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OPINION

Rice Pulls Up Pakistan
TUSHAR CHARAN

With a three-piece all-weather suit his trademark and an affected speech, foreign minister Khursheed Kasuri was at his theatrical best when he challenged Afghanistan to provide him the address of terrorist hideouts in Pakistan in support of their oft-repeated charges against Islamabad. This was at a joint press conference with the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, during her whirlwind tour of Pakistan and Afghanistan, the two strong but quarrelling allies of the US in the so-called war on terror, on her way to Moscow to attend a G-8 meeting. Rice smiled ‘thinly’ as she watched the Kasuri’s melodramatic performance.

By now she and other American leaders have become familiar with the thespian qualities of Pakistani leaders whenever confronted with the allegation that they are not playing their part in the ‘war on terror’ and continue to back the dark forces of Taliban, who are now trying to regain their strength in Afghanistan, and the ‘freedom fighters’ in Kashmir, desperate to win ‘freedom’ by killing Indian civilians. What makes the Pakistani show of rage a burlesque is their vehemently demanding ‘proof’ with ‘addresses’ of terrorists operating out of Pakistan against both the eastern and western neighbour. How naïve of them to assume that the terrorists operate from fixed addresses that are somehow unknown to the Pakistanis!

What should be worrying the Pakistanis is not that Karzai has failed to lead them to the ‘right addresses’ of the terrorists in Pakistan but the fact that such allegations are no longer dismissed out of hand by those who matter. In fact, the US has repeatedly said that Pakistan was ‘not doing enough’ to fight the terrorists. No less a person than President George W. Bush first conveyed this message to the Pakistani ruler, Gen Pervez Musharraf, in Washington. The hunt for terrorists and other outlaws does not depend on someone providing the right address to the authorities.

The visit of Condoleezza Rice to Pakistan was necessitated because the US is concerned over the widening gulf between Kabul and Islamabad on the question of flushing out the terrorists, especially the Taliban, who operate from North Waziristan and parts of Baluchistan. Though denied by Islamabad, Rice must have also reminded Musharraf about conducting a ‘free and fair’ election next year and do something ‘more’ to restore full democracy in Pakistan. And it is almost unlikely that Musharraf or any of his colleagues, obsessed as they always are with India, did not talk about India with the visiting American leader.

But on her part, Rice remained focused on the fight against terrorists in the region. She declared that though Afghanistan has ‘determined’ and ‘ruthless’ enemies they would not be allowed to succeed. A clear hint that the US wants to see the end of the menace of terrorism. But that is not possible as long as the terrorists continue to find safe havens across the Durand Line with overt and covert support from a section of the Pak army and ISI.

Pak establishment would perhaps like the world and the domestic audience to believe that they used the Rice visit to do some plain speaking about the ‘discriminatory’ treatment meted out by the US to an old and ‘trusted’ ally by not offering it a civilian nuclear deal similar to the one given on a platter to India.

To drive home their point, they issued a veiled threat of starting a nuclear race in the sub-continent as Islamabad thinks it is its divine right to have everything that India has, and more. The reaction to the civilian nuclear deal between India and the US clearly belies the Islamabad claim that it seeks nuclear ‘parity’ with India only for the sake of meeting its energy needs. The US may have seen through the game, much to the frustration of Islamabad. Now that the India-US nuclear deal has begun to cross the hurdles on the Capitol Hill, Pakistani mandarins must be more frustrated.

Washington has perhaps realised that turning a blind eye to Pakistani proliferation activities can ultimately harm its own security interests. Hence, the Americans have stuck to the line famously said by President Bush in front of Musharraf that Pakistan cannot expect the type of nuclear deal offered to India because India and Pakistan are different countries with different histories of nuclear proliferation.

That message must have rankled a great deal in Islamabad. No amount of threats from Pakistan has made the US budge, perhaps because Pakistan has raised further doubts by the abrupt manner in which it declared the ‘AQ Khan’ case closed after releasing all the scientists detained just after the Khan’s nuclear black market came to light. Further, Pakistan would not allow Khan to be interrogated by anyone.

The message from Rice to Musharraf on her latest visit to Islamabad too would have been direct and blunt, both about the nuclear deal and his double game in fighting the ‘war’ on terror. Of course, she did try to assuage her hurt hosts by assuring them that the US would help Pakistan in meeting its energy needs. May be a civilian nuclear deal for Pakistan is in the offing. But what is sure is that it will have many more ‘strings’ attached. In the meantime, the US will keep urging Mian Musharraf to honour his assurance to the world that he is sincere in fighting terrorism.

Admittedly, Pakistan no longer impresses the world by saying again and again that no other country has done ‘more’ than what it has done in the fight against ‘terror’. Not even the claim they have nabbed or killed nearly 650 terrorists and sent 80,000 troops to its western borders where the terrorists of all hues are holed up. Well, no other country can do more than Pakistan for the simple reason that after the Americans drove away the Taliban and other terrorists from Afghanistan, all of them headed for the safe havens across the eastern border in Pakistan. Their number is believed to run into thousands.

When Afghanistan President, Hamid Karzai, provided Islamabad the list of Afghan fugitives and Taliban fighters together with the places from where they were operating, Gen Pervez Musharraf shot back to say that the addresses were found to be ‘wrong’ or ‘outdated’. He also challenged Karzai to be more accurate in pointing out the hideouts of terrorists in Pakistan.

Musharraf’s display of wrath is understandable but unacceptable. He knows it only too well that the terrorists who are still being trained and armed in his country by the ISI do not stay at one address. The terrorist camps are mobile and are constantly changed for security and strategic reasons. Musharraf should know that well, instead of feigning anger. Just as he and his army colleagues know fully about ‘the Khan Nuke Mart’ they themselves had sponsored but keep denying as a matter of habit.


Courtesy : Syndicate Features

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