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| Pakistan's complicity in drone attacks |
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Sunday, February 15, 2009
Shireen M Mazari
What many of us had suspected seems to have now been revealed by no less a person than the Chairperson of the US Senate Intelligence Committee, Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein that US drones operating in Pakistan are in fact flown from an airbase in Pakistan. The context of Feinstein's statement, as well as her position, gives weightage and credibility to her assertion. The revelation was made during testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee by US Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, who did not respond directly to this assertion.
Where does that leave the Pakistani state and its government, both the previous and present ones? The delay in a viable response from official Pakistani sources speaks volume but then what can they say and who will buy it? Official sources have lost all credibility. After all, we have been officially briefed on more than one occasion that no drone flew without the knowledge of the Pakistani military. Many sources, both US and Pakistani, have also given out that when Zardari visited the US in September, he agreed to the continuing US drone strikes inside Pakistan.
The brazenness with which the government has chosen to lie not only to its people but to Parliament shows how little it cares for either. Because the truth is not familiar to officialdom, credibility has all but eroded from the state and government. In retrospect it is a sick mind that will continue to harp publicly on how the drone attacks are encouraging extremism and must be stopped while covertly there has always been a Pakistani acquiescence to these drone violations of our sovereignty.
But far more serious is the issue of how a state can allow its own citizens to be killed by a foreign power. The US embassy has put out how Al Qaeda targets have been killed in these drone attacks. Even if one accepts the veracity of these claims which is asking for a lot given the US's dismal intelligence record what about all the civilians in their hundreds if not thousands who have so far also fallen prey to the drones' "collateral damage"?
For us Pakistanis this is a critical issue even though for the US loss of Pakistani lives is clearly irrelevant. And now that it has become apparent that the Pakistani state has been complicit in these drone attacks, serious constitutional and moral issues arise. But first, who should bear the responsibility for allowing the US to kill Pakistani citizens? Clearly the permission was given under the Musharraf government and without the agreement of the Pakistan military the drones could not have carried out their strikes. After all, we know that the GHQ was informed of these missions but now it appears that the military allowed the use of its bases for these attacks. Were these the bases given out to the US post-9/11 or was another air base allocated for this purpose? After the departure of Musharraf, clearly the new government has also given its assent to the drone attacks and again these have been happening with the full knowledge of the Pakistan military since a military air base is being used according to the head of the US Senate Intelligence Committee, who would have no interest in lying.
So where does the Pakistan government, including the military stand on this issue of allowing the killing of its citizens on their own sovereign soil by foreign forces? Simply, it stands in contravention of Article 4 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan which lays that
"4 (1) To enjoy the protection of the law and to be treated in accordance with the law is the inalienable right of every citizen, wherever he may be, and of every other person for the time being within Pakistan.
"(2) In particular
(a) no action detrimental to the life, liberty, body, reputation or property of any person shall be taken except in accordance with the law
"
Now clearly no law exists that allows the state to kill its own people, even in the case of capital punishment where legal procedures have to be adopted before the punishment can be carried out.
Beyond the Constitutional infringement, which seems to be of little concern to the rulers both civilian and military even purely on moral grounds the state has no right to allow a foreign power to violate its sovereignty in order to kill its citizens. But where can we the ordinary citizens go for redress when there is no independent judiciary. Now it should be clear to all and sundry why the Pakistani state and the US Establishment are not particularly keen to see the restoration of Chief Justice Iftikhar and the establishment of an independent judiciary.
The drone attacks are the most extreme reflection of the surrender of Pakistani sovereignty to the US, but the US intrusion into Pakistan is extensive with the FBI now moving with Pakistani forces when arrests are made in the frontier province including in Peshawar. US CIA presence is known to be widespread from Islamabad northwards especially around Warsak and in and around the tribal areas US personnel are believed to be embedded with Pakistani security and military forces. So where should the ordinary Pakistani seek protection when its own state is complicit in his killing?
This is the shameful position that exists today with President Zardari declaring that force is the only answer to our problems of extremism and violence. Mr Zardari how has military force helped resolve these problems so far? Do we not have more widespread violence now than before 9/11 or has the use of military force stemmed the tide of extremism? Where there is no law and where the state becomes the perpetrator of extra judicial killings which is what the drone attack victims are in essence the legal and moral void will continue to be filled with an ever increasing cycle of violence.
The writer is a defence analyst. Email: callstr@hotmail.com
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ISSN 1563-9479 
