M.D. Nalapat
Manipal, India —
Say this for Pakistan’s army, their after-shave works reducing the critical
faculties of U.S. "experts" on Pakistan within the CIA, the State
Department and the Department of Defense to blobs of helpless jelly.
Since the
jihadization of the military by Pakistan’s former President General Zia-ul-Haq
in the 1970s, officer corps within the force has continued as a force
multiplier for the numerous terror groups headquartered in urban and rural
communities across the country.
Except for
Jehangir Karamat, Pakistan’s former chief of Army Staff, who accepted his 1998
dismissal at the hands of then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, no chief of Army
Staff since Zia-ul-Haq (1976-1988) has accepted any role for the elected
civilian government of Pakistan in matters considered by the military to be
within its purview. These include the portfolios of defense, foreign affairs
and now the prime minister’s office, as well as subjects such as assistance to
terror organizations, and the nuclear deterrent. Such an arrangement has had
the tacit acquiescence of every NATO country including those who specialize in
delivering sermons on democracy and human rights.
Despite the
control of the armed forces over most areas considered key to the functioning
of a government in any major country, both India as well as the United Kingdom
are enthusiastic in insisting that Pakistan remain within
"value-based" fora like the Commonwealth, and back every loan
application of that country in the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund despite the kleptomania of its higher echelons, which admittedly is a
trait shared by Pakistan with several countries in the world including India.
Except the
United States, no country in the world has lavished more treasure on Pakistan
including the two runners-up in its “Santa Claus” sweepstakes - Saudi Arabia and
China.
The generals in
Islamabad have found a new champion in U.S. Senator John Kerry eager to funnel
billions of U.S. taxpayer’s dollars towards a state whose key functions are
controlled by accessories of the Jihad International. Although U.S. President
Barack Obama made a few comments about ensuring that the Pakistan military
return to health by withdrawing from jihad as well as in governance, Obama
seems to be following the lead of former U.S. President Bill Clinton, whose
tenure saw a sharp rise in the influence of jihadists within the Pakistan
military helped along by complaisant U.S. envoys.
It was during
the Clinton presidency that Saudi Arabia and the U.S. helped the Pakistan army
set up the Taliban. And although in a few cases hindsight is 20:20, in the case
of Pakistan, it has remained at close to zero levels for more than four decades
of substantial U.S. involvement in that country.
Since 2005,
Pakistan’s army has been using its multiple (and credulous) contacts within the
U.S. policy and academic establishment to press forward its line of engagement
with the "Good Taliban.” In other words, those are who believe women need
not get an education or work except in the house and that minorities have the
same "rights" as Jews did under Nazi Germany.
By surrendering
the Swat valley to the Taliban, the army in Pakistan has created a safe haven
for Al Qaeda to continue its mission of converting the entire country into a
safe haven for terrorists like Afghanistan was under the Taliban.
Expert at managing
the media, Pakistan’s military under General Ashfaq Kiyani, an officer in the
social and ideological mould of his hero Zia-ul-Haq has ensured a steady flow
of reports in the Western media pointing out the obvious that President Asif
Ali Zardari is a playboy known to have made money through means other than
saving a percentage of his official salary.
What such
commentaries fail to consider is that Zardari is a Sufi, whose family has been
bred in the syncretic and moderate traditions of that philosophy and that he
has sought to ensure de-linking the Pakistani establishment from the terror
networks, which operate today in the country with near impunity.
With his prime
minister, defense minister, interior minister and foreign minister taking
orders from Kayani rather than from himself, Zardari has found his authority
ebbing away. Despite Zardari's recent decision to go along with Kayani's
wishes, apparent in his recent public endorsement of the army-sponsored deal
with the so-called "moderate Taliban" in Swat, the embattled
president is soon likely to be confronted by a slew of charges that Kayani
hopes will force his resignation.
Instead, Kayani’s
head needs to roll, under whose watch Pakistan has abandoned even the pretense
of
fighting the Taliban and other terror
networks, a charade former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf maintained to
his military's great advantage.
Pakistan’s
current president needs to appoint an Army chief of his choice and ensure
through amendments to the law that he behave not as an overlord but like a
professional soldier, based on the US model.
Subsequently,
the Pakistan army needs to undertake a ruthless winnowing-out of jihadist
elements from its officer corps and special privileges given to jihadists since
the 1970s need to be withdrawn in stages.
Such surgery
seems drastic, but unless it is conducted, Pakistan will continue its descent
into Talibanization. The bold and the beautiful in its urban centers will get
swallowed up the way their counterparts in Afghanistan were during the 1990s.
Kerry is wrong.
Pakistan needs major surgery and not coddling. Unless the civilian government
headed by Zardari is empowered by the international community to conduct such
an operation, and unless Nawaz Sharif is warned away from his current
flirtation with the military brass and their terrorist associates, Kerry will
need to convene a series of senate hearings on "Why Pakistan failed"
within the next five years. Although his ignorance of ground realities in
Pakistan is appalling, Kerry is regrettably hardly alone.
Practically all
NATO "experts" on Pakistan are as blind to the looming future as they
were in the previous decade about the real nature of the Taliban. The civilized
world is already in a war that has Pakistan as the major theatre and unless it
gives battle now, it will face a much more deadly battle within the next five
years, like the Allies did from 1939 to 1941, after they ignored the Nazi storm
during 1936-1938.
-(Professor M.D. Nalapat is vice-chair of the Manipal Advanced
Research Group, UNESCO Peace Chair, and professor of geopolitics at Manipal
University. ©Copyright M.D. Nalapat.)
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