Why not a civilian head of ISI? An insight into the power struggle between democracy and establishment in Pakistan

Here are two columns, one by Kamran Shafi and the other by Nazir Naji, highlighting the nature of the current power struggle between the democratic government and the civil and military establishment in Pakistan.

Democracy? Nahaq hum majbooron per.....

Why not a civilian head of ISI?
By Kamran Shafi
Tuesday, 17 Nov, 2009

IN view of the fact that the cardinal sin of the federal government to try and put the ISI under civilian control is cited as a reason behind all the obituaries presently being written about the imminent fall of a) just the president; b) all the major politicians; and c) the whole shoot, I’ve been trolling through the Internet to see how just many of the world’s top intelligence services are headed by serving military (in Pakistan’s case, read ‘army’) officers.

And how many are appointed by the army chief. Consider what I’ve come up with.

Except for two retired army officers in the early days, one a lieutenant colonel the other a major general, all the DGs of MI5, the “United Kingdom’s internal counter-intelligence and security agency were civil servants. The director-general reports to the home secretary, although the Security Service is not formally part of the home office”, and through him to the prime minister.

“The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), colloquially known as MI6 is the United Kingdom’s external intelligence agency. Under the direction of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), it works alongside the Security Service (MI5), Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the defence intelligence staff (DIS).” Except for one naval captain, an admiral, a lieutenant colonel and a major general in the very early days, all of them retired, every single chief of this agency has been a ‘bloody civilian’, some from within its own ranks, others from the civil service. The present director is Britain’s former ambassador to the United Nations. The director reports to the chief cabinet secretary and through him to the prime minister.

Directors of Mossad, the dreaded Israeli intelligence agency which seems to be running rings (if reports in our conservative press and on our fire-breathing TV channels are to be believed) around our very own Mother of All Agencies, has been headed mostly by retired military officials (remember please that military service is compulsory in Israel) but also by ‘bloody civilians’. Mossad’s director is appointed by the prime minister and reports directly to him.

The director of the Central Intelligence Agency reports to the director of national intelligence (DNI), who in turn reports to the White House. The director is appointed by the president after recommendation from the DNI, and must be confirmed by a majority vote of the Senate. While there is no statutory provision which specifically excludes active military personnel from being nominated for the position, most directors have been civilians.

Barring Gen Reinhard Gehlen who set up the German intelligence agency Abteilung Fremde Heere Ost to principally keep an eye on the Russian easternfront during the Second World War, the present federal intelligence service, Bundesnachrichtendienst(BND), has always been headed by civilian public officials, notably by civil servant, lawyer and politician of the liberal Free Democratic Party, Klaus Kinkel who rose to be Germany’s federal minister of justice (1991–1992), foreign minister (1992–1998) and vice chancellor of Germany (1993–1998).

Next door in India all directors of RAW have been civilians, either civil servants or policemen or officials from within its own ranks. While the director RAW, also known as ‘Secretary (R)’, is under the direct command of the prime minister, he reports on an administrative basis to the cabinet secretary. However, on a daily basis ‘Secretary (R)’ reports to the national security adviser to the prime minister.

RAW too, if the press and TV channels are to be taken seriously, is running rings around us in close collaboration with Mossad.

So then, why is it that only in our country, our intelligence service is the fief of the army, and only of the army? Surely there are competent people other than generals who could well head the organisation and be a credit to it? I mean if all of the world’s leading agencies can be headed by civilians why not our ISI?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, what is known as the ‘Ghairat Lobby’ has taken yet another drubbing with the most recent report of the LA Times to the effect that ever since 9/11 fully one-third of the CIA’s budget has been diverted to the ISI. It also reminds us brutally what the Commando has already told us in his ‘book’ (stand up, Humayun Gohar): that the ISI sold people, some surely terrorists some very surely innocent, to the Americans for cash payments as low as $5000 a go, and as high as millions of dollars for those who had huge head moneys on offer for their capture/death.

It also tells us that the CIA money was in addition to the $15bn that poured into the country during the Commando’s dictatorship. In the words of the LA Times the ISI, “had also collected tens of millions of dollars through a classified CIA programme that pays for the capture or killing of wanted militants, a clandestine counterpart to the rewards publicly offered by the State Department”. Will the Ghairat Lobby please sit up and take note, and understand that such reports make its ghairatmand stand on the Kerry-Lugar Law all the more ludicrous and hypocritical.

Let me here once more caution the leaders of the major political parties, the PML-N and the PPP: please close ranks and collectively beat back the ongoing assault on democracy by the establishment. Our country simply cannot take another extra-legal intervention (I did not say martial law) to remove any one individual, or two, from the scene. To President Zardari let me say, yet again: do not prevaricate, act now on the Charter of Democracy; break away from the too-clever-by-half -self-servers that you have surrounded yourself with.

To Mr Nawaz Sharif, this: Asif Zardari is not the only target of the establishment, he is only the first. You are next. Consider: if there is an anti-AZ story on one page, there is an anti-NS story on another page of the same newspaper on the same day. The Internet is full of planted stories on both the large political parties; stories that desperately try to turn lay people away from electoral politics. Be prepared for more dirt.

United you politicians will stand, divided you will fall.

P.S. The Balochistan High Court has ordered Musharraf to appear before it in the case of Nawab Akbar Bugti’s murder. How come there is no further reporting on this earth-shaking event, weeks down the line, as if it never happened?

kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk


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The ‘Ghairat Brigade’ and the hyper-nationalism

By Kamran Shafi
Tuesday, 10 Nov, 2009

...Meanwhile back at the ranch, what is now increasingly known as the ‘Ghairat Brigade’ proceeds apace with its denunciation of the elected government in particular and politicians in general. The Internet is inundated with stories about the corruption of all politicians; the inefficiency of the only government in Pakistan which seems to be doing a half-decent job — the Punjab government; and of the selling down the river of Pakistan, its nuclear assets, its sovereignty et al, by the ‘bloody civilians’. Scenarios predicting the imminent fall of the government, followed by the wrapping up of the whole shoot are doing the rounds of the drawing rooms of the rich and the famous, what I call the Beautiful People.

Yet, just look at the shenanigans of the newest godfather of the ‘Ghairat Brigade’: “I said to the Americans, ‘Give us the Predators.’ It was refused. I told the Americans, ‘Then just say publicly that you’re giving them to us. You keep on firing them but put Pakistan Air Force markings on them.’ That, too, was denied” — Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf, former chief of the army staff, Pakistan Army, in a most recent interview with Seymour Hersh of the New Yorker. I ask you!

Where is the ‘Ghairat Lobby’ now when Musharraf’s subterfuge to trick the Pakistani nation has been made public: whilst going all the way with the Americans in allowing the drone attacks, asking them to camouflage their drones in PAF colours. Yet his acolytes have the gall to put the blame for drone attacks entirely on the present lot?

The Commando has also had (one of his) comeuppance(s), however. Asked if he had met any senior Obama administration official, he said, “I did not ask for a meeting because I was afraid of being told no.” Well, serves him right.

What else can I say but that sense should be knocked into the knuckleheaded, actually venal and dishonest establishment and its paid hacks by the lay people of this country who are up to here with being fed the worst tripe for the past 60-plus years; who are at the end of their tether with the sickening and ever shrill crescendo of blame and accusations and the strictest censure of politicians, and only politicians.

Case in point, a move in the Senate of Pakistan initiated by Senator-for-Life Wasim Sajjad: “Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any law and treaty, and undertaking or conditionalities agreed with any foreign country, the president of Pakistan shall certify in January each year on behalf of the government of Pakistan to each house of parliament that the sovereignty and honour of Pakistan have not been compromised in any manner whatsoever, that no compromise has been made on security (sic) or effectiveness of the nuclear programme of Pakistan; that no understanding has been reached with any foreign country for interference in the change of command or promotions in the Pakistan armed forces or in the structure or role of the security forces of Pakistan; and that no conditionalities have been accepted from any source.”

He also said that the KLA (Kerry Lugar act) raised many concerns and caused serious worries in almost all civil and military circles’. Er, is this Senator Waseem Sajjad the same person who allegedly carried the army’s message to the Supreme Court these many years ago? I ask you, again!

To end, might I refer to friend Cyril Almeida’s question of last week: “Can our politicians ever make it work?” Yes, yes, yes, Cyril, provided our democracy gets the time it takes to grow and flower and prosper, to which endeavour all of us must be party by saying with one voice: “No matter what, never another army take-over!!” Otherwise we are lost.

PS May I one more time say to the leaders of Pakistan’s largest parties, President Asif Ali Zardari and Mian Nawaz Sharif: stay together and defeat the anti-democratic forces, or get ‘sorted out’ one by one. Particularly to Asif Zardari may I say yet again, “You don’t need four months to get rid of the 17th Amendment. All it takes is two days!! Do it!”

kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk (Source

Tail-piece:
Rejecting hyper-nationalists
Tuesday, November 10, 2009 (The News)
Mosharraf Zaidi

No one doubts that Pakistan has enemies. No one has legitimately made an argument that any country is particularly interested in Pakistan for noble or selfless reasons. And no one that can be taken seriously can defend politicians and their enablers as they slavishly tout talking points that have no basis in the South Asian Muslim narrative around which mainstream Pakistan’s values and ethos are constructed.

The hyper-nationalist discourse that seeks to locate Pakistan’s problems in Zionism, Indian spies, or American development assistance, however, is not nationalist at all. How can anybody, who really cares for Pakistan, be so wickedly unaware of the potential dangers of targeting foreign correspondents? How can anybody that cares for Pakistan continually attempt to inject Pakistanis with the heroin of blaming ‘the other’? How can anybody that cares for Pakistan so consistently defy and deny any attempt to inspect and assess the damage that Pakistan does to itself? How can anybody that cares about Pakistan surgically delegitimise questions about the accountability of mercenaries hired to protect diplomats?

When Pakistanis that love their country read the hyper-nationalist press in Pakistan, or watch pundits spew irrational and unsubstantiated allegations on television, they need to resist embracing the warm comfort of blaming ‘the other’. The overwhelmingly vast majority of Pakistan’s problems are a direct consequence of decisions made by Pakistani individuals, groups and organisations. The dangers of allowing conspiracy theories to go unchallenged are not just intellectual. Daniel Pearl lost his life because of a delusional, conspiratorial and escapist culture among extremists. Pakistanis, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, should have nothing but contempt for this culture. It certainly must not be allowed to expand its influence. And being rational about the threats Pakistan faces does not mean you are being unpatriotic. Quite the opposite.

Resistance to hyper-nationalism must begin with rejecting it, and end with registering that rejection in writing. Write a letter to every newspaper and television channel and raise your voice. The depth and seriousness of Pakistan’s fragile middle class voice rests on it. We cannot allow this voice to be hijacked by the hyper-nationalists that concoct malicious and dangerous lies to appeal to our patriotism. www.mosharrafzaidi.com (Source)

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Beware of the unholy nexus of civil and military establishment in Pakistan.

A fine mess what, gentlemen

By Kamran Shafi
Tuesday, 27 Oct, 2009

Interior Minister Rehman Malik, left, talks to his Iranian counterpart Mostafa Mohammad Najjar during their meeting in Islamabad. Najjar is in Pakistan for talks on efforts to battle a Sunni militant group blamed for a recent suicide bombing that killed top Revolutionary Guard commanders and dozens of others. –AP Photo

What gives? I mean, really! As if our problems with India and Afghanistan; and in our own provinces of the Frontier and Balochistan and possibly soon in southern Punjab were not enough! As if the security situation in our country was not already as dire as to dictate the closure of all schools and universities for a week and as if we were not in the throes of violence never seen before, we have now riled the Iranians enough for them to send their interior minister to Pakistan for a whole week to present evidence that Jundallah cadres regularly cross the Pakistan-Iran border to wreak havoc in Iran.

The latest incident was the bombing of a meeting of senior Revolutionary Guard commanders in which several generals and other senior officers were killed.
Then for days on end news circulates in all of the media that the army has made pacts with certain anti-US but not necessarily anti-Pakistan extremist fanatics in Waziristan such as Maulvi Nazir and Hafiz Gul Bahadur to get safe passage through their areas as it advances towards Hakimullah Mehsud.

On the seventh day of this news doing the rounds with no clarification, and possibly after American displeasure, this news suddenly changes to suggest that the pacts were made by the civilian government! What is going on?

This is not all. There are persistent reports, specially in this paper, that the Ghazi Force named after Maulana Ghazi Abdul Rashid of the Red Mosque, Islamabad the Beautiful, is still very much active and could well be involved in terror activities not only in Islamabad and Rawalpindi but across the length and breadth of this poor country, marrying up with the yahoos in Waziristan and Swat too.

We must recall immediately, if only to expose the double-facedness of the establishment, that after his death in a completely stupidly planned (and delayed) action against the Lal Masjid, Ghazi’s remains were sent by a government helicopter to his native village in Dera Ghazi Khan for a burial attended by thousands of people.
We must immediately juxtapose this with the treatment given to the hanged Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, an elected and popular leader, at whose funeral not more than 10 people were allowed. Whose wife and daughter were not allowed to attend the last rites of their loved one.

This is not all. Compare this with the way in which two-time elected prime minister Nawaz Sharif, elected chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, and their families were not allowed to come back to the country to attend their dear father’s funeral. Compare it too with the way in which former governor and former elected chief minister Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti was consigned to his grave in a rudely padlocked wooden box with six or seven government lackeys attending.

Amidst all of this, the security establishment persists in leaking stories to the press about the unacceptability of the language used in the Kerry-Lugar bill in what can only be called trying to stare the government down. What purpose this will achieve, apart from destabilising the ‘bloody civilians’ a little bit more, only our Rommels and Guderians can tell us.

What we already know, however, is that the US Congress has put more conditions on military aid to Pakistan, due not only to the ill-thought out ramblings of the Commando while giving lectures in places such as Sioux Falls, SD but also due to the mindless press release issued so arrogantly by GHQ.

As is usual with us, we proceed headlong in our blind quest for making ever bigger fools of ourselves: on Oct 20 the following was quoted in the press, and extensively on the Internet: ‘During a meeting with US Central Command (Centcom chief Gen David Petraeus, he [Gen Kayani] discussed the US providing state-of-the-art weapons to Pakistani forces to help them combat terrorists in the Tribal Areas. The two generals also exchanged views on increasing cooperation in the war on terror and sharing intelligence to combat terrorists of [sic] the region.’

Yet, 12 days before this meeting, the by now infamous ISPR press release had been issued. Does nobody think things through?

When will the establishment stop trying to box above its weight, for heaven’s sake; when will it release its deathly grip on this poor and hapless country’s jugular by forsaking forever its power projection strategy, a ‘strategy’ that has repeatedly brought us (and it) grief? When will it realise that there are no good Maulvi Nazirs and Hafiz Gul Bahadurs?

When will it give up its self-arrogated position of arbiter of what is good and what is not good for Pakistan? When will it understand, if not for the country’s sake then for its own, that there is very little currency in destabilising democracy? And when will it understand that instead of blaming others we must put our own house in order? Case in point: hacks sympathetic to them say that India was behind the attack on GHQ! Where’s the proof then?

By the time you read this, President Asif Zardari and Mr Nawaz Sharif will already have met. Today’s newspapers will be full of what happened last night: did they or did they not achieve a breakthrough?

I am no soothsayer, but I do know this: if these two largest political parties do not rein in their hawks; if the PPP does not fulfill its promises such as implementing the Charter of Democracy, and removing the dictatorial aspects of the 17th Amendment; if the parties do not come to an accommodation, the establishment and its ‘agencies’ will first kill one, then the other.

kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk

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Bullying ‘bloody civilians’ over the Kerry-Lugar Bill

Bullying ‘bloody civilians’

By Kamran Shafi
Tuesday, 13 Oct, 2009 (Dawn)

Our Rommels and Guderians are not about to alight from their top of the line BMWs and Mercedes and climb into Suzuki Mehrans. –File Photo

I have read the complete text of the Kerry-Lugar Bill four times. I find nothing in it that impinges on Pakistan’s sovereignty, which went out the window with the Pakistan Army’s first steps towards forming a symbiotic, but completely inferior, relationship with the United States military.

I give below verbatim (parenthesis mine) an exact copy, but slightly abbreviated, of a Top Secret but now declassified (vide NND 959417 14/1/93) letter written by Gen Mohammad Ayub Khan, C-in-C of the Pakistan Army, to Admiral Arthur Radford, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff, Pentagon [sic], Washington D.C. (Please read athttp://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/pakistan/ayubkhan27sept1955.htm)

‘General Headquarters
Rawalpindi
[Pakistan]
27th Sep ‘55.
D.O. No. 7/36/C-in-C.

My dear Admiral Radford,
Considering that you have been such a good friend, I thought you would be interested to know how the affairs of military aid stand looked at from our angle … which to say the least is gloomy.

2. In early 1954, we were informed that Meyer’s Mission was coming out to Pakistan to negotiate details of military aid with us. In order to prepare our appreciation and plan for presentation to this Mission, we made several approaches to Pentagon [sic] to give us an indication of the scope of the aid. On failing to get any reply we prepared our case on the following basis.
In the event of major aggression against Pakistan, determine the forces required to:-
(a) Defend it.
(b) Launch a counter-offensive from it.
The result of appreciation on the above basis gave us an estimate of the additional effort to be put in by USA. [sic] after deducting our maximum effort on one or both scores, depending on how far America was prepared to go. It was not till the end of our briefing we were told [sic] that … the Mission had come out to find out our deficiencies in nuts and bolts and no more.

3. Then came our meeting in Washington in October ‘54. On it [sic] we were told
that America would be prepared to complete one ½ Division of our Armour and four Divisions of Infantry, and as we were spending the maximum we could on Armed Forces, apart from weapons etc required our additional
internal expense [salaries, staff cars?] would also be covered for these Formations. The programme was to take three years to complete. Thereafter our dealings began with the USMAAG.

4 .Now that the target was set, I thought the things will move smoothly so long as a sound working arrangement was evolved between the American Staff and our Staff. So, I issued a directive to my staff that they will work in close collaboration with the Americans, who were also asked to work more or less on a joint staff basis with our fellows. Unfortunately I failed to obtain American cooperation on this with the result that when our staff presented our requirements list it was objected to on the ground that our Divisional strength was in excess of theirs, which could not be supported. In any case no more than 40,000 additional men could be catered for. Our figure was 56,000 men. When asked for the working of the figure of 40,000 men, no satisfactory answer could be given.

5. Thereupon the whole thing was put in the melting pot and our staff went to work again. We reduced our establishments to remain within 40,000 men additional permissible limit with the following effect:-
(a) Reducing of officer strength by 20per cent.
(b) Reduction of JCO and OR strength by 10per cent.
(c) Conversion of A/Tk units to Fd Arty Units.
(d) Conversion of two 5.5’ gun units to 155 mm How units.
(e) Non-activation of certain units.
(f) Deletion of expansion in Schools & Centers [sic].

6. Our requirements based on above [sic] were then worked out and submitted to USMAAG and presumably accepted by the Department of the Army, who allotted certain amount of funds for internal use for the fiscal year 1954-55. Incidentally the allotment for a certain set of accommodation [!] estimated to cost 16.64 crores [sic] rupees was 7.40 crores and so on. Meanwhile, the whole of Pakistan Army [sic] in general and especially the five ½ Divisions earmarked for completion are being churned up and re-organised to conform as far as practicable to American establishments.

7. Then came the bomb-shell in the form of the message from the Head of the USMAAG … shorn of its verbiage it reads that as far as the Army is concerned the ceiling of military aid is 75.5 million dollars and that all talk of balancing five ½ Division [sic] is revoked.

8. Forgive me for being frank, but I would be failing in my duty if I did not tell you that our people are completely frustrated. They think they have been given an enormous amount of work unnecessarily and that they have been let down. They are in a mood not to accept an American word however solemnly given. This is sad in that it does not augur well for our future good relationship which was one of the things I had been hoping to develop.

9. What the political repercussions be [sic] when this news gets known, and after all you cannot conceal facts indefinitely in a Democracy [this is really rich coming from the grand-daddy of coups d’état in the Land of the Pure!], I do not know. But one thing I do know that [sic] this government will come under tremendous pressure and fire from within and without.
Hope you are in very good health.
With best wishes,
Yours sincerely,
M.A. Khan’

So, gentlemen, why the discourteous, nay rebellious reaction to the Kerry-Lugar bill? Bullying the ‘bloody civilians,’ eh? After all your great forebear even gave out the TO&E (table of organisation and equipment) of the Pakistan Army in such detail? Surely the bit about the secretary of state certifying ever so often that the bloody civilians in Pakistan ‘exercise effective control of the military…’!?

I can only appeal to President Obama not to change a single word in the bill except ‘or the reallocation of Pakistan’s financial resources that would otherwise be spent for programmes and activities unrelated to its nuclear weapons programme.’

For that is our money. Otherwise tell ‘em to take it or leave it. Our Rommels and Guderians are not about to alight from their top of the line BMWs and Mercedes and climb into Suzuki Mehrans.

kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk

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Sovereignty or

self-perpetuation? Thursday, October 15, 2009 Fayyaz Ali Khan Amazingly, the people of Pakistan are being convinced to reject a US financial assistance bill which, for the first time in our history intends to help the people and bar the government from diverting these funds to the military, which many view as being the main hindrance to democracy in the country. Why do we call it dictation when the bill bars the government from diverting these funds to the military? Isn't it a fact that so far whatever foreign aid has been given to Pakistan, most of it has been consumed by the military establishment? Is it not a fact that the sons of all the previous dictators, who all belonged to the middle or lower middle classes of our society, are today some of the richest in this country? I think we have "eaten enough grass" and the time has come to inject some nutrients in to the drained veins of the hapless masses. Why is it being portrayed as meddling in our internal affairs when the bill, under the heading, purpose of assistance, says, "to help strengthen the institutions of democratic governance and promote control of military institutions by a democratically elected civilian government"? Or when it states, under limitations on certain assistance, "the security forces of Pakistan are not materially and substantially subverting the political or judicial processes in Pakistan"? Is it not what our Constitution says? Or are we forgetting Chaudhry Shujaat's famous utterances that it takes only one jeep and a truck to bring about regime change in this country? Why are we raising a ruckus over the Americans asking us not to get involved in nuclear proliferation or to stop supporting networks involved in proliferation activities given that it has been proven that certain Pakistani individuals were indeed involved in such activities? Also, what is so wrong with the certification requirement in the bill that the government of Pakistan prevent Al Qaeda, the Taliban and associated terrorist groups, such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, from operating within the territory of Pakistan? That this also include the prevention of cross-border attacks in to neighbouring countries, the closure of terrorist training camps in FATA, and the dismantling of terrorism infrastructure in other parts of the country? If we oppose the bill what signal are sending to the rest of the world? That we are involved in nuclear proliferation and are abetting terrorism overseas? In fact it would be fair to say that most of the anti-KL bill critics are advocating the adoption of a position that runs counter to our national interest. Also, it would be equally fair to assume that most of the critics will not have read the bill in its entirety and are also unaware of the fact that the certification clauses included in it are usual for most aid bills that the US legislature passes. Since we say that we are responsible nation and not involved in proliferation activities or that we provide help to terrorist groups operating from our soil to carry out attacks in other countries, there should be little reason for us to oppose Kerry-Lugar. Besides, let us not forget that during the Afghan war, in return for US funding, we were supposed to cap our nuclear programme and that the US president then too was required to certify every year that this was being done. And despite that we managed to develop our nuclear deterrence. We are projecting ourselves as a nation whose policies, instead of interests, are governed by emotions. Also, in this emotional frenzy, we fail to see that for a change – and this is perhaps a first – the aid that we receive will not go towards purchasing tanks or warplanes but towards addressing poverty, towards building schools, hospitals, improving access to clean drinking water, and on socio-economic development in general. It is good to see parliament and the civil society debate and discuss our relationship with the US vis-à-vis the conditions attached to Kerry-Lugar. Having said that, it needs to be pointed out that the majority of criticism of the bill is coming from quarters who are known to be supporters, beneficiaries and perpetuators of the rule of the men in khaki. Since the birth of our country, our sovereignty has been time and again breached from within and not outside. I wish the Americans had translated the bill into Urdu and other regional languages so that the people could read it for themselves and see that for a change we are getting foreign aid with strings whose objective seems to be to foster socio-economic development. The writer is a development consultant based in Peshawar. Email: fayyazalikhan@ yahoo.com (The News)

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The knives are out -- Kamran Shafi

By Kamran Shafi
Tuesday, 15 Sep, 2009 (Dawn)

One has noticed with alarm the tenor of most TV anchors, and some analysts too, when they heap praise only upon the army for doing a good job in Swat with no mention of the civilian leadership across the political spectrum. —APP/File Photo

IF every wrong is to be placed at the politician’s door, in the instant case at Asif Zardari’s, then the good that has come with his government and with democracy must also go to his account and to those of other politicians.

Here I refer to the Swat operation which is gradually showing signs of success with the army doing yeoman service for the country.

Each day brings news of more successes, the latest being the arrest of the cruel and heartless yahoo, Muslim Khan, along with another yahoo; and the imminent capture of the Mother of All Yahoos, Fazlullah. The point to remember is that this is the same army that prevaricated during all the years of the Commando’s absolute rule while the savages went about digging their tunnels and bunkers and furnishing them with carpets and tiled bathrooms and all; and cutting off people’s heads with blunt knives, and all.

The very same army, under the very same commanders, has now shown the grit and the determination which one always knew it had, under a civil administration headed, whether anyone likes it or not, by Asif Ali Zardari.

It has shown that it is trained to do what is asked of it and that the old and fallacious refrain that it was not trained to fight insurgencies was poppycock of the worst kind, trotted out by the apologists of the brass hats who could not make up their minds whether the marauding yahoos were friends of our venal state or its people’s worst enemies.

The ranks of the army, the young officers and the unit commanders were never suspect; its generalship was. And rightly so. We must also remember that the Commando was then the lord and master of all he surveyed under his very own dictum of ‘unity of command’.

If things are going well, why the frightening title of this piece? Here goes: one has noticed with alarm the tenor of most TV anchors, and some analysts too, when they heap praise only upon the army for doing a good job in Swat with no mention of the civilian leadership across the political spectrum (with the sole exception of the double-dealing and very slippery JUI-F) that has stood behind the army solidly by shouldering the political responsibility for the fallout of the military action.

One has also noticed with utmost concern, the savage attacks on politicians let loose by former senior army and intelligence officers well known for their criminal and anti-democratic acts. It is again to be noted that discredited and reviled former spooks like Brigadier Billa would never have crawled back into their respective gutters without a definitive go-ahead by their former outfits.

Whilst these attacks have clearly redounded on the security establishment (reinforcing the widespread belief that our brass hats are not much endowed with good sense!), they point clearly to the objective: to remove the elected democratic dispensation by hook or by crook, mostly the latter, and to replace it with a government of ‘technocrats’, whatever that means, under a caretaker civilian Quisling.

That the establishment is not alone in this enterprise is also clear; certain names of known unsavoury characters scurrying back into their respective gutters to do their assigned dirty work have already surfaced in the press.

As I have said before, the proof is the recent (ongoing indeed) spate of ugly stories first about one political leader, and then the other, doing the rounds of the plush drawing rooms of Islamabad the Beautiful, the TV channels and the front pages of newspapers. This is only the beginning: the country should be ready for far worse in the immediate future.

It is as part of this enterprise that the old story of Osama Bin Laden meeting Nawaz Sharif X or Y times and egging him on to destabilise Benazir’s government of the time has resurfaced, as has the Midnight Jackal story.

The patrons of the enterprise do not seem to remember that by signing the Charter of Democracy, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif buried the past, allegations and all, and resolved to take Pakistan to a better future through civilised politics by eschewing the rancour and blind hate of the past.

Which is why I must repeat myself. President Asif Zardari would be well advised to order his party to stop its delaying tactics with regard to the repeal of the 17th Amendment, and the tabling of the 18th without the draconian articles of the former. He must also remove any doubts there might be as to his cool relationship with Nawaz Sharif, to present a unified stand to those that would plot against them.

Both must also rein in the hawks in their parties, for many times even the swiftest hawk can lose its prey to other, lesser, raptors such as the carrion-eating kite.

A short word on the most recent Top Secret (surely!?) letter of the bestest diplomat in the whole wide world Master Hussain Haqqani, and the FO and ISI, in which he has bemoaned the fact that many American media people and the head of the Asia Foundation have been barred from getting Pakistan visas.

Who, may I ask, has leaked this most confidential letter so that it is now the subject of headline news and editorials? The government must carry out an indepth investigation into the leak and severely punish the guilty for it may very well be part of the ongoing conspiracy against democracy.

Also, might I one more time demand an inquiry into the granting of not one, not two, but three Pakistani visas to the disreputable Richard Reid aka Abdul Raheem aka Tariq Raja aka the ‘Shoe Bomber’, who had spent most of his life in prisons in the UK and who is now undergoing life imprisonment in the US? Who on earth was his sponsor in the Land of the Pure?

kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk

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Beware the machinations of the establishment, Prime Minister Gilani.

What the devil…?

By Kamran Shafi
Tuesday, 28 Jul, 2009 (Dawn)

As for Mr Gilani, whose heart seems to be in the right place, one day he says ‘enough is enough’ as if he were about to look President Zardari in the eye and defy him on a host of matters, not least sacking certain Zardari loyalists from the cabinet. —APP/File photo

THERE is so much to talk about this week: the grave danger the IDPs face from the murdering, terrorist yahoos not a single one of whose leaders has been captured or killed; the Commando’s increasingly unbelievable absurdities; the attempt to drive a wedge between Zardari and Gilani; the Supreme Court hearing on the Nov 3 martial law against his own government by the Commando; and last but not least the Kargil fiasco, which the Commando is increasingly calling a great victory.

Kargil first then, and I have to report that it was extremely gratifying to see an Indian TV channel broadcast a programme in which there was an audience listening to, and questioning, Gen V.P. Malik the then chief of staff of the Indian army; a retired colonel who had lost a son in Kargil; the widow of a havildar; a retired young officer who was wounded in Kargil and was down categorised, and who therefore went back to college and joined the corporate world.

The person who impressed me the most was the general, who sat there and took harsh criticism from the audience which was again made up of some who had lost their near and dear ones in Kargil and retired soldiers. A bereaved mother of a captain actually shouted at Malik for not even providing proper boots for the army in Kargil. Indeed, some retired officers blamed the army (and therefore Gen Malik directly) for not standing up to the government and ‘lobbying’ for better service conditions.

The ISPR should collect all our Rommels and Guderians, sit them down in the GHQ auditorium, and show them a recording of this TV programme (aired on CNN-IBN, incidentally). They will see the humility, but also the gentle firmness with which Gen Malik answered the questions and the criticism; they will see how a former COAS of the Indian army spoke with respect when he referred to the Indian government as the preponderant power in the country.

Why pray, may one ask our army brass hats, can’t we have open discussions on what happened in Kargil? With the Commando absconding, the next senior generals involved with the operation could attend and answer people’s questions. Mayhap some mothers of those poor souls killed on our side should like to ask questions too. For example, why did we not, for weeks on end, accept that the dead being shown by the Indians to the world were our dead?

And here we have the Commando actually insisting that Kargil resulted in forcing the Indians to the negotiating table, blithely dancing around the Lahore Declaration signed by prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Atal Behari Vajpayee which Jawed Naqvi has so well written about in yesterday’s edition of this paper. The Commando is obviously not facing up to the truth, as he is wont to do most times.

Which is not all when it comes to Kargil. He now wants us to believe that Kargil which brought nuclear-armed India and nuclear-armed Pakistan dangerously close to an all-out war and made Pakistan an international pariah was a great victory for Pakistan! Beggars belief, this Commando, especially when, as mentioned in this space earlier, his best buddy Gen Anthony Zinni tells us otherwise.

Yes, what the devil is going on in Swat/Buner, even in Peshawar, let alone in Waziristan and the rest of Fata, where every indication seems to spell out only one simple fact: that the murdering terrorists still hold sway in vast areas of the northwest of our country. If Nato tankers are blown up in the upscale locality of Hayatabad, how in heaven’s name can the IDPs feel safe in Swat and Buner?

If, as evidenced by friends I can trust, the terrorist Mangal Bagh can shake down businesses in Peshawar itself by asking for protection money, how can anyone say the situation is anywhere near ‘under control’ in Swat? How underground could this terrorist be anyway, considering the blatant manner in which he is running his protection rackets?

Will no one wake up and do the right thing even now, and finish off these terrorists? Do our Rommels and Guderians not realise that we are running out of time?

As for Mr Gilani, whose heart seems to be in the right place, one day he says ‘enough is enough’ as if he were about to look President Zardari in the eye and defy him on a host of matters, not least sacking certain Zardari loyalists from the cabinet. And then to go on and repeal the dictatorial aspects of the 17th Amendment, i.e. to emasculate the presidency. Less than a week later his daughter writes a piece in the same newspaper, eulogising the young Bilawal Bhutto Zardari as a leader with vision. Why bite off more than you can chew, Mr Gilani?

Whilst one empathises with Mr Gilani completely, and while one wishes the 17th Amendment were repaired yesterday, one must caution both the president and the prime minister. Democracy is too new after the nine rollicking years that the Commando had, kicking this country about; the problems he has left behind, not least of which is the power crisis, are immense; law and order is non-existent, and baddies roam the land. This is no time for infighting.

To the president one can say that he has been misguided enough by the likes of Fauzia Wahab and Khosa and Awan, in whose acts one can see neither sagacity nor sense. The president should have, and I have said this before, held tightly to the friendly hand offered by Nawaz Sharif and both of them together could have long hence put the country firmly on the road to parliamentary democracy after ridding us of the awful legacy left behind by the Commando. It is not too late even now.

To the prime minister, this: please ask yourself how many people you can bring on to the streets of Multan on your own? You are a member of a political party which has a recognised and established leadership, by virtue of which you are where you are. Likewise for members of the PML-N and the MQM and the ANP: where would any one of them be without their parties and their leaders? Beware the machinations of the establishment, Mr Gilani.

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How possibly could a party such as the secular ANP get into such a low deal with those of the Taliban’s ilk?

Barbarians at the gate

By Kamran Shafi

SORRY for the trite title, but its blood-chillingly true, isn’t it? As my readers well know, I am quite quickly moved to tears: films like Il Postino and East is East and books like Chronicle of a Death Foretold can set me off like a little baby.

Even the logo on the tail of a PIA airliner taking flight makes me weep happy and bitter and heartbreaking tears as I pray to God our country could also one day lift its head and reach for the stars.

But the horrific pictures that beamed out of my television set this past week showing a young Swati woman — how does it matter whether she was 17 or 34 years old, dammit — being held down hand and foot and mercilessly lashed on her buttocks and thighs by a bearded Yahoo in public, 37 times, only made me furious; absolutely incandescent with rage.

Far more than being livid at the Taliban Yahoos, I raged at those representing the ANP so-called ‘government’ of the Frontier. Even there whilst I could understand the likes of Senator Zahid Khan and Law Minister Arshad Abdullah and someone called Pervez Khan try so futilely and so foolishly to defend their government and the Taliban, whilst I could understand Muslim Khan try to defend the Taliban, I just could not get myself to give any let to Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain.

Iftikhar Hussain whom I have met and appreciated (kindly note the past tense) as a secular and well-read man, actually had the gall to accuse Samar Minallah who has done so much good (and courageous) work for the cause of the dispossessed, specially faceless women and innocent children, of being part of a conspiracy to derail the ‘peace deal’ with the Taliban in Swat. What in God’s name has the person of Ms Minallah got to do with the Taliban publicly lashing a woman in public? Why did he name her? Does Mian Sahib not know that Samar is not an unknown; that she is the much-respected Nasruminallah Khan’s daughter? That she does not hide behind pseudonyms and innuendo, and says what she says in your face?
He then has the impudence to say that the lashing ‘took place on Jan 3 while the peace agreement with the TNSM was signed on Feb 16’. Well, doesn’t that in itself make your deal with such barbarians doubly disgraceful, Mian Sahib? How possibly could a party such as the secular ANP get into such a low deal with those of the Taliban’s ilk? Is this ANP, the successor to the National Awami Party of Bacha Khan?

Let me go back in time for the younger of my readers who may not know the tortured political history of our poor country. No matter which political party one came from, no matter which political thought one was enamoured of, no matter what the establishment said about the NAP one always admired it for the fact that it was solidly secular, and always stood by its principles. Is this present ANP even a shadow of the NAP of Mir Ghous Bakhsh Bizenjo?

What ‘peace deal’ do you talk about, Mian Sahib? Is cravenly throwing down your weapons before a cruel and monstrous enemy who has wrought so much pain and misery in your home a ‘peace deal’? An enemy that your own and federal forces outnumbered 30 to 1? An enemy, moreover, who was far poorly equipped than your own forces? What ‘peace deal’ do you speak about, sir?

Which reminds me. Against my own better judgment, I went to see President Zardari along with about 40 or 50 other TV anchors/journalists a week or so ago. I had been to the presidency in days gone by but had forgotten the opulence and the sheer massiveness of the place. Which, be as it may, the man was completely out of his depth, his grip on reality tenuous — being completely satisfied with the way the army conducted itself in Swat(!), and talked as if he knew everything about everything under the sun.
Unforgivably, he was snide about the judiciary — when asked to ensure the safety of working journalists he said, ‘Why don’t you go to the restored Supreme Court which you said will fix everything?’ Tragically, he did not even know that Nawabzada Balaach Marri, son of Nawab Khair Bukhsh Marri, was dead, murdered allegedly by the Pakistan Army in Afghanistan in November 2007. And this despite Benazir herself visiting the old nawab to condole his son’s death, to the utter chagrin of the Commando.

But nothing lasts forever, particularly in this case, for his buddies Salmaan Taseer and Rehman Malik have grievously wounded and weakened him by the needless and mad adventure mounted in Punjab. It defies description, though, how the three can so brazenly carry on as if nothing happened at all. The sad part is that the shenanigans of these three have greatly hurt the Pakistan People’s Party, a national asset that the country can’t afford to lose, just as it cannot afford to lose other political forces that represent the people.

But back to the matter of the increasingly successful assault on Pakistan by the Taliban. What gives? We will know all if a few very basic questions are answered. One, how come the Pakistan Army, the ISI, the Intelligence Bureau, Military Intelligence and the Frequency Allocation Board could not find Mullah Radio’s FM station in six years?
Two, ditto. Three, ditto. Four, ditto. Ninety-nine, ditto. Just who is preventing all these when-they-want-to-be most oppressively efficient organisations from finding the clandestine broadcaster that is the foundation upon which Mullah Fazlullah has built his dreadful empire of death and destruction?

To the government I say this: If it is true that the cake and pastry and tikka-selling, property-dealing industrial and banking conglomerate, the Pakistan Army, has failed to tactically defeat (I did not say bomb and shell and strafe, sirs) a ragtag militia, then demob large parts of it and distribute its weapons and equipment among the populace. We well know how to defend our hearths and homes, and wives and daughters and sisters and mothers; and neighbours, against the advancing barbarians.

To our visiting paymasters who are presently in the Citadel of Islam, I say this: if the choice is between having a strategic and a transactional relationship with this regime when it comes to doling out money please do yourselves, and us, a favour. Please opt for the transactional, COD (cash on delivery) as they say in business. Only then does this country have a chance of survival. Otherwise it is dead in the water.

Witness Chakwal. It broke my heart to hear friend Ayaz Amir, MNA, say, ‘I never thought Chakwal would become a target, sir’ when I called him on Sunday afternoon to condole the wanton death and destruction spread in his city by the self-same barbarians.

He was at the hospital at the time and the screams of pain in the background made me invoke the Almighty’s curse on those that kill and maim innocents.

Daily Dawn --- 8th April, 09

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Why then has the great ISI, the Mother of All Agencies, not been able to find Mullah Radio’s radio station? writes Kamran Shafi

Swat, one more time
By Kamran Shafi
Tuesday, 10 Feb, 2009 | 02:14 PM PST |


....And now for the feedback on last week’s piece in which I had suggested a huge caravan made up of all the political parties: leaders, workers and us, the common, lay people of Pakistan, to go into Swat carrying food and clothing for the poor who had been displaced in their thousands by the firing (I did not say, ‘fighting’, everybody kindly note!) between the so-called security agencies and the extremists.
I have never had as many emails in response to an article. Most of them have been complimentary; two were hate-mail, calling me a kafir; and the usual, in which one is abused personally and viciously whenever one questions the army and/or the ISI for inefficiency and ineptness and duplicity. There were also some which asked in what proportion the political parties should be expected to participate.

In response, I can only thank those who support the idea and request them to please raise awareness among the people in general, and among their contacts within the political parties on a very urgent basis; bless those that call me a kafir and hope that their tribes increase; and last but not least, ask those who use personal abuse rather than reason to make a point, that they say what they say in open letters to the editor rather than in restricted emails. As to the proportion of the numbers of political party workers, I would suggest 100 for every MNA.

Zahid Zaman, a course-mate who reads books and whose counsel I respect, suggested to me after reading my piece on the Swat caravan that I should propose that the provincial government of the NWFP, or whichever name you wish to call it, move to Swat for as long as it takes to bring peace to the area.What a great idea! Why didn’t I think of it, I said to myself?! That was just the thing the provincial government should do — move lock, stock and barrel: all the ministries, babus, naib qasids and all; the police hierarchy, you name it, to Saidu Sharif. There to stay until the Mullah Radios and their murderous and barbaric ilk are chased from their redoubts — probably comfortable, luxuriously heated houses in the heart of Mingora — and until the people of that poor but bounteous land are enabled to get on with their lives as they have done for millennia.

Yes, that is exactly what Chief Minister Amir Haider Hoti should do, and take his top adviser, his Dad Azam Hoti with him to guide him, and advise him on how to sort out the Swat imbroglio. Just that one move should send the shivers up the establishment’s spine like nobody’s business! Just watch them find Mullah Radio’s FM station then.

Which reminds me: the ‘rocket science’ of triangulation, or to put it another, more modern way, ‘trilateration’ is, as I suggested last week, as old as the Swat hills. Why then has the great ISI, the Mother of All Agencies, not been able to find Mullah Radio’s radio station? When will this great charade end, please, sirs?

Ambassador Richard Holbrooke should be in the Land of the Pure by the time you read this. Might one ask him one more time to route any/all enquiries he might have on the quite frightening and completely out of control situation in Swat/Fata to the civilian government and to no other agency?

This is imperative, ambassador; to give the elected government the confidence it so badly needs in staring down the men on horseback (well, actually sickly donkeys, if you ask me) who were so strongly and so foolishly supported by the previous US administration. You must remember, ambassador, that the United States made itself so many enemies only because it was perceived to be close to the dictatorship of the army rather than to the people of Pakistan.

Also, it is a great idea to tie US aid to specific aims and objectives, and to route it ALL through the civilian federal government, leaving it to the government to determine how much goes into which sector: education, health, infrastructure development, defence, war on terror, whatever.

To my own government I say: since you have stuffed the idea that this ‘war on terror is our war’ down our throats so hard, repeating the mantra ad nauseam and so often, it is time you stopped begging the Americans for every little expense incurred on it. Such as diesel fuel! Ask for night vision devices, for helicopters, for equipment to detect incoming FM signals for that matter (!), but do please stop asking for diesel money! We must have some self-respect if it is indeed ‘our’ war.
So then, who will the United Nations 'fact-finding' mission to investigate Benazir Bhutto’s cruel murder first interrogate? Surely Asif Ali Zardari, president of the Citadel of Islam, for saying out loud that he knows exactly who the killers are!
Joke, joke!! While this is a joke, could a head of state of any other country in the whole wide world say he knew the killers of a person, any person, without being pounced upon by crime investigation agencies of the state itself?

Can you imagine President Barack Obama saying any such thing without the D.C. police knocking on the door of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and asking questions? Leave America aside, can anyone imagine the Indian president, or the prime minister, saying such a thing and the local police and the CBI not asking them to explain themselves?
We are a very unique country indeed. Ambassador Holbrooke has his job cut out for him.

kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk (Dawn)
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