Resetting Pak-US ties: where’s the trust?

Courtesy:-  Brig (retd) Farooq Hameed Khan
Tuesday, March 27, 2012

LAHORE: If the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) called for an unconditional US apology in general terms, the parliament should clearly demand one from the US president. If Obama could apologise to the furious Afghan nation soon after the massacre of 16 Afghan civilians by a US Army Sergeant, he should have displayed similar statesmanship after the Salala tragedy.

The PCNS’s recommendation that activities of foreign private security contractors must be transparent and subject to Pakistani law only serves to encourage and legitimize the presence of such covert operatives on Pakistani soil. The parliament should instead call for expulsion of all foreigners other than accredited diplomats or those on officially recognized government postings/appointments duly cleared by national security agencies.

With special Islamabad backing, former Ambassador Husain Haqqani, the so-called protector of our interests in Washington, opened the floodgates of American and other foreign agents into Pakistan. They poured in large numbers, many in the guise of technical experts/planners, government/NGO consultants and coordinators for Kerry Lugar Berman Law projects and the Pak-US strategic dialogue.

Raymond Davis provided the then DG ISI, Lt Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha the opportunity to crackdown on CIA’s well established parallel secret network in Pakistan. One of the major challenges ahead for the incumbent DG ISI, Lt Gen Zaheer ul Islam would be to completely dismantle the remnants of CIA or any other foreign intelligence apparatus in Pakistan.

Did the US betray our trust during the devastating 2005 earthquake as well as the 2010 floods in Pakistan? We were impressed and moved by the ‘instant and massive’ response with US Air Force leading the international relief effort transporting humanitarian supplies to Islamabad and dozens of their Chinooks/support helicopters flying into Pakistan from Afghanistan and ships in Arabia sea. A major Army Aviation base was practically taken over by the Chinooks for earthquake relief missions. Deep down somewhere there was however an eerie feeling about this extraordinary display of American ‘love’ for a distressed nation.

According to the latest revelations by D.B. Grady and Marc Ambinder in their book “The Command: Deep Inside the President’s Secret Army”, the CIA took advantage of the natural disaster and chaos to fly in hundreds of secret operatives/special forces using valid US passports and posing as construction/aid workers, without the requisite background checks by Pakistan’s security agencies.

With US helicopters flying relief missions all over Pakistan, it would be difficult to assess the extent to which intelligence information about our communication/defence infrastructure or strategic installations may have been compromised.

While the PCNS had recommended that the US review its footprints in Pakistan, it failed to highlight the need of scaling down American diplomatic presence in Pakistan to pre 9/11 levels. Since the increased requirements of US security contractors/advisors/diplomats due to the Afghan war would cease after bulk of US/Nato pullout by 2014, then were US embassy’s expansionist designs in Islamabad justified?

On intervention by the security establishment, the CDA has reportedly asked US Embassy to limit the number of floors of its under construction 16 blocks complex to four instead of the earlier approved seven. If security concerns of sensitive government offices close to diplomatic enclave had necessitated such a step, then why were the intelligence agencies not taken on board by CDA while approving the embassy design plans?

Should a major CIA setup be allowed to come up in this new US embassy within few kilometers of ISI’s Aabpara complex? With mounting American domestic pressure for ‘hasty withdrawal’, the new US embassy project needs a joint Pak-US review.

One must commend the US Embassy in Islamabad for finding unique ways to influence various segments of Pakistani society. Under the US Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation, many notable Gaddi Nasheens/caretakers of South Punjab received lavish grants of around 100,000 to 150,000 US dollars each for the conservation and restoration of shrines under their control.

The Embassy recently advertised in print media another US Ambassador’s Fund programme, inviting applications from civil society groups /communities for grants up to 250,000 US dollars to undertake projects in energy, education, health and agriculture sectors etc.

Never before in our history has a foreign country’s Ambassador openly lured Pakistanis with such rich financial assistance. How much of those funds would be actually used for the intended purpose was anybody’s guess. But such generosities cannot be without some form of quid pro quo to promote the donor’s interests. It was time to cease such programmes that could end up in embarrassments for the beneficiaries.

If US drone attacks keep Fata on fire and continue to kill and maim Pakistani Pakhtun, women and children, then heightened anti Americanism could jeopardize the safe and orderly withdrawal of heavy US military equipment/hardware via the Chaman/Torkhum - Karachi land/rail routes.

This is the parliament’s hour of trial. Should it stand with the aspirations of the 180 million people or facilitate the designs of a compromised leadership that must appease a superpower for vested interests? The parliament should lay down a package of preconditions, which US should meet before Nato road supplies could be even considered for restoration with enhanced taxes and levies.

These should include immediate cessation of drone attacks, unconditional apology by US President over Salala, bringing November 26 attackers to justice, reimbursement of our legitimate 3.0 billion US dollars of accumulated Coalition Support Fund payments and withdrawing opposition to Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project.

After all the battering to Pak-US relationship in 2011, could the two countries return to business as usual? Why was Raymond Davis not put on trial in US as promised by Senator John Kerry while pleading for his release in February 2011? Was it possible to recreate the euphoria of the Hillary-Shah Mahmood strategic dialogue and move towards a long-term Pak-US strategic partnership?