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A matter of perspective

A couple of emotive issues of major national concern which threatened to go out of control are now being handled in a more mature fashion by both the Government and the Opposition. Such matters must be looked at from an analytical national perspective and not be used to score political points off the other to the detriment of the vital interests of the State. Responsible political leadership requires that a consensus be arrived at on the substance of issues without further acrimony or mudslinging.

The nuclear question is most vital to the continued sovereignty of the nation. It is singularly the most effective deterrent keeping India from testing its overwhelming conventional superiority against the tenacity and determination of our Armed Forces. The stage of nuclear development we are in is largely a matter of conjecture to the world, it must not become the subject of irresponsible public debate. Pointing fingers at one another on the question of “capping” serves no purpose except that of others. For the record, US laws mandate that developing countries should not cross the nuclear threshold if they want to continue receiving economic and military aid. In a major development, the US President has taken the initiative of approaching Congress to take such legislative steps (revoking Pressler Amendment, etc) that could lead to a removal of restrictions on US economic and military aid to Pakistan. Given that we desperately require to augment our air power with the F-16s held in storage in Mojave Desert in Nevada, any diplomatic presentation from our side that convinces the US that their laws are discriminatory towards Pakistan in relationship to a balance of power with nuclear India should be welcome to all Pakistanis. A dominant India is always a predator nation as she has proved time and again vis-a-vis the peripheral States of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and the Maldives, not to mention those States that she has occupied over the years, viz. Kashmir, Hyderabad, Junagadh, Goa, Sikkim, etc. Pakistan has been the only nation to stand upto India in the region. The nuclear expertise that we possess is neither a PPP nor a PML(N) created asset, it is a national potential. As much as the Indians profess outrage at the possibility of a Pakistani nuclear potential, they have blatantly gone ahead beyond the actual detonation of their bomb in the early 70s to the development of an unmanned delivery system in the form of Agni and Prithvi missiles. Even as they refuse to sign the non-proliferation treaty, the Indians miss no beat to remind concerned western governments about the “Islamic” nature of a possible Pakistani Bomb and connotations thereof. Their duplicity is so perfected that while they profess their deep friendship for the rest of the Islamic Bloc, they spare no opportunity about evoking suspicion in western minds about a possible Doomsday Scenario if any Islamic country manages to get the Bomb. Is Pakistan’s purpose served by accusations hurled about the future intentions or past actions of each other? Or is it served by speaking in unison about the threat that a nuclear India poses to the rest of the world? If Ms Benazir is able to convince the US not to discriminate against Pakistan because of which Pakistan is deprived of a potent conventional weapon platform for its defence, more power to her and so should be the stance of the Opposition. As it is, it is too early to go into paroxysms of euphoria over likely US aid, US Congress has more often than not refused to go along with the US government. The Opposition’s concern about likely hidden clauses in whatever promises and assurances are given to the US that tend to impinge on Pakistan’s sovereignty must be assuaged by the Government. An “in camera” briefing by the PM for the Leader of the Opposition and his key aides can rectify this. One must commend both sides for agreeing to debate the nuclear issue in the NA “in camera”. We live in a world having one Superpower left, it makes no sense to antagonize that power centre when we have the logic and wherewithal to convince the United States about the self-imposed parameters of our nuclear programme, the threat perception and deterrence thereof.

The voice of the nation on Kashmir is more united but the potential for disunity is so vast that any shortsighted statement by either side could cause our policy to self-destruct. Over the past three to four years, an indigenous Kashmir uprising has invited an escalating level of Indian violence and brutality on the Kashmiris. Kashmir is now an armed camp where life is punctuated by violent action and reaction between the occupation forces and the Kashmiri freedom fighters, the latest outrages being Hazratbal Shrine and Sopore. The endless blood cycle of torture, rape, murder and maiming has caused the Kashmiri population to move from a position of resigned apathy post-1965 to absolute hatred in the 90s for the Indians. That this transformation has taken place when it was generally believed that over the years the Kashmir freedom movement was dead within Kashmir is itself a miracle. In May 1965, after the drubbing at the hands of Pakistan in the Rann of Kutch, Indian PM Shastri had promised a response “at a time and place of (their) choosing”. The Indians assiduously planned to ensnare Pakistan in a well coordinated trap to (1) destroy Pakistan’s potential to wage war by inflicting defeat on the Pakistan Armed Forces in the battlefield (2) occupy large urban industrialized and agriculturally-rich areas of Pakistani Punjab and thus exercise total economic dominance of Pakistan and (3) set back Kashmir’s fight for independence thus irretrievably eliminating the Kashmir question. If successful, the Indian strategy would have ensured uncontested hegemony over the South Asian sub-continent. It seemed that their agent provocateurs fed on naked ambition within our military and political hierarchy and contrived a ill-planned foray into Kashmir by Kashmiri “raiders”. Operation Gibraltar (as has been exceedingly well-recorded by an actual participant in a book of the same name) was a badly conceived operation that was high on personal ambition but callous about possible repercussions to the country. The book records that the disaster cost Pakistan the lives of many precious soldiers lying in unmarked graves within Kashmir, selective memory seems to have forgotten them. In the event the country’s existence was saved but just because the Pakistan Armed Forces fought the Indians (who as a well-planned reprisal crossed the international borders to try and capture Lahore and Sialkot) to a standstill foiling the Indians in their primary objectives. Because of the disastrous failure of Operation Gibraltar, Kashmir’s freedom movement was almost totally annihilated, militarily, diplomatically and psychologically. The flag of hope has only been raised subsequently after almost two and a half decades in the cold because a successor generation of Kashmiris within Indian-held Kashmir refused to bear the continuing repression. The writing on the wall for the Indians indicates that of the two options (1) accession to Pakistan or (2) remaining with India, the Kashmiris overwhelmingly will opt for Pakistan. To delay that eventuality, the Indians have embarked on the red herring of a third option, an independent Kashmir. This option is being touted by some elements inside and outside Kashmir at the behest of those on the payroll of India. PM Bhutto is to be commended for giving a blunt “no” to the third option as did former PM Nawaz Sharif before her. Indian sponsored groups and individuals, mostly coalesced around an influential minority with secret members in every walk of national life in Pakistan and with reason to be aggrieved, are propagating the viability of a third option while spreading such disinformation and dissension both within Kashmir and in Pakistan. Even some of the militant groups have been infiltrated by them at the behest of RAW. These elements are known to change their political bandwagon in Pakistan periodically, not out of love for either of the major political parties, but to instigate anarchy by keeping the party in power under constant threat and as such destabilize the country. To achieve their purpose they harness the ambitions and greed of various individuals. Ms Bhutto’s charismatic image with the western media makes her now a potent threat and it is expected that these elements will rapidly spread calumny in order to discredit her. While keeping the accountability factor paramount, the PML(N) should not unknowingly become a party to this. However, as much as one exhorts the Opposition to refrain from tying down the hands of the PM in advance of the talks to be held with India, it is upto the PM to ensure consensus on such issues by a complete dialogue “in camera” with Mian Nawaz Sharif to put forward a united front to India. Mian Nawaz Sharif has a proven sincerity to the national cause, he will certainly respond in a non-partisan fashion to any proposal that the PM puts forward that is good for the country.

Agent provocateurs abound, paid for by India to accomplish their long-term objectives. These elements are extremely dangerous (besides being cowards as they dare not come out into the open and disclose their names), some of them have taken on a holier-than-thou “patriotic and nationalistic” garb while burrowing deep within the body politic of the country with a vested interest in destroying the citadel of Islam. In their nefarious designs they have allied themselves with the duplicity and disinformation which is the cardinal part of Indian State policy as annunciated in “The Kautilya Arthasastra”, the English Language translation (from Sanskrit) of which should be a must reading for our young leaders. At the moment the Indians are under severe pressure internally as well as externally. Any dissension within our own ranks will take them off the hook.

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