Tuesday, February 23, 2010

THE MYTH OF STRATEGIC DEPTH: PAKISTAN MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT IN REAL TROUBLE NOW

The recent statement by the former Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan Mullah Abdus Salam Zaeef that Pakistan should not be included in the Afghan reconciliation talks because it is not trustworthy. He observed that including Pakistan into talks will complicate the process. He advised Pakistan to bring order to its own house first and then mingle into the affairs of Afghanistan. This means that even Talibans are realising that enough is enough and they will not be used any more by the Pakistan Army a proxy to promote the medieval Wahabist Ideology of Saudi Arabia.
It is a first slap on the face of the Pakistan Military Establishment (PME), which has been involved in Afghanistan for the last 4 decades using Pashtuns first against the Former USSR and after 9/11 the same army took U-Turn not only turning its back to Talibans but working as a proxy just for money to kill innocent Pashtuns in Afghanistan, FATA and N-WFP. Now, what this hypocrat Pak military leadership think about its so-called strategic depth or rather Stretegic Escape for which hundreds of thousands of innocent during Pashtuns have been killed after the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan and now in the War against terrorism. Have they achieved that so-called strategic depth? Still Pakistan believe that it is a trustworthy party in the war on terrorism? The Talibans, ISIs buddies and proxies who provided substance to the so-called myth of strategic depth have also turned against Pakistan. Pakistan is virtually out of the Afghan Peace Process. Amost all the parties to the conflict including Northern Alliance, Talibans, President Karzai, USA, Iran and Russia simply do not trust Pakistan as a reliable party. Pakistan has been playing double game with all these important actors at the Afghan war stage for its pity vested interest jeopardizing the peace of this war ravaged region.
By the way, who can trust an army whose former Chief, General Pervez Musharaf openly declares in his book that he has been selling Pakistanis for dollars to CIA. Pakistan played double games both with Pashtuns and USA & NATO forces in Afghanistan. All military operations since 2004 in FATA and then in Swat 2009 have not Witnessed a single Taliban leader either killed or arrested. Rather, Talibans have been informed in advance to vacate the areas before these so-called operations and then started killing innocent civilians pashtuns by airiel bombardment of fighters, gunship helicopters and long range artillery in clear violation of the Geneva Convention.
I do not know how can General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani can dare to tell Journalists at NATO Headquarters in Brussels that Pakistan Army is not playing a double game with US and NATO forces in Afghanistan and it is ready to provide training to Afghan Police and Army. It is proved beyond doubt that the Pakistan Army and its affiliated secret service ISI has been passing on information received from USA to Talibans to protect them from US attacks. Similarly, Talibans have also been trained to protect themselves from new advanced war technologies and develop counter-attack strategies and tactics to inflict maximum damage on US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. The present re-resurgence of Talibans in Afghanistan would not have been possible without the support of Pakistan Army and its secret service ISI, which is providing training, logistics, finances and sanctuaries to Talibans. It is well-known fact that ISI is enlisting the services of retired army offices to work under the garb of social work for certain days in months to provide training to Talibans and actively help Talibans conduct attacks on Allied forces in Afghanistan. Such operations are kept secret even from the families of those officers enlisted for these operations. Due to the same reason, distrust seems to prevail between Pakistan and India in the resumption of Dialogue to resolve the the 63 years old conflicts between the two nuclear armed neighbours. In a response to Prime Minister Yousof Raza Gilanis demand for information exchange between India and Pakistan on militants involved in terrorist activities, an Indian Political analyst made a very interesting observation which says, " Pakistan would want India to share actionable intelligence with Pakistan, which they can pass on to their terror tanzims (organisations)! Something the ISI did with information shared by the CIA on the South Waziristan militants"
The generals are harping the tune of being trustworthy but in reality their claims are exposed to both friends and foes. On the other hand, Karachi has exploded as I have been predicting for quite some time. The game of blood-litting has started first with the explosion at the Karbala procession of Shia and then the blood-bath of target killing of Pashtuns and again two planted bomb explosions, one at the Chehlem of Shia procession and the other at the Jinnah Hospital Karachi where the victims fo the first blast were treated. Such atrocities are not witnessed even in War Zones in the world where hospitals are targeted in such a shameless manner. The Troika of ISI, Talibans and MQM have again started killing innocent Pashtuns in Karachi. MQM in its effort to prove to USA that it is the sole-power at Karachi to deal with, is involved in heinous crimes against humanity in cohute with secret military agencies of Pakistan to marginalise pashtuns socially. economically and politically. It should be an eye opener for those pashtuns who are being used by Pakistan Military Establishment (PME) in Afghanistan to further its interests. Pak military establishment is not interested in resolving the problems of Pashtuns rather it is playing a dirty game by supporting ethnic Pashtun Talibans at one front in Afghanistan and killing them at another at Karachi by actively supporting a gang of criminals and thugs with a political label called MQM.
The involvement of Pakistan Army in Drugs-smuggling and distribution to run its secret operations, selling nuclear secrets to Libya and Iran, earning huge commissions on controversial arms-deals and killing innocent French Engineers at Karachi in 2002 when they could not receive the promised kick-backs, are few examples which depict the real face of this rogue army. This Sacred Cow (ARMY) is responsible for the drug-addiction of 6 millions Pakistanis as the same army smuggled and distributed drugs in the streets of Pakistan to earn money for its so-called secret operations. The Washington Post published the story of renowned Pakistani Journalist Kamran Khan according to which in 1991, Nawaz Sharif ( then Prime Minister) was presented a foolproof plan to generate money by dealing in drugs by General Aslam Beg (then Army Chief) along with Major-General Asad Durrani, chief of the ISI.. They asked for his permission to associate themselves with the drug trade, assuring him of full secrecy and no chance of any trail leading back to them. Nawaz remarked that on hearing this he felt the roof had caved in on him. He told them he could have nothing to do with such a plan and refused to give his approval. Drug money was and is used by ISI to finance not only the Afghanistan war, but also the proxy war against India in Punjab and Kashmir. The former Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) was the ISI's main international financial vehicle to launder drug money. According to report of the United Nations Drug Control Programme the ISI annually makes around $ 2.5 billion through this source. Besides it is involved in printing of fake currency notes through the National Jehad Council at its printing press at Muzaffarabad in so-called Azad Kashmir.
Former President of Pakistan General Zia-ul Haq was also implied in the drug trade. In 1985, a Norwegian government investigation led to the arrest of a Pakistani drug dealer who was President Zia’s personal finance manager. When arrested, his briefcase contained Zia’s personal banking records. Similarly, his close friend and then Governor of N-WFP was considered to be the Drug King of the area, earning billions of dollars in drug money until killed cold-blood close to his house despite huge security. It is believed that ISI was involved in his killing, fearing that he may disclose the facts of ISI dirty drug business.
The kidnapping and subsequent killing of Wall Street Journal Journalist Daniel Pearl was also organised by the groups trained, financed and supported by ISI. Pakistani police named a banned Islamic group, the Jaish-e- Mohamed (the Army of Mohamed), for the killing, an organisation set up by the ISI to fight in Kashmir and now involved in jihadi operations Afghanistan along with Talibans. One simply does not understand the logic behind PME philosophy of using unfair, criminal and un-ethical means to promote a so-called Holly Cause of Islamic values. The discrepencies in policy options by considering the same thing good for Afghanistan and bad for Pakistan. Strategic Depth or strategic strength is achieved by winning hearts and minds of the people, by cultivating enduring relationships based on strong foundations rather than imposing wars on other nations and groups. If you achieve such strategic depth by means of war then you will have to maintain it by war and war is never the solution. The problem with Pakistan is that Civilian political leadership has never been given power to make Internal and External policies. PME always used civilian leadership to further its own interests. Foreign Affairs, defence and security have been no-go-areas for them. Now, with the independence of media and judiciary, politicians have started complaining about their problems which handicapped them in resolving the internal and external problems. Three senators of Pakistan including a Federal Minister have openly admitted that they are not consulted in any issues related to military operations in different areas of FATA and managing the foreign affairs of Pakistan. MNAs, Senators,ministers, even the President and Prime Minister are not taken into confidence on these military operations and evolution of foreign affairs. If military seems to be winning, it is applauded. When there are failures civilian leadership is blamed. The time has come now that we have to accept the truth that military minds can only think wars, Pakistan need civilian leadership to think peace.

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