Pakistan sails through unbridled propaganda

[BATMAN]

Pakistan sails through unbridled propaganda

I'm re posting the whole article for the sake because i expect the link not working after couple of weeks as it usually happens in case of counter articles.

There is no let up in demonising Pakistan and its security establishment in the Western countries and India. As the presidential race picks up in the United States the prospective candidates especially the Republicans have started on harping anti-Pakistan themes to garner support. Despite Hillary Clinton’s promises during her last visit to Pakistan to work towards checking anti-Pakistan propaganda in the US media, the campaign to malign Pakistan’s Army and the intelligence continues unabated. As the withdrawal date of US led forces from Afghanistan in 2014 approaches the US and the Western media have intensified propaganda to discredit Pakistan’s Army and the security establishment’s sacrifices and achievements besides its economy that has suffered billions of dollars loses to its exchequer directly and indirectly.

Following a spate of derogatory articles in major US newspapers and magazines the latest fusillade has come from a documentary aired by BBC titled ‘Secret Pakistan.’ The documentary was another ploy by our considered friends to coerce Pakistan into conforming to their designs on Afghanistan. Our powerful allies want to keep a sustained pressure on Pakistan, its armed forces and the ISI to keep it entangled in the war on terror to demoralise and weaken them out. Not only this, the smearing campaign has also engulfed the political leadership of Pakistan wherein doubts are fed in the media over their competence and assertiveness in matters of national security.

The recently retired US Chairman of Joint Staff Admiral Mike Mullen’s remarks on Haqqani network as being a ‘veritable arm’ of the ISI depicts that US military leadership realizing the inevitable in Afghanistan are out to scapegoat. The US has also begun to squeeze Pakistan financially as it refuses to pay what it owes Pakistan in expenses incurred in supporting American effort. It is also using its clout over World Bank and IMF to curtail and stop financial assistance to Pakistan.

When US Senator Michael McCaulin called on President Zardari at Karachi on 16th of November where he doubted president’s assertions on dealing with Haqqani network in his post meeting remarks by saying, “It was unclear whether President Zardari had the power to make good on his pledge, given the influence of the military in Pakistan”.

The Senator forgot that the president being the supreme commander of Pakistan’s Armed Forces is well aware of the need to tackle terrorism and extremism not only in its northern areas but elsewhere also. Our armed forces are already present in the sensitive areas to take on the insurgents. The need being in the national interest of Pakistan, the civilian and military leadership continue to work hand in glove to eradicate terrorism in all forms of its manifestations. The military leadership’s briefings in the Parliament and its sub-committees are testimonies of its subservience to the office of the president. Since the time Zardari took over the Presidency, all orders issued by the sitting government have been followed and implemented in earnest by the Armed Forces. Media’s aspersions as such on the authority of the president over the armed forces are just veiled efforts to create a divide between civilian and the military.

Seeing that Pakistan’s military establishment and ISI thwart their designs on Pakistan, the western and Indian media has taken up a concerted campaign to malign them specially the ISI. It started with accusations of rouge elements within the Organization that supported the Taliban and continues with fabricated stories and documentaries, like the one aired by BBC. Going back in the history wherein a particular country’s intelligence agency was deliberately weakened by outside powers, that country underwent geographical and social changes. For example the KGB, once formidable and competent Russian intelligence agency, was gradually weakened to the point that it could not save Soviet disintegration. Similarly, SAVAK, once the prime Iranian intelligence agency of the Royalty was sequentially targeted, weakened and wiped out.

With every unfolding event in the region, the designs of our enemies on the state of Pakistan get clearer. The ISI, being a professional agency and functioning on clear lines of actions, always seeks the truth and process the strategic level information to draw its own conclusions. It has been institutionally wrong to instigate false impressions and negative perceptions against an agency that has lost more than 300 of its men in supporting American war on terror. This colossal loss of life for an intelligence agency is too much and is a living proof that the ISI does not support militancy.

Since its inception in 1948 under a British Army Officer, Major General Cawthone the then Deputy Chief of Staff in the army, the agency has been guarding Pakistan’s national interests and integrity with huge successes as the country navigated through many difficult times in an extremely difficult region.

It is a common practice all over the world that intelligence agencies provide input to their sitting governments in the realm of their foreign policy. The CIA and ISI are no different. In the context of US-Pakistan relationship, the two respective agencies do play their role especially with respect to Afghanistan however, conflicts of interests do take place sometimes. The huge media campaign of maligning Pakistan and its state institutions by the US points to that conflict of interests to pressurize the ISI to tow its line of thinking. Even after the recent deliberate Nato attack on Pakistan’s military check post ‘Salala’ inside Pakistani territory bordering Afghanistan on 26th of last month, the third in a row of such attacks, western conscience was not shaken and instead of apologizing over merciless killings of 24 military personnel that included two from officers’ cadre, the British media defended the strike as one carried out in retaliation. The attack that continued over two hours was intimated to Nato authorities across in Afghanistan but they failed to stop the raids despite repeated requests.

The propaganda campaign when combined with military attacks on Pakistani check posts from Nato controlled areas across the border in Afghanistan becomes a very serious issue and demands some very serious thought with all the pros and cons weighted. This Nato phenomenon of violating Pakistan’s sovereignty time and again must be halted.

The attack was generally condemned by the world community except for India that refrained from making any comments on the strike casting shadow on its sincerity towards sovereignty and integrity of Pakistan. The Americans have promised to carry out an inquiry into the tragic incident however it is yet to deliver on the outcome of previous ones. The retaliatory steps taken by Pakistan, as such, reflected the angst of the people of Pakistan on the deliberate Nato strike as they fully back their government on the issue.

I like to add neither the ***** karzai offered any apologies or regret.
I really wish Pakistan army to take him out with Babur.