US is squeezing Pakistan to it’s best advantage. It has already ordered Pakistan to cap the nuclear program. Pakistan has no other option but to listen to what US dictates. Maybe US is trying to solve the Kashmir problem.
The net closes on Pakistan
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf has caused a stir with remarks that his country could be attacked by Western forces once Iraq has been dealt with, highlighting once again potential dire consequences flowing from Islamabad’s support of the US in the war on terror.
Addressing a meeting of businessmen and industrialists in Lahore at the weekend, Musharraf said that there was speculation that Pakistan would become the target of “Western forces” after the Iraq crisis and that there were chances of such an eventuality. “We will have to work on our own to stave off the danger. Nobody will come to our rescue, not even the Islamic world. We will have to depend on our muscle,” the general said.
The comments were widely greeted as “extraordinary” in Pakistan and came as a surprise to most people. “This is simply a reflection of the situation that Pakistan’s policies in the post September 11 era have drastically failed,” commented former federal minister of law and the secretary general of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Mian Raza Rabbani.
Under Musharraf, Pakistan moved from supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan to siding with the US in the fight against the Taliban and its al-Qaeda allies, setting off widespread resentment and waves of anti-US sentiment in the country. Musharraf’s unexpected comments could, therefore, be interpreted as a warning to jihadis in the country that their actions are making it very difficult for the government. As Musharraf said, “We can talk to the US … but how can we convince them on our points when the whole country echoes with the slogans of jihad [against the US].”
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Washington has ample evidence to conclude that Pakistan’s nuclear proliferation policy is in urgent need for a change.
Pakistan as proliferator: A view from Washington
Asia Times Online
(Jan 14, '03)
And significantly, a senior official in one of the country’s premier intelligence agencies maintains that Pakistan has had to make compromises in its nuclear program. He said that there were indications that it had been capped, if not even rolled back, as there had been tremendous US pressure to shut down key laboratories and institutes that develop nuclear warheads and material. And once rolled back, it would take years for Pakistan to reach the position it is at today.
And this in turn will create more turmoil in the army, the official said. “In a nutshell, there is going to be an unstable situation in the country,” he added.
Pakistan’s current weak strategic situation leaves it at the mercy of the United States. Islamabad literally has no friends in the neighborhood; on the contrary, it faces hostility, especially from India, which has huge resources and ambitions of its own to take on a greater regional role.
The situation is not helped by New Delhi’s latest round of testing missiles, including the Akash surface-to-air missile, which was fired on Monday from a mobile launcher in the eastern state of Orissa. Earlier, India test-launched a more powerful short-range ballistic missile, the Agni-I, capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
Monday’s test came as Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee once again said that Pakistan had become a center for terrorist activities. “Although Pakistan is a member of an international coalition formed to fight against terrorism … it is Pakistan where the terrorists are gathering,” he was quoted by the Press Trust of India as saying. Pakistan had “contacts with terrorists in other parts of the globe and yet there is no action taken against them,” Vajpayee said.
India’s latest saber-rattling is similar to the situation in the immediate post-September 11 environment. At that time, the US made it clear - at the risk even of military action - that Pakistan give its support to the war on Afghanistan. India immediately took advantage of the situation and escalated its troop presence near the Pakistani border, sending the unequivocal message that its forces would fight the Pakistan army side-by-side with US troops.
Under this pressure, Pakistan had little room but to say yes to the US. Now, once again, amid Indian adventurous designs, it is safe to predict that if indeed it is true that the US is pressuring Musharraf to cap the country’s nuclear program, he will have no option but to obey the US dictates.
This could have a two-fold effect: Pakistan will fall behind India’s nuclear capabilities (assuming that at present they more or less counter each other), and there will be turmoil within the army. This in turn could see Pakistan settle for the status quo in Kashmir - that is, Indian and Pakistani-administered Kashmir will continue to be separated by the Line of Control, and Islamabad will scale down its support of the militant struggle for the Indian section to be incorporated into Pakistan.
The tilting of the military and strategic scales heavily towards India, which is in effect what the US is doing by squeezing Pakistan, could, however, backfire, and work against US interests in the region as, given a free hand, India might just be tempted into seriously and vigorously realizing its own territorial aspirations.