Masooda Bano
The writer is an Islamabad-based columnist with background in development research
For those who after every order taken from US believe that General Musharraf has saved Pakistan need to have a serious look at the events unfolding since the recent interview of US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz to the Far Eastern Economic Review. Last week, Wolfowitz’s statement came out blaming Pakistan of not doing enough to capture Taliban supposedly holed up in tribal belts of Pakistan. In the same interview he made it clear that there is more to Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan’s episode than the Pakistani government has admitted. He made it very clear that Pakistanis should live in no delusion: US and the rest of the international community is not going to let the issue of sale of nuclear weapons die down so easily. The warning in the interview was clear: the quiet right now on the nuclear issue is only a bargain for getting a few more things done from Pakistan.
Since Wolfowitz’s statement, as expected General Musharraf’s government has had to respond by unleashing a deadly operation in Waziristan. The local people (who the government calls militants) have provided stiff resistance with the death toll rising to 39 with deaths on both sides. However, the pressure is not off. Colin Powell, US Secretary of State, is in town to make it clear to the General that if he is keen to avoid an international inquiry into who exactly from Pakistani state was involved in sale of nuclear technology apart from Dr Qadeer Khan then he better deliver.
There are two issues here. First one is the more minor of the two, which by no means that it is really that minor given the Pakistani State structure where nothing comes as a shock, is reduced to that scale. This is the issue of who exactly was involved in sale of nuclear technology from Pakistan whose entire responsibility has been taken by Dr Qadeer. From Wolfowitz’s statement it is very clear that just like independent analysts have been saying, the sale of technology, if it took place, was not carried out by Dr Qadeer alone. There were more parties involved in it and all fingers point toward military hierarchy since military has always kept a tight control over Pakistan’s nuclear programme.
The fact that Pakistan is now being blackmailed into taking more action in Waziristan or else the international community will open inquiry into Pakistan’s nuclear set up, means that the government is desperately hiding and covering up parties who were involved in the sale of this technology. Otherwise, if only Dr Qadeer Khan was the guilty party then why feel pressurised? Why not tell the international community to have an open inquiry into the sale issue because if we are so confident that no one else was involved then what do we have to fear. This rising international pressure to respond to US demands as a trade off for avoiding inquiry into the sale of nuclear technology only gives more legitimacy to the demand of the opposition to discuss the whole issue in the parliament.
Now we come to the main issue, what is increasingly becoming evident is that nothing that General Musharraf regime does will eventually save Pakistan from US. The reason is that the current regime excels in obeying orders, it does not have any vision or a strategy. Every time a fresh demand from US comes, General Musharraf’s regime gets active in designing another media campaign to justify following that demand. Rather than investing energy on working out a feasible response to that demand, all the energy goes into defending that demand in the public. The Pakistani state today rather than acting as a representative of the collective will of the people of this country at the international level, is merely functioning as a justifier and implementer of all orders coming from abroad.
By saying this, one is not recommending that one must say no to every demand that US makes but to suggest that every demand must be dealt with enough intelligence so that US believes it is dealing with a responsible state where the public and the state is collectively moving towards developing an understanding with the US. To please US, General Musharraf has said yes to every demand. His government abandoned Taliban after September 11, it has taken a U-turn on Kashmir (at least on the face level), it has allowed FBI agents in the country, it has unleashed a verbal attack on madrassahs with little care of how the students learning Qur’aan in these madrassahs feel about it, it has admitted to sale of nuclear technology, it has started a bloody operation in Waziristan. And yet it is still being told that it is not doing enough. There is clearly a fault in this strategy as it does not seem to deliver at all. It is clear that US will still eventually come after Pakistan’s nuclear programme as well.
The logic of this is obvious. If the US is fighting a war on terrorism than Pakistan with its religious population and nuclear programme presents a potential threat to US. When we add to this picture the complete failure of the governance structure, Pakistan presents a nightmare to international community. Who knows who will be in charge of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons one day? This is a legitimate question in a country where seizing state power by force is very normal. It is an entire collapse of the democratic forces in the country due to continued military interventions that is responsible for creating a nation so unstable that the international community simply cannot trust it. It is the internal reforms and strengthening of democratic structures that are critical for survival of Pakistan and not the obedience of US orders. But, sadly internal reforms require vision, integrity, and intelligence, which the current regime seems to lack.