‘Foreign policy not dictated by establishment’

LAHORE: Civil-military relations have never been a problem in the national scheme of things and foreign policy-makers were not given ‘dictation’ by the country’s military establishment; in foreign policy formulation, Pakistan’s Foreign Office depends considerably on the valuable input from ISI as is the case with United States’ State Department that relies on crucial information from CIA; Pakistan’s diplomatic corps has been adjudged at par with any diplomatic corps of other countries, especially that of India.

These non-traditional views that have dispelled many wrong impressions, were expressed by former Foreign Secretary, Shamshad Ahmad Khan, while addressing an interactive discussion titled ‘Foreign Policy Challenges’ held here under the auspices of ‘Freedom Forum International’ and attended, among others by senior journalists, educationists, engineers and retired civil servants.

Taking questions from the participants after delivering his speech, Khan shared his experience, stating that during his total term in office as Foreign Secretary or in other senior diplomatic positions, he or any of his deputies never received any ’dictates’ or ‘dictation’ from the armed forces, as is wrongly opined by a good few analysts, politicians and self-styled opinion-making champions. “These people are ignorant of the actual working of Foreign Office of Pakistan as well as of other countries. Foreign Policy is always formulated after thorough deliberations with the active, knowledge-based participation and input of diplomatic corps/Foreign Office. And the input of intelligence agencies holds vital importance in foreign policy formulation everywhere in the world including the United States and Pakistan”.

Challenging the misleading theories propagated by ill-informed circles or by people engaged in spreading confusion by design, the former Foreign Secretary asked, “I don’t understand why some of us make a mountain of a molehill while talking about our prime agency, ISI, sending out negative impressions and images about the agency. The fact is that ISI is equipped with immense ability to gather vital pieces of information relating to our national interests and subsequently guide the policy-makers to arrive at the right conclusions about happenings in and around the country and in other parts of the world, in a true nationalistic, patriotic framework . With the availability of such information, the Foreign Office, anywhere in the world, gets comprehensive insight into happenings and the undercurrents as well as about the things taking shape in any corner of the world”. 

The organizer of the discussion, Chairman, Pakistan Freedom Movement, Haroon Khawaja, laid emphasis on the delivery that around 200 million ‘Muhammad Bashirs’ of Pakistan have been denied during the last six to seven decades, the term ‘Muhammad Bashir’ having been used metaphorically for the forsaken common people whose access to their own elected representatives has been minimal and dismal, thus resulting in their total deprivation from state protection and in the state resources.