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By Yousuf Nazar
I first wrote this paper in late 2008. The then op-ed editor of a leading newspaper wanted me to cut it to 2000 words so that it could be published in two parts. Although I emphasised that a lot of content would be lost as, in all humility, I considered this to be a comprehensive and unique analysis of what was going on in Pakistan without any liberal or right-wing bias.
However, after much persuasion from him, I submitted a reduced version. It was never published for reasons best known to the op-ed editor. He must have had special (read policy) reasons because he always promptly published whatever I sent.
I revised this paper on April 8, 2009 and posted it again on my blog under the title:
” The managed chaos and the end game in Pakistan.”
After reading The Washington Post story about the preparations for a unilateral strike against Pakistan, I felt I should repost this article. My request would be to read it carefully because what it says is quite different from what the two sides (Pakistani right-wing and the liberals) are saying.
The central thesis is that what we are witnessing is not exactly a blow-back. It is a deliberately planned chaos that seeks to have an expanded and longer term US military presence in Pakistan and Afghanistan and a weakened Pakistan state. This US policy also aims to ensure that in the event of an unfriendly government taking over in Islamabad, the US is well positioned to prevent the nuclear facilities falling in the “wrong” hands and the central authority is weak for such a government to be serious threat to American interests in the region. The US wants to keep the option of a Taliban government very much on the table because it may still be the best buffer against the threat of expansion of Russian and Chinese influence and presence in the Central Asia as well as a counter weight to a shia Iran.
This does not mean that we as a nation are not responsible for our massive and grave failures or threats of extremism and religious bigotry can be under-estimated. However, this article focuses on events since 9/11 and the role of US and Pakistani establishment and on particularly those aspects that are generally dismissed as anti-Americanism or conspiracy theories by some of our liberals. I strongly believe we have to fight both religious fascists and their patrons inside Pakistani and US establishments. US establishment?
This perhaps is the aspect which is not so obvious and generally not subject to the media scrutiny. Take a few examples. Why Brig (rtd) Ejaz Shah, that handler of deadly Punjabi Talibans, is sitting pretty in Australia? Why Qari Saifullah Akhtar was released in May 2007 and then re-arrested in February 2008 [for bombing Benazir’s homecoming procession in October 2007] and mysteriously freed again five days later? Not even the Americans raised a voice of mild protest? Why Omar Saeed Sheikh, the convicted killer of Daniel Pearl and close accomplice of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, is still enjoying a cosy life in Hyderabad jail and no American official talks about it? These are very important “Islamic militants” {in my eyes; simply terrorists} and there is hardly anyone in the media or among our “analysts” who can provide logical and coherent answers to these questions or is prepared to have a discussion which consists of more than just opinions and is substantiated by research and facts.
Before some of the liberals scream conspiracy theory, I would just say, read this carefully and research diligently and objectively going beyond just the events. Rejection of religious fundamentalism should not be equated or confused with acceptance of an essentially Anglo-Saxon political view of the world. If we applied that definition, Jamal Abdul Nasser, Salvador Allende, and Z.A. Bhutto would be dismissed as right-wing reactionaries.
My liberal credentials are perhaps stronger than most in the media today. I can’t be stereotyped as a theoretical leftist. I spent decades in the global markets with one of the biggest American banks and I am culturally quite comfortable in London and New York. While I have written a fair amount about Pakistan’s economy (including a book, The Gathering Storm) and have appeared on almost every major TV channel, I have never talked about my political activist days and association with Benazir though some of the senior journalists (who were then my young friends) are quite familiar with that past. I was the secretary general of the left-wing inter-collegiate unions of Karachi in 1977 and announced the support of that body for Mr. Bhutto two weeks after Zia-ul-Haq’s coup. He was kind enough to acknowledge that expression of support and granted us a 45 minute audience at 70 Clifton on the evening before he was arrested the following early morning in September 1977. I worked closely with Benazir Bhutto from 1978 to 1981 and was also part of the group that managed to continue to publish the PPP’s banned newspaper Musawat under-ground.
I parted ways due to my different views on her policy towards Afghanistan but we still maintained a mutually respectful relationship. My last contact with her was during October 2007. I was quite emphatic in communicating to her that the people in the establishment who were very close to the US wanted to kill her. She had wondered aloud, “why would the US want to harm Pakistan?”, adding “there are certain things I cannot discuss openly due to my position.” I now regret that my response was rather abrasive; “you have no clue what is going on”. To her credit, she treated people who stood by her in the most difficult days with genuine respect. She did not take offence at all. I am not just writing this. I did share this that same week in 2007 with my friends, Zafar Hilaly and Mazhar Abbas. Zafar joked, “why are you itching for a fight with her.” It fills me with sadness because even Benazir failed to grasp the full extent of how Islamic militancy was a covert foreign policy tool of the US establishment.
Hence Pakistan cannot come out of the current impasse without fighting against both the religious fascism and blind submission to external hegemony because Pakistan faces a more crucial challenge than just the Taliban. It must find a way to transform itself from a dysfunctional (US) client national-security state to a modern democracy with a sustainable economic development model which is appropriate for a country with one of the world’s largest, fastest growing, and youngest populations. It cannot hope to move towards that goal unless it disengages itself from overt and covert conflicts, realigns its foreign and economic policy focus from the West to the East, and empowers its people.
Disengagement, Realignment and Empowerment are the essential pre-conditions for saving Pakistan and for the process of institution-building and economic development to start and take root in a meaningful sense. Otherwise the country’s future will continue to be the subject of dire predictions and its progress will remain a mirage with a higher and growing risk of failure as a state. Peace, independent foreign policy and a plural democracy have to be the pillars of a modern Pakistan that is not a client, debt-ridden security state with a large, illiterate and impoverished population.
With this introduction and background, here is that paper again, Islamic Militancy: Covert US/Pakistani Foreign Policy Tool |