Pakistan First by Shireen Mazari: The devastating affects of appeasing India and kowt

[Neo]

Pakistan First by Shireen Mazari: The devastating affects of appeasing India and kowtowing to the USA​

This is possibly Ms. Mazari’s best article ever written. She correctly focuses on the five factors that been been repeatedly pointed out on Rupee News.

"Our new leaders may want to rethink their desire to forget about Kashmir inorder to satisfy India. Ofcourse, we should continue our dialogue, but let us not outpace India in conessions on the ground - as we have done with the US at a time when it needs us far more than we need them".
Shireen Mazari​

1) Appeasing India by forgetting Kashmir will not get India to withdraw from her forward positions in Siachin or Sir Creek. When the pressure is off Occupied Kashmir, she will continue to creep into Pakistani territory.

2) Kowtowing to the USA will not help in eliminating terror in Pakistan. It has had the exact opposite affect. The imposition of an anti-Pakistan government in Kabul and fighting the war on terror without Pakistan in Afghanistan is ridiculous. Pakistan as a MNNA (Major Non-Nato Ally) has to be responsible for security in Afghanistan.

3) Pakistan has to take a huge stand on its citizens in Indian and other jails. All missing Pakistanis have to be accounted for. Ansar Burneys post-confession phone call to pressure Mr. Singh in India to refute his admission that he was a spy was absolutley shameful.

4)The Turkish rhetoric as part of NATO and the Neocon influence has to be toned down and arrested quickly.

5) The Pakistani perception in the US and the West has to be handled the way Mr. Zia ul Haq had handled it–with finesse and money.

Looking out for Pakistan first​

Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Shireen M Mazari

As a Pakistani I am outraged at the killing of an innocent Pakistani (given that his guilt was never proven) by the Indian state and then twenty days later the dumping of his body at Wagah border — what else can one call this concluding action on the part of the Indian state?

However, I am more angry at my own government for its lack of care regarding its citizens arrested by other countries, especially India, but also the US. Just a few days earlier, we had Mr Ansar Burney making a sickening drama about the release of an Indian prisoner, who later admitted he was a spy, when he did not have the basic decency to at least show up to receive Pakistani Khalid Mahmood’s body at Wagah.

For that matter, no official government representative was present to receive the body. Nor was there any demarche issued from the Foreign Office to the Indian High Commissioner. Is international publicity and kudos all that matters to our politicians and bureaucrats? Even more distressing is the state of our human rights champions who have yet to take up the cases like Khalid Mahmood’s even as they make much of Indian prisoners in Pakistani jails. And what of our High Commission in New Delhi? Why were they so inactive on this count? Now one is being told that PTV, the state’s propagandist network, refused to take up and project the issues raised by the killing of Khalid Mahmood. Utterly shameful, when you think of the publicity Ansar Burney garnered for himself in the case of the Indian spy’s release.

So for those of our leaders who have already declared their intent to cosy up to India, regardless of issues like Kashmir, let the killing of cricket fan Khalid Mahmood be a warning about the chasm that exists between our over- enthusiastic passion for embracing India and India’s continuing suspicions and hostility towards Pakistan. A more realpolitik approach to dealing with India would stand us in much better stead. Let us learn our lesson from the price we are paying as a result of coming to the aid and assistance of the US with simply no preconditions or sober considerations — post-9/11.

As for India, apart from the killing of Mahmood, there are countless stories of Pakistani prisoners being tortured in Indian prisons without any charges being proven — but there is a seeming apathy on the part of our state and human rights activists. That is why I suppose “disappearances” and renditions are so easy here in Pakistan — it reflects a mindset that lays little store by the dignity and human rights of ordinary citizens. Coming back to the gap that prevails in how we perceive India and their perception of us, see the hurt many in Pakistan expressed when we discovered that India had invited over a hundred foreign dignitaries and defence attaches to witness their forthcoming exercises in the Rajasthan Desert commencing from March 19. But we forgot to read the word “from friendly countries” in the Indian statement.

Clearly, Pakistan is not seen as a friendly country by India despite our bending over backwards on all issues. So our new leaders may want to rethink their desire to forget about Kashmir in order to satisfy India! Of course, we should continue our dialogue, but let us not outpace India in concessions on the ground — as we have done with the US at a time when it needs us far more than we need them.

Which brings me to the whole issue of maintaining some sobriety and self-control in our external interactions, and resisting a proclivity towards effusiveness. Presently, we seem to be fair game for friends and foes.

The latest salvo is from a Turkish general in terms of our nuclear assets. We know that Turkey is a staunch US ally in NATO, but we have emotively bound ourselves to the Turkish people for decades — and have lent unquestioning support for the cause of the Turkish Cypriots when, apart from Bangladesh, almost all the world spurned them. If the Turks had any concerns regarding Pakistan, did they have to express them publicly at an international conference organised by the Turkish military?

Incidentally, at this conference the Turks also chose to invite a BJP-linked scholar to talk on Kashmir — so, obviously, there are new undercurrents in the Pakistan-Turkey relationship that should be a cause for concern in Islamabad. After all, it was not too long ago that the Turkish government was also found hosting a US-funded conference to discuss the whole issue of the “Durand Line.”

Finally, there is the US and its continuing absurdities vis-a-vis Pakistan. Apart from witnessing the most intrusive political behaviour on the part of the present US ambassador as she continues to rush from one political leader to another — and obviously she is not discussing their health or the weather — we have had US personnel arriving one after another to convince us on all manner of issues.

One such visitor, Harlan Ullman, gave an intriguing analysis — as only an American can. Declaring that Pakistan’s case was not well understood in Washington (perhaps we should evaluate how our publicists are spending our money on the Hill), he then added that regardless of what we do, we can neither change the US mindset nor get any money since they do not have it now! Obviously only another American can understand what was being implied here!

The crux of the issue was that we have to help the US in Afghanistan, because if they fail there, it will be devastating for Pakistan!

Of course, it did not get through to him that fighting terrorism the US way was already devastating for Pakistan, and we need to have our own indigenous strategy which has to include publicly distancing ourselves from the US. Anyhow, what he wanted was to build support here for a joint Pakistan-US-NATO strategy. But the point that was being missed was that one can only have a joint strategy if our strategic goals are the same — and in many Pakistanis’ minds our goals for the long term are at variance with US designs for this region. So where is there the potential for a joint strategy? Also, there are some serious legal and political question marks relating to the NATO presence in this region.

Effectively, we are now at a crucial juncture in our cooperation with the US and the fallout that that is having not only on our polity but also on our own terrorist problem. Just as I was to conclude this column, news came of the two deadly terrorist attacks — again in Lahore. Clearly, the Lahore attacks were well-planned especially since the two sites chosen were at a fair distance from each other — thereby effectively dividing rescue services. In fact, it would appear that the Model Town target was chosen randomly, simply because it unfortunately happened to be across from Zardari House, but the FIA building was part of the targeting of the security structure of Pakistan.

It is only too apparent that our present strategy on the war on terror, devised by the US and focusing on the military, has not only failed, it has increased the violence and terrorism in Pakistan. Is it merely coincidental, that as the voices for a holistic policy to deal with the tribals have increased post the elections, the acts of terrorism have hit the urban centres with a vengeance? At the very least, as we mourn the loss of innocent Pakistanis, let us also pause and see where we are headed as we play the deadly US game in this region.

The writer is director general of the Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad. [email protected]

Pakistan First by Shireen Mazari: The devastating affects of appeasing India and kowtowing to the USA - Arab Culture - Zimbio

 

[Neo]

Excellent read, probably the best ever written by Shireen Mazari!

 

[Logic note]

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Spies challenge Pakistan government


Spies challenge Pakistan government

By M Ilyas Khan
BBC News, Karachi



Relations between India and Pakistan have been under stress recently

After four months in the saddle, Pakistan's new civilian government still gives the impression of having mounted a wild horse.

On several occasions in recent weeks it has embarrassed itself by issuing important orders and statements it has had to retract within hours.

And critics say it has displayed little skill in managing either food inflation, virtual anarchy in the natural gas market or the country's ever worsening power crisis.

Meanwhile, the ruling alliance that was formed after the February elections appears to have degenerated into an unsavoury union of strange bedfellows.

But there are some sectors, traditionally handled by the army, where life goes on as usual.

The military statistics released by the Pentagon late last month suggest an almost 40% increase in attacks by Taleban militants in eastern Afghanistan.

Not in control

Nato forces believe this is due to increased infiltration by militants from sanctuaries in the adjacent Pakistani tribal region.

On the eastern front, the peace process with India seems to be coming under stress following recent border clashes between Indian and Pakistani troops across the Line of Control (LoC) that divides the disputed Kashmir region.

The response of Pakistan's pro-establishment analysts is - the militants are not in our control, and the Indians are encircling us both from their spy stations in Afghanistan and from across the Line of Control in Kashmir.


Mr Gilani put up a brave face during his visit to the US

But observers in India and Afghanistan believe that while the new Pakistan People's Party (PPP) government struggles to find its feet, the country's top intelligence outfit, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), is resurrecting the Indian threat as a means to divert attention from its "strategic assets" - Islamic militants - in the region.
The Pakistani government, led by the reputedly anti-establishment PPP, appears to be in two minds on the issue.

During his visit to the United States this week, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani put on a brave face amid allegations that the ISI was tipping off militants about the moves of coalition troops in Afghanistan.

"Actually, ISI is a great institution," he told CBS in an interview. "As far as this is concerned [that] some of them... are sympathetic to the militants, this is not believable."

But just days before this statement, Mr Gilani himself had issued an order putting the ISI under the Interior Ministry, a step clearly intended to bring the service under more direct civilian control.

Eyebrows were raised when he had to rescind that order within six hours, presumably after a shocked military ratcheted up the pressure on his government.

Directly accused

Apparently, the PPP was forced to back down from a position it had initially considered justified in view of the storm raised in the aftermath of the 7 July suicide bombing of the Indian embassy in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai directly blamed the ISI for the attack.

Soon afterwards, the Indian national security adviser, MK Narayanan, said his government had "a fair amount of intelligence" suggesting that the ISI had been involved in the attack.


President Karzai has blamed the Indian embassy attack on ISI

On Wednesday, Pakistan's Defence Minister, Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, publicly admitted that US President George Bush had shared with Mr Gilani his annoyance that some ISI elements were leaking to militants intelligence the US had shared with Pakistan.

A day later, the New York Times quoted American officials saying they had intercepted communications between Pakistani intelligence officers and militants who carried out the Kabul bombing.

Meanwhile, the Indians accuse Pakistan of stepping up the pressure on the LoC to facilitate infiltration of militants into Indian-administered Kashmir.

Pakistan denies all these charges.

But there are credible reports of renewed militant presence in some areas on the Pakistani side of the LoC since April, soon after Mr Gilani was sworn in as prime minister.

Clear choice

Last month, several dozen women in the town of Athmuqam in the Neelum valley marched to an army post and told officers there that the militants had renewed their activities in the area and local people feared that the ceasefire, in force since November 2003, would break down.

"All we want is peace, we don't want to spend the rest of our lives living in bunkers like we did before the ceasefire," one of the marchers, Sarwar Jan, told the BBC Urdu service.
Many in Kashmir and north-western Pakistan believe this to be a dangerous game which a popular political force like the PPP must guard against.

The party has a clear choice.

It can own up to the army's traditional perception of the "Indian threat" and settle down for a secondary role in the government.

Or, it can order an entirely fresh assessment of whether India poses a real and immediate military threat to Pakistan at all.

The first choice is likely to make life easy but inglorious for the PPP, whereas the second will require it to first learn to tame the horse it has mounted.

 

[sunny_aus]

Pakistan First by Shireen Mazari: The devastating affects of appeasing India and kowtowing to the USA​

This is possibly Ms. Mazari’s best article ever written. She correctly focuses on the five factors that been been repeatedly pointed out on Rupee News.

"Our new leaders may want to rethink their desire to forget about Kashmir inorder to satisfy India. Ofcourse, we should continue our dialogue, but let us not outpace India in conessions on the ground - as we have done with the US at a time when it needs us far more than we need them".
Shireen Mazari​

Pakistan First by Shireen Mazari: The devastating affects of appeasing India and kowtowing to the USA - Arab Culture - Zimbio

Pakistan and India both can achieve the maximum by continuing the peace talks and solving the misunderstandings because of terrorist attacks in india which have taken lives of more than 200 innocent people just within last 3 months, since the bomb blast during the IPL matches till now. As it is believed that this type of blasts in India can’t be organised without full involvement of ISI.

This is a serious case that ISI, which is considered as no less than a terrorist organisation in the world, is funded by the government. A response of even US president on the involvement of ISI with terrorist as below:

US President George W. Bush was yesterday drawn directly into the row over Pakistan's notorious ISI spy agency, reportedly saying it was impossible to share intelligence with Islamabad "because it goes straight to the terrorists".

Pakistan's Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar, who was with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani when they saw Mr Bush in the Oval Office earlier this week, said Mr Bush had raised questions about the agency and asked bluntly: "Who is controlling the ISI?"

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24108663-25837,00.html

The best effort of india would be to maintain better relationship with Pakistan which is possible only when Pakistani government will take some proper steps to identify and dismiss those elements of ISI who are sympathise to terrorists.