Not a war for apologists

Not a single official from the Pakistani political leadership visiting Washington last week dared say a word about it. But back home, these officials are now beginning to shyly speak up about the best kept secret of the criminal insurgency inside Pakistan: how it is staying alive through support from someone in the US-occupied Afghanistan.

Not a word in Washington despite the fact that Islamabad is currently at the receiving end of the worst kind of disinformation campaign against this country mounted solely by the American media, a campaign based on leaks by unnamed American officials feeding deliberate worldwide confusion about Pakistan. Recently there has been a concentration of advocates of separatism on the US think tank circuit, which is disturbing considering the quiet and direct contacts various US departments have established with Pakistani ethnic-based parties and the kind of access we have given to American spooks inside our most troubled areas: Balochistan and Pakhtunkhwa.

All of which feeds on genuine Pakistani problems that we need to resolve. But the point here is: Washington is not helping where it really matters, in the propaganda war and inside Afghanistan itself. America’s apologists inside Pakistan’s power structure these days cite the massive US aid plans but conveniently gloss over the humiliating strings in the fine print, including the emerging disturbing signs that freezing funding for Pakistan’s classified advanced strategic weaponisation programmes is part of the deal.

Prime Minister Gilani, Foreign Minister Qureshi and Interior Minister Malik have suddenly started talking publicly about support for the terrorists – the so-called Pakistani Taliban – from Afghanistan. Why did Mr Qureshi and Mr Malik not take a stand on this shadowy support for terrorism inside Pakistan from a US-controlled territory when both were in Washington? And why no one is taking up the venomous anti-Pakistan propaganda in the US media?

A weak official stand on these two points is adding to the confusion over the real meaning of the latest military operations in our northern and western belts. Suddenly we have American apologists inside Pakistan, including some political parties, claiming credit and undue vindication for false and exaggerated notions such as ‘Talibanisation’ and the spectre of the state of Pakistan falling into the hands of gangsters. This is not an occasion to settle secular-religious scores.

The latest military operation is about Pakistan making a final push against criminal militants in the north and the western belt adjoining Afghanistan after concluding that large portion of this insurgency consists of shady terrorists and handlers pushed inside Pakistan from that country. This insurgency is using Islam to gain sympathisers and recruit the gullible, but its tactics are classic Insurgency 101: secretive ruthless commanders who excel in the art of slaughter designed to spread terror and force villagers in the affected areas to submit. They plant themselves among a civilian population in a manner where any government action results in innocent deaths that feed into the terror propaganda machine. These terrorists can’t survive without continuous supply of money and weapons. Large stacks of US dollars and Pakistani rupees, lots of anti-aircraft guns and other advanced equipment, and ruthlessly trained butchers are pouring in to help them sustain their fight against Pakistan and Pakistanis.

Pakistan never faced this problem before 2005. The growth of these new warlords, flush with money and weapons, and able to recruit the innocent using Islam and Pashtun identity, is part of a wider problem and not just ‘Talibanisation’ as US officials and some of their Pakistani apologists are claiming. And it is not enough for our foreign minister to sit in his hometown, Multan, and demand that ‘western powers’ cease the support that terrorists here are getting from Afghanistan.

Pakistan should also stop being apologetic about maintaining contacts with some members of the Afghan Taliban, like Haqqani and others. We have interests in this region. And these contacts do not amount to supporting ‘terrorism’. The Americans themselves are secretly in touch with the Afghan resistance. The Afghan Taliban can help Pakistan in isolating the fake Pakistani Taliban.

If the Americans can’t help protect the interest of their Pakistani ally, then Pakistan should step up. The fainthearted in Islamabad need to step aside if they can’t handle it.

The writer works for Geo TV. Email: aq @ahmedquraishi.com