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WHEN WILL PAKISTAN COME TO ITS SENSES?
Dr. M. V. Kamath
The cat is finally out of the bag. For Pakistan which has for over six long decades been a ‘puppet’ (that’s how Imran Khan has described his country) of the United States, America now is only a “fair-weather friend” while China is “an all-weather friend”. Imran Khan in a TV interview also described Pakistan as America’s ‘boot-polisher’. He should know. The truth is now slowly coming out. The United States has charged five Pakistan Army officers as being involved in the 9/11 attacks. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has charged the U.S with enabling the rise of Osama bin Laden and the al Qaeda. So mutual recrimination has begun; where and how it will end remains to be seen. But after being a supplicant to the U.S for sixty odd years, after willingly serving America’s strategic interests without protest to get what it wanted in terms of tanks, planes, arms and equipment, not to mention dollars in billions, Pakistan is shamelessly turning towards China in a strange way to express gratitude. All the aid given by the U.S could not help Pakistan to get what it wanted-bleeding India with a thousand cuts. The U.S was willing to accept Pakistan chicanery when it suited it. It looked the other way when Islamabad received nuclear know-how and aid from China. It kept quiet when Pakistan proceeded to produce and stock over a hundred nuclear weapons. It continued to pour economic aid into Pakistan knowing fully well how every dollar it gave was being used by Pakistan for India-centric offensives. It turned a blind eye when the ISI openly aided and abetted secessionist forces like ULFA. India did not matter. When, in reply to Indian protests over American military aid to Pakistan then U.S President Dwight Eisenhower said those arms were not intended for use against India, It was V.K.Krishna Menon who made the classic repartee that the world has yet to make a gun that could shoot only in one direction. Pakistan could do anything to harm India. It received America’s tacit support. India could protest- but it was a cry in the wilderness. Now, is the scenery changing? In his address to the Pakistan Parliament, Gilani said that on the night when a U.S Special Force unit went out to get Osama bin Laden, the Pakistan Air Force “was ordered to scramble” and “ground units arrived at the scene quickly” and Pakistani response demonstrated that its armed forces “reacted as was expected of them”. But how? Gilani is quiet on that score. What did the Ground Units which arrived on the scene “quickly”, do? Did they face up to the U.S. Special Force unit in action? Or did they arrive at the scene too late? There is no answer. In the ‘Fifteen Points’ Gilani raised in Pakistan’s Parliament (that is one ‘point’ more than Jinnah’s infamous Fourteen Points!) the Prime Minister made two significant points. One, he said: With India we are embarked on an important process of engagement that should yield dividends for our two peoples and for peoples of South Asia as a whole. We will pursue our engagement with India in a positive and constructive manner”. Two, he added: “Our engagement with States within our region is being intensified in the interest of shared stability and prosperity”. Which States within Pakistan’s region was Gilani talking about? India, for one ? India would like to have peace with Pakistan, as Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has been time and again trying to impress on Islamabad, but without much success. Is Gilani at last coming to his senses? But what kind of ‘peace’ does Gilani have in mind when over a score of terrorist training camps are actively engaged on the Pakistan side of the Line or Control (LOC) of whose existence the Indian army is acutely aware, as was pointed out by GOC-in-C, Northern Command, Lt. Gen K.T.Parnaik in a post-May 3 interview? India would have every right to attack those camps in self-defense, Pakistani Army Chief Ashfaq Kayani’s threats not withstanding. When will Pakistan dismantle those camps? The current situation provides an excellent opportunity for Pakistan to completely re-think its strategy, as never before. Gilani now has a golden chance to mend fences with India as never before- a chance that may not come again, wish as he may. And there may not be another Prime Minister in India who feels so committed towards peace with Pakistan as is Dr Singh. Will Gilani-and the Pakistan Army-grasp the opportunity that is now theirs for the asking? One thing Gilani and his military cohorts must know: No matter what, Pakistan can never cut off India’s sovereignty over Jammu & Kashmir. And India must inform the United States, Pakistan’s “Fair-weather friend” and China, Pakistan’s “all-weather friend”, to bear this in mind. For Pakistan to keep saying, as for long Gen. Musharraf has been accustomed to saying, that Kashmir is “a Core Issue” would only prolong its agony. In a recent TV interview Musharraf complained about India’s support to Baluchistan secessionists. India sternly denies it. But even if it doesn’t it has every moral right to do so as a matter of tit-for-tat. In politics, it takes two to play the game. The only “Core Issue’ that confront both India and Pakistan is “peace” and it is to that both countries must address themselves. All else is folly. Besides, Pakistan is well-advised to stay clear of China which is only waiting to fish in troubled waters. Gilani may not know-or just as probably he may not want to know-the price that the Chinese people have been made to pay for their country’s alleged prosperity and growth of economic power and its invasion into Central Asian politics. Gilani is welcome to entertain his delusions but he must know that, in the end, only India could be its true friend. China, never. It has its own agenda for becoming a Super Power and can surely be expected to use every trick of the trade to attain its ambition, if necessary, to use Pakistan as the United States pastly has and even now is anxious to continue. It pays China to pretend to be Pakistan’s “all-weather friend” because it has nothing to lose and everything to gain. As its next-door & immediate neighbour, India can enrich Pakistan in a hundred ways and if Gilani does not understand that, he understands nothing. Falling on external support, fanciful or otherwise, can only widen the rift between Pakistan and India which surely would not be in Pakistan’s interests. All that one can say is: Think it over, Mr Prime Minister. It is not as yet too late.
Dr. M. V. Kamath
The cat is finally out of the bag. For Pakistan which has for over six long decades been a ‘puppet’ (that’s how Imran Khan has described his country) of the United States, America now is only a “fair-weather friend” while China is “an all-weather friend”. Imran Khan in a TV interview also described Pakistan as America’s ‘boot-polisher’. He should know. The truth is now slowly coming out. The United States has charged five Pakistan Army officers as being involved in the 9/11 attacks. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has charged the U.S with enabling the rise of Osama bin Laden and the al Qaeda. So mutual recrimination has begun; where and how it will end remains to be seen. But after being a supplicant to the U.S for sixty odd years, after willingly serving America’s strategic interests without protest to get what it wanted in terms of tanks, planes, arms and equipment, not to mention dollars in billions, Pakistan is shamelessly turning towards China in a strange way to express gratitude. All the aid given by the U.S could not help Pakistan to get what it wanted-bleeding India with a thousand cuts. The U.S was willing to accept Pakistan chicanery when it suited it. It looked the other way when Islamabad received nuclear know-how and aid from China. It kept quiet when Pakistan proceeded to produce and stock over a hundred nuclear weapons. It continued to pour economic aid into Pakistan knowing fully well how every dollar it gave was being used by Pakistan for India-centric offensives. It turned a blind eye when the ISI openly aided and abetted secessionist forces like ULFA. India did not matter. When, in reply to Indian protests over American military aid to Pakistan then U.S President Dwight Eisenhower said those arms were not intended for use against India, It was V.K.Krishna Menon who made the classic repartee that the world has yet to make a gun that could shoot only in one direction. Pakistan could do anything to harm India. It received America’s tacit support. India could protest- but it was a cry in the wilderness. Now, is the scenery changing? In his address to the Pakistan Parliament, Gilani said that on the night when a U.S Special Force unit went out to get Osama bin Laden, the Pakistan Air Force “was ordered to scramble” and “ground units arrived at the scene quickly” and Pakistani response demonstrated that its armed forces “reacted as was expected of them”. But how? Gilani is quiet on that score. What did the Ground Units which arrived on the scene “quickly”, do? Did they face up to the U.S. Special Force unit in action? Or did they arrive at the scene too late? There is no answer. In the ‘Fifteen Points’ Gilani raised in Pakistan’s Parliament (that is one ‘point’ more than Jinnah’s infamous Fourteen Points!) the Prime Minister made two significant points. One, he said: With India we are embarked on an important process of engagement that should yield dividends for our two peoples and for peoples of South Asia as a whole. We will pursue our engagement with India in a positive and constructive manner”. Two, he added: “Our engagement with States within our region is being intensified in the interest of shared stability and prosperity”. Which States within Pakistan’s region was Gilani talking about? India, for one ? India would like to have peace with Pakistan, as Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has been time and again trying to impress on Islamabad, but without much success. Is Gilani at last coming to his senses? But what kind of ‘peace’ does Gilani have in mind when over a score of terrorist training camps are actively engaged on the Pakistan side of the Line or Control (LOC) of whose existence the Indian army is acutely aware, as was pointed out by GOC-in-C, Northern Command, Lt. Gen K.T.Parnaik in a post-May 3 interview? India would have every right to attack those camps in self-defense, Pakistani Army Chief Ashfaq Kayani’s threats not withstanding. When will Pakistan dismantle those camps? The current situation provides an excellent opportunity for Pakistan to completely re-think its strategy, as never before. Gilani now has a golden chance to mend fences with India as never before- a chance that may not come again, wish as he may. And there may not be another Prime Minister in India who feels so committed towards peace with Pakistan as is Dr Singh. Will Gilani-and the Pakistan Army-grasp the opportunity that is now theirs for the asking? One thing Gilani and his military cohorts must know: No matter what, Pakistan can never cut off India’s sovereignty over Jammu & Kashmir. And India must inform the United States, Pakistan’s “Fair-weather friend” and China, Pakistan’s “all-weather friend”, to bear this in mind. For Pakistan to keep saying, as for long Gen. Musharraf has been accustomed to saying, that Kashmir is “a Core Issue” would only prolong its agony. In a recent TV interview Musharraf complained about India’s support to Baluchistan secessionists. India sternly denies it. But even if it doesn’t it has every moral right to do so as a matter of tit-for-tat. In politics, it takes two to play the game. The only “Core Issue’ that confront both India and Pakistan is “peace” and it is to that both countries must address themselves. All else is folly. Besides, Pakistan is well-advised to stay clear of China which is only waiting to fish in troubled waters. Gilani may not know-or just as probably he may not want to know-the price that the Chinese people have been made to pay for their country’s alleged prosperity and growth of economic power and its invasion into Central Asian politics. Gilani is welcome to entertain his delusions but he must know that, in the end, only India could be its true friend. China, never. It has its own agenda for becoming a Super Power and can surely be expected to use every trick of the trade to attain its ambition, if necessary, to use Pakistan as the United States pastly has and even now is anxious to continue. It pays China to pretend to be Pakistan’s “all-weather friend” because it has nothing to lose and everything to gain. As its next-door & immediate neighbour, India can enrich Pakistan in a hundred ways and if Gilani does not understand that, he understands nothing. Falling on external support, fanciful or otherwise, can only widen the rift between Pakistan and India which surely would not be in Pakistan’s interests. All that one can say is: Think it over, Mr Prime Minister. It is not as yet too late.
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