US started to inch closer towards achieving its goals and became more demanding. It repeatedly asked Pakistan to do more without compensating it for the immense sacrifices it was rendering. Instead of rewarding Pakistan for taking the main brunt of war on terror, the US rewarded India in the form of lucrative civil nuclear and defence deals, well knowing that instead of curbing terrorism India had inflamed it through covert means. Ironically Pakistan didn’t raise even an eyebrow on this grave development. Its lackadaisical stance resulted in materialization of Indo-US nuclear agreement in 2008.

After vainly trying to put the ISI under Ministry of Interior in August 2008, the US exerted extreme pressure on Pakistan leadership to let its military intrude into FATA. Several aerial raids, artillery fire and a ground attack in Angoor Adda in September 2008 were carried out. These blatant intrusions indicated American growing impatience and their desperation to directly meddle in Waziristan . While Pakistan gave its tacit approval to drone attacks since this understanding had already been given by Gen Musharraf, Pak military under new commander Gen Kayani did not agree to the proposal of joint operation or any unilateral action and took a firm stand. Had this proposal been ceded to, it would have amounted to allowing the head of a camel to enter the tent. Entry in FATA would have encouraged US military to keep creeping forward and to gradually envelope whole of Pakistan under the pretext of striking non-state actors. Mention of Quetta , Peshawar and Karachi as hiding places of high profile terrorists and main base of Al-Qaeda in FATA and Taliban Shura in Quetta exposed its intentions.

While attitude of US officials became belligerent, Indo-Israeli-US propaganda campaign became fiercer. Mumbai drama was stage managed on 26 November 2008 to give an excuse to India to heat up eastern border. Throughout 2009 India remained in a highly offensive mood. Pakistan’s policy of appeasement was taken as sign of weakness and subjected to unabated pressure to make Pakistan agree to Indian unfair demands of proceeding against suspects without evidence and to dismantle Indian specific terrorist network. The US instead of acting in a fair and unbiased manner brazenly supported Indian stance.

None of the accusers took into account the hard fact that Pakistan had suffered as no other country in the world had from foreign sponsored terrorism. Its economy suffered a loss of over $45 billion and it lost over 8000 lives in the blowback of the militants in retaliation to military operations. Pakistan bore maximum brunt of foreign sponsored terrorism during the years 2008-09 and is still suffering. After targeting Peshawar incessantly, Lahore is the current target of RAW. From March 2009 onwards, dozens of terrorist and suicide attacks have taken place in capital city of Punjab and hand of RAW was visible in each incident.

Slight change in Indo-US-Afghan belligerence occurred after Pak Army’s successful fight against well-entrenched militants in Malakand Division, Swat, Bajaur and South Waziristan (SW) at a heavy price. These successes were achieved at a time when nothing was going right in Pakistan . Political situation was in a mess, economy had become fragile, law and order had worsened and Pak Army’s image had been badly dented due to an orchestrated smear campaign. Pakistan was being viewed as a failing state unable to protect its nuclear assets. Stories of balkanization or break up were in circulation and a very gloomy picture was painted. It was propagated that Pakistan’s security forces were incapable of fighting the militants and protecting nuclear assets. US Special Forces started to fine tune their contingency plans to take away the nukes before falling into wrong hands. Indian strike formations had taken up a forward posture and Indian military had started beating drums of war.

It was under such daunting challenges that Pak Army fully supported by the government and the public turned the tide and blunted coordinated external and internal onslaughts and left the detractors gaping with wonder. CIA-RAW-Mossad supported Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is on the run; its liberty of action is curtailed. During the operations, the Army came across irrefutable evidence of involvement of RAW in all the restive regions. Besides arresting Hindu RAW agents, some disguised as Taliban, heaps of Indian origin weaponry was captured. Israeli made Uzi weapons and telescopic rifles were also found. It was a surprise to find highly encrypted communication system in use of TTP which could not be intercepted but could jam and listen to Army’s telephone/wireless network. Mossad had provided Israeli made specially designed transmitters for FM radios to Fazlullah which played a key role in expanding his influence in Swat and Malakand Division?

In June 2009 when Pak officials confronted Washington with evidence that terrorists in Pakistan were using sophisticated American weapons, the US media quickly leaked stories about US weapons missing from Afghan National Army. The figure of losses ran into thousands and it couldn’t be that ANA soldiers were operating without weapons or with locally manufactured weapons without being noticed by superiors.

No sooner was TTP base routed in SW that the US started exerting pressure on Pakistan to mount another offensive in North Waziristan (NW), painted as epicenter of terrorism. Several RAW created terrorist groups including Asian Tigers and some runaways of TTP have sprouted in NW to create anarchic conditions. Gen Kayani has rightly remained firm that no further stretching into NW till full consolidation of Swat and SW, which includes rehabilitation of IDPs, rebuilding of destroyed infrastructure and transfer of power to civil administration. For this he needs expeditious delivery of promised funds. He has also desired speedy delivery of counter insurgency equipment for achieving long term tangible results.

148,000 troops are already committed in FATA and Swat. Army cannot afford to further thin out troops from eastern border as long as Indian intentions are hostile. India has so far not closed training centres and Pakistan specific consulates in Afghanistan wherefrom covert operations are being launched. The US has been told that Pakistan would not like any military role for India in Afghanistan including training of ANA after the departure of US-NATO troops. Kayani prefers training of Afghan security forces by Pakistan Army. This has been partly agreed to and hopefully Afghan officers would be sent to attend training courses in various schools of instructions.

Pakistan has also been urging Washington to facilitate settlement of disputes with India . While little headway has been made on Pakistan ’s requests, the US is relentlessly asking Pak Army to speedily jump into boiling cauldron of NW irrespective of consequences. Hilary Clinton, Holbrooke and Adm. Mike Mullen are fixated on NW and have hinged successful outcome of Afghanistan war on neutralization of NW. All three in quick succession have issued tough statements to maximize pressure on Pakistan . They see Osama hale and hearty living in Pakistan . Minuscule Haqqani network and diminutive Lashkar-e-Taiba are being portrayed as most dangerous monsters. As a super power, the US should have felt ashamed in even making a passing mention of these insignificant entities. But such are the ways of bullies who by design project a Lilliputian into a Gulliver.

The US rules out scope for negotiations with Haqqani network in NW whereas it has given a blank cheque to Karzai to hold negotiations with Taliban and has not put any pressure on Gen Petraeus as to why he is not expediting operation against Kandahar. Instead of making some headway, visitors from 27 countries in Kabul were given fanciful news that ISAF would be able to hand over security of Afghanistan to ANA by 2014. While remaining fixated on NW, the US is least concerned about fast deteriorating security situation in Balochistan and Karachi where RAW and Blackwater in concert with local anti-state elements are actively involved in target killings. It betrays US sincerity of intentions.

Brig Asif Haroon Raja is Staff College and Armed Forces War Course qualified, holds MSc war studies degree; a second generation officer, he fought epic battle of Hilli in northwest East Bengal during 1971 war, in which Maj M. Akram received Nishan-e-Haider posthumously. He served as Directing Staff Command & Staff College, Defence Attaché Egypt and Sudan and Dean of Corps of Military Attaches in Cairo . He commanded the heaviest brigade in Kashmir . He is multi-lingual and speaks English, Pashto and Punjabi fluently. He is author of books titled ‘Battle of Hilli’, ‘1948, 1965 & 1971 Kashmir Battles and Freedom Struggle’, ‘Muhammad bin Qasim to Gen Musharraf’, Roots of 1971 Tragedy’; has written number of motivational pamphlets. Draft of his next book ‘Tangled Knot of Kashmir ’ is ready. He is a defence analyst and columnist and writes articles on security, defence and political matters for numerous international/national newspapers/websites. Email: asifharoon7751@yahoo.com

Tailpiece


This article was first published at the 'People of Pakistan' blog on 26 July 2010. This article touches on some of the issues I raised in my last blog post and it introduces some new ones. I do not necessarily agree with everything that Brig Asif Haroon Raja says but I do think that he raises important issues which need to be more widely known. 


You can see the original article by clicking here.