People selling Pork products openly in Karachi

“The latest US-Nato attack on our security forces is the gravest so far as this single assault has killed more than 28 Pakistani soldiers and injured many. The Pakistani civilian and military leadership have utterly failed to effectively respond to the US-led foreign aggression.” – Ansar Abbasi reported in The News on November 27.

Since 9/11 Pakistan has been subjected to countless attacks by the US. Let me remind my readers of the time, shortly after 9/11, when Pervez Musharraf bowed before Bush’s demands. Our safety, security and sovereignty were compromised there and then, as soon as it was decided that we would be an ally and party to the heinous crimes and anti-humanity agenda that was to be pursued by the US on our soil.

This understanding and the pacts formulated as a result paved the way for 56,000 sorties which took off from Pakistani soil and bombed our brethren in Afghanistan. The same became the basis of ruthless human rights abuses which took place in their cover. Illegal abductions ,disappearances, target killings, mass terrorism and destruction programmes have plagued and haunted this poor nation, pushing it to the brink of collapse. Some of the world’s most notorious prisons and detention sites, such as Guantanamo Bay and Bagram Air Base, were created in the aftermath of 9/11 and have since become spaces where humanity bleeds to date.

A direct attack on our armed forces on November 26, 2011, no matter how serious an offensive it may seem, is still nothing in comparison to what the poor civilians have been subjected to as consequences of bad policies and the aggressive launch of the war on terror by the Americans in a bid to acquire control over the region.

The question is how much more time the civil and armed leadership would need to wake up from its slumber and finally realise the interests of its own civilians and nation. The US has been aggressive from the beginning and has been maintaining its stance. On the other hand, we (the Pakistani civil and military leadership), have been behaving as slaves most of the time; sometimes apologetically and other times trying to appear bold, but in truth, speaking out in timid defiance at best. It shows nothing but our pathetic failure in defending the nation, in spite of being a nuclear power and, according to most accounts, the sixth largest army in the world.

From the May 2 operation to handing over Shamsi base; the GHQ attacks; the Raymond Davis issue; all the acts of terrorism and ongoing disappearances of Pakistani nationals for the sake of dollars; drone attacks; the current Memogate issue – the list of unfortunate incidents that have taken place here is unlimited. Each incident speaks volumes of the repeated embarrassments the nation has suffered and our government’s cowardice in the face of it all.

What is left of a country like Pakistan which receives dictation from the foreign powers – the orders becoming increasingly strict since 9/11? We are drained morally, economically, socially and psychologically; moving fast to meet our end. All that is left is honour and integrity. There is a moral imperative to act now to salvage what little remains.

Speaking from a purely humanitarian angle, representing the masses and particularly the aggrieved who have suffered the deadly spell of Pak-US cooperation, I would advise the leadership to remain silent but let its actions speak out loud and clear this time, in favour of a change.

The utter dejection of the families of missing persons, the unsolved mysteries of the unnumbered disappeared, the tragic tales of pain and grief, of forced separation from loved ones, the legacy of Dr Aafia Siddiqui who was sentenced to 86 years of imprisonment by the US – all this lies heavy on the nation’s conscience.

Unfortunately, the masses have lost faith in the political or armed leadership as they have repeatedly been cheated, ignored and left to suffer endlessly. However, the last ray of hope or opportunity remains, given that there is a willingness to undo the harm that has been done. The following steps need to be taken without further delay:

• Block the Nato supply line once and for all.

• Immediately release all the missing persons dumped in detention cells, share lists of their names and reveal their status and place of custody.

• Negotiate and facilitate Dr Aafia’s release via diplomatic channels.

• Revise foreign policy to better serve the interests of the nation.

• No cooperation with the US; freeze all ongoing projects with it.

• Specify a date for achieving the above mentioned targets.

• The National Reconciliation agenda for the comfort of the aggrieved.

All this must be initiated immediately and implemented in letter and spirit without mention and rhetoric. I repeat “without mention” as the leadership’s words and promises have lost credibility. It is time now to act. This is the only way to win back the people of this aggrieved nation.

The writer is chairperson Defence of Human Rights.
Email: mrsjanjua@gmail.com , chairpersondhr@gmail.com.
Website: www.dhrpk.org

Courtesy: The News International

With the deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers in an air strike, the US may have made its costliest mistake of the war in Afghanistan

How bad can a relationship between two military allies get? If this year’s tally of incidents is anything to go by, Pa Pakistan’s rage against the American military machine can get a lot worse. First came the affair over Raymond Davis, the CIA agent who shot dead two men who had pulled up in front of his car at a traffic light in Lahore. Then came the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad. And now this.

An Afghan special forces operation, backed up by Nato troops, allegedly came under fire from across the border (a false excuse) . Afghan troops called in Nato airstrikes, and two Pakistani military posts were hit, killing 24 soldiers. The reaction in Pakistan ranged yesterday from cold fury (it is just not believed in Pakistani military circles that Nato was unaware of the co-ordinates of the two military posts in the village of Salala) to hot conspiracy: America was the “big evil”. The politician Imran Khan told thousands of supporters on Saturday that it was time to end the alliance with the US. It would be folly to dismiss this as mere populism. After a year like this, the Pakistani military will have to cope with rising levels of pressure from within its own ranks to end co-operation with the US.

The short-term response is not as troubling as the long-term implications. Pakistan closed two border crossings and gave the US 15 days to quit Shamsi airbase in Baluchistan, from which it flew drones targeting militants in the tribal areas. The closures will make Barack Obama more dependent on Vladimir Putin’s goodwill, and the northern supply route through which 60% of troops and military cargo to Afghanistan now travel. But, of itself, the closures will be a temporary problem. Of greater significance is the erosion of Pakistani public support for the US fight against the Taliban. It would not be the first strategic mistake the US had made in this war, but it could yet prove the costliest.

Courtesy: Guardian UK