Monthly Archives: September 2011

Pakistan’s military should review the Taliban rule in Afghanistan and how they were not always the kind of partners and proxies we had envisioned

By Raza Rumi

Our Foreign Minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, has warned the United States that if the accusations against Pakistan continue, the US might lose an ally. This statement comes in the wake of US statements that Pakistan-based Haqqani network has allegedly been involved in recent acts of terrorism in Afghanistan, directly threatening and sabotaging the NATO and US interests.

The US blames the Haqqanis for attacks on the US Embassy and NATO Headquarters in Kabul; for attacks on US troops in Wardak province earlier in September. US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen has used unprecedented and strong language against Pakistan’s premier spy agency ISI and the security establishment for nurturing proxies. Pakistan-US relations just as they were about to look better are perhaps today at a nadir in the decade old war on terror.

The US Senate Appropriations Committee has passed a bill which makes all US aid to Pakistan tied to cooperating with the US in fighting “the Haqqani network and other terror groups associated with al Qaeda”. On the Pakistani side, a vast majority of Pakistanis support a confrontational policy and shunning “America’s war”. This emotional position needs a realistic reassessment and Pakistan simply should keep its economic interests above everything.

At the same time, we should reflect as to why the Haqqani Network from North Waziristan has been operating across the Durand Line. Sixty years of policy choices have once again brought us to a critical phase today. The United States and its various policy making arms and bodies have diagnosed the key cause of their failure in Afghanistan as Pakistan’s support to the Taliban, especially the Haqqani network that it protects. This is not the first time that the US has complained and thundered about the ‘double-game’ being played by Pakistan’s security establishment. The problem with such a narrative is that it glosses over the monumental follies of US strategists and war machines. (more…)

By Raza Rumi:

If there is any single constant in Pakistani politics it is perennial instability. More so when fledgling democracies struggle to change the governance discourse and attempt to consolidate their hold over power which has traditionally been concentrated in the unelected ‘arms’ of the executive. The current civilian governments at the centre and the provinces are no exception
to this historical trend.

Nevertheless contemporary political dynamics in the country display both continuity and discontinuity from historical trends. This is what makes Pakistan’s evolution during the 21st century a most fascinating process of societal change and resistance by the post-colonial state which is basically fighting a serious battle for its survival; and perhaps has entered the decisive
phase of this conflict. (more…)

By Raza Rumi:

I fervently hope that Shahbaz Taseer is back by the time these lines are published. However, the past few days have been distressing to see the Taseer family facing yet another trying phase. The young Taseer was abducted on a busy Lahore road on August 26. His case is not uncommon in a country where kidnapping is becoming a popularstrategy with the state, criminal gangs and militant outfits. Hundreds of Pakistanis are missing across the country for various reasons. Despite the intervention of Superior Courts and pronouncements by the political executive, little progress has been made.

Taseer’s abduction followed the kidnapping of Dr Warren Weinstein, representative of a US consulting firm, J E Austin from his house in an affluent part of Lahore. Dr Weinstein is a 70-year-old man suffering from various ailments and his life is surely in danger. These kidnappings say a lot about the level of policing in the province. A Police Force notorious to suppress citizens especially the poor is obviously ill trained to handle such cases. In fact, the policemishandling of forensic evidence in Shahbaz Taseer’s car — right under the watch of TV cameras — speaks volumes for the incompetence in basic treatment of crime scenes. In the case of Dr Weinstein, as media reports suggest, they may have botched up the recovery process by hasty announcements about his possible location. (more…)