What Pakistan needs to tell the US — Retired Chief of Naval Staff Fasih Bokhari

[Omar1984]

What Pakistan needs to tell the US ​

The writer served as chief of naval staff from 1997-99


The upcoming Pakistan-US strategic dialogue must honestly address the divergent strategic perceptions, imperatives and compulsions of the two countries. After the last meeting, officials in Washington claim that a trust deficit exists. What are the determinants of this trust deficit? Who is saying one thing and doing another? Who is hiding what and why? One or both partners must now come clean if the partnership is to respond to the genuine needs of their people.

The overriding compulsion of a superpower is to deny freedom of action to a challenger. This is an understandable and expected American strategic aim. It is currently manifested in containing a rampant China, the only possible challenger on the horizon. Pakistan facilitated America’s stated mission to remove the Taliban government and hunt down al Qaeda. But the American mission has broadened and morphed into a very different strategic direction, while the Pakistanis have been grappling with the harsh reality of violence at home.

Pakistanis are now worried about their position in America’s containment strategy vis-à-vis China, and the co-opting of India into it. Many think that their country is being destablised so that India can stand up to China and eventually, America and India can work together to cut off China’s trade corridor through Pakistan. The trust deficit starts from this perceived American strategic shift. This fundamental divergence is the elephant in the dialogue that the Pakistani foreign minister and the army chief can no longer gloss over.

The trust deficit is reinforced by the fact that America is more than willing to spend over $100 billion a year on the war in Afghanistan but not even a fraction of that on weaning potential Taliban and al Qaeda recruits away from a life of militancy, by approving legislation to put in place the much-hyped — initially at least — reconstruction opportunity zones in Fata. There is no talk either of access for Pakistani products to American markets and no disbursement yet of the Kerry-Lugar funds. Furthermore, facilitation of US strategy is destroying Pakistan’s economy and its polity without any offsetting gains.

The US president has set a July 2011 deadline for exiting Afghanistan but the ground reality is that fortress-like missions are being built in Islamabad, Karachi and Peshawar. Is Pakistan supposed to believe that the contain-China strategy will also end in July 2011?

Now coming to India — the Pakistanis know that India will never stand up to China on America’s behalf. This means, in all honesty, that the Pakistanis impress upon the Americans the fact that the Indians are already achieving their strategic ends (especially with regard to Pakistan) through Washington and not via China. Proof of this is America’s silence on human rights abuses in Indian Kashmir, while continuing to put pressure on Pakistan on nuclear and other related issues.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15th, 2010.

 

[BATMAN]

Who is financing, arming, training and feeding terrorists?
Who is reaping profit by stretching US stay and whom US is paying all those thousands of dollars?
PRIVATE CONTRACTORS. Who will never let US cut short their operation.
US packing up mean end to multi billion industry or private contractors, who are real patrons of terrorist breeding centers.

 

[VCheng]

The Pakistani establishment and power-that-be obviously have no idea what storm is brewing just over the horizon just yet, and by the time realization sets in, I am afraid that it will be too late.

 

[Donatello]

The Pakistani establishment and power-that-be obviously have no idea what storm is brewing just over the horizon just yet, and by the time realization sets in, I am afraid that it will be too late.

Please enlighten us.

 

[VCheng]

Please enlighten us.

I am not of the caliber of many others here to be doing any enlightenment. I merely express my thoughts candidly as long as I am allowed to do so in the environment that prevails.

 

[JMKhan]

I am not of the caliber of many others here to be doing any enlightenment. I merely express my thoughts candidly as long as I am allowed to do so in the environment that prevails.

I would also be interested in hearing your thoughts, especially about the coming storm.

 

[VCheng]

To put it briefly, the coming few years will have the following challenges for Pakistan:

1. Mounting economic pressures (unserviceable levels of debt, falling productivity due to shortages of energy, raw materials and lack of global competitiveness).

2. Debilitating social unrest (increasing polarization of society, alienization of the armed forces, falling foreign remittances).

3. Intentional destabilization by foreign and domestic forces (I will not go into details here).

The present leadership (political, military, elite classes) will not be able to maintain the status quo due to increasing pre-occupation with self-preservation.

In short, the State of Pakistan will undergo a managed collapse, with the people of Pakistan paying the heaviest price.

Please note that I am patriot through and through and love both my birthplace and my adopted homeland, so do not take these words as anything more than what I intend, which is only honest discourse, if such a thing can exist here at PDF.