Head of PPP Media Cell
Sartaj Aziz, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs’ rejection of Pakistan’s diplomatic isolation does not sound convincing. Our neighbours are on the other side of the fence and bellowing with vengeance. Two of them, India and Afghanistan, have unsheathed their swords while Iran has not joined them though uneasy. China continues to be as all weather friend but internal conflict within this country is major cause of concern. The US is skeptical because Pakistan has not totally jettisoned the policy of good and bad terrorists as stated by John Kerry during his recent visit to India. European countries are on the same wavelength. US growing strategic partnerships with India are going to disturb the balance of power heavily in favour of India. The forthcoming trilateral summit of US, Afghanistan and India in New York to the exclusion of Pakistan points to the level of our redundancy in the regional context -- ‘the fault is not in our stars.’
But, Pakistan being a nuclear power cannot be taken for granted keeping in view the foremost considerations of the pre-emption of nuclear conflict if not its proliferation. Its continuing upward alignment with China and the likely cozying up with Russia later on may offset country’s current isolation to an extent during the years ahead. The world is going to be bi-polar again, one led by the USA and other by China and Russia. Pakistan’s diplomacy has to tread very carefully by maintaining the balance in the fight of the giants as the less important are likely to get trampled upon in such conflicts. Our more loyal than the king paradigm should be relic of the past. General Ziaul Haq had displayed his acute proclivity to work as US proxy in the Afghan war solely to perpetuate his illegitimate rule. Had there were an elected Parliament at that time it would have definitely decided against the joining of Afghan war. Similarly, General Musharraf acquiesced to the US after Richard Armitage made a threatening telephone call. On the contrary, Parliament smartly bailed out incumbent government unanimously urging not to join the coalition against Yemen led by Saudi Arabia.
Pakistan’s security/foreign policy may continue to be exemplified as an allegory of faux pas till it is not meaningfully brought under the parliamentary oversight in the real sense of the word. The institutions must accept and respect the supremacy of the Parliament as the repository of the aspirations of the people and the supreme public policy making, implementation and evaluation entity. Recalcitrance to this narrative will only reinforce their misplaced self-righteousness with inevitable lamentable prognosis. The history of dictators’ rules rife with tales of hubris containing the secession of the country, terrorism and extremism, wars with India and drug and gun culture were all their legacies those had brought the nation to its knees. The institutions’ juggernaut at the expense of Parliament will only unfold more predicaments for the nation.
Parliamentary collective wisdom enviably matches with the national interests especially in security and foreign policy domains. It feels no inhibition, like the institutional fixations, in adjusting with the vagaries of international politics in the best national interests. Functioning parliamentary democracies have never disappointed their people because transparency and accountability are their lynchpin imbedded in automatic adjustment and correction. Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani, known for speaking his mind no matter how cutting it may be, underscored the importance of this paradigm shift to address country’s security/diplomatic issues thoroughly and compressively. Senator Farhatullah Babar in the Defence Parliamentary Committee meeting was equally an ardent supporter of the Parliament taking full charge of the country’s foreign/security policy.
Unilateral institutional decisions taken in the past in the two important domains had led to the jeopardising the foreign/security vital interests in the final analysis. Continue to tread on the beaten trajectorybased on myth and fixations would only lead us deep in the thick forest as besieged, frustrated, fatigued and bemused lot finding no pathways to get out of the woods. Our state of denial and obstinacy only exacerbated the grim situation reducing the prospects of undertaking serious introspection to make qualitative difference in the desired direction.
Pakistan has been losing ground in the diplomatic front during the watch of this government because Parliament has been reduced to a dormant forum. Our adversary, India has been gaining ground globally by projecting Pakistan as perpetrator than victim of terrorism. Unfortunately, our foreign policy does not enjoy the probity of dynamism. Ordinarily, the foreign and security policies should complement each other as equal instruments under the democratic dispensation to espouse the cause of national interests. Unfortunately, Pakistan’s foreign policy as an instrument to cultivate good neighbourly relations could not come up to the expectations because it has no spine to assert itself.
Our tense relations with our neighbours amply suggest that there is an urgent need to revisit our foreign policy within the framework of improving relations with our immediate neighbours. The Parliament is the best forum to discuss foreign policy to determine the cherished goals. It makes sense because Parliament is the voice of the people that entitles it to formulate public policy having bearings on the collective destiny of the nation.
Sadly, trust deficit prevailing between Pakistan and its neighbours is deep-seated that has vitiated environment to our disadvantage. Our neighbours do not trust us and the international community is also skeptical because of the perception that we have been playing on the both side of the street. Our stated policy of eradication of terrorists of all spectrums is not frankly sinking well with the international community as we have not been able to get rid of the Haqqani network and the leaders of the proscribed organisations who display their presence in full glare of media embarrassing the nation and the Parliament.
The proscribed organisations and their leaders, those are on the terrorist list of the UN, US and others, continue to bring out big processions in the major cities. The message is loud and clear that the government has no spunk to take them on.
Delay in bringing Mumbai and Pathankot terrorist attacks perpetrators to justice by Pakistan is making our position vulnerable so far as indiscriminate anti-terrorism policy is concerned. There are no takers of our policy, and India has successfully put Pakistan on the back foot. The roaming around of the people on UN terrorist list with impunity has given impetus to the Indian campaign against Pakistan as center of terrorism than its victim. US Secretary of State John Kerry while acknowledging Pakistan’s successes and sacrifices in the war against terrorism in India had urged in the same breadth to take action against Haqqani network and other militant entities.
During the PPP government led by Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, relations with neighbouring countries although were not ideal but could be described as satisfactory because anti-Pakistan rhetoric was almost a rarity. The then President Asif Ali Zardari undertook a number of visits to Iran those culminated in the inauguration of the Iran-Pakistan Gas Pipeline Project inaugurated by the two presidents despite the UN sanctions. With India, the government was determined to reciprocate the most favoured nation status but the then security establishment scuttled this endeavour by activating their home lobby against the far reaching decision. The resumption of dialogue process meant to normalise relations with India was in progress as a result of meetings between the two prime ministers in Sharmul Shaikh and at the Saarc Summits in Nepal and the Maldives. The tangible progress could not be made but the level of acrimony was considerably low as compared to present time.
The PPP government continued engagement with Afghanistan assuring that the Pakistan was all out for Afghan owned and Afghan-led solution because such solution was in the best interest of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The narrative of Afghanistan’s security was the security of Pakistan and vice versa kept the hostility at bay. Today, Afghanistan was in the camp of India against Pakistan and its president spared no opportunity to blame that all predicaments of Afghan people were due to the duplicity of Pakistan policy towards Afghan Taliban. The forthcoming trilateral summit between US, India and Afghanistan on cross-border terrorism to the exclusion of Pakistan was the pathetic manifestation of the failure of our Afghan policy.
Pakistan must neutralise Afghanistan because peace, security and stability in both countries will remain a forlorn hope without the major CBMs, sooner the better. Good neighbourly relations with Afghanistan will be a win win situation for the two countries. Our relations will accrue incredible results in the shape of the reduction of Indian interference in Pakistan through its proxies. Hostility between the two countries has been providing oxygen to TTP and Afghan Taliban that needs to be cut off to deny them lease of life.
Common sense should prevail. Quaid gave his vision to our foreign policy when he stated these prophetic words, ‘friendship with all, enmity with none.’
muhammadshaheedi@yahoo.com
