Former
President/General Pervez Musharraf: Having formed a
new political party, he wants his old job back. But do
Pakistanis
want him?
The Frontier Post, Pakistan
Musharraf Should
Have Told Truth to U.S.-Led 'Raiders'
"For
one, he could have told the puny 20,000-strong force of U.S.-led raiders that Afghanistan,
one of the world's more obstreperous nations, has been vanquishing and
expelling huge invading armies for ages. This petty force never showed the
spine to take on the fleeing Taliban and al-Qaeda, obviously for fear of death
and injury. … Is because he had to utter the dreaded letters: CIA?"
Hot on the heels of U.S. President
Barack Obama’s talks in New Delhi which happened to feature Afghanistan, and Afghan
President Hamid Karzai's curious invitation to our prime minister, Pervez
Musharraf has spoken out about something he should acted on when he ruled the roost.
He told an audience in New York the other day, that if Taliban and al-Qaeda
activists had crossed into Pakistan’s tribal areas to escape U.S.-led coalition
forces, Pakistan alone couldn’t be held responsible. Afghan and coalition
forces were equally to blame. But why didn’t he speak of this shared responsibility
when he was in charge? Before Afghanistan’s invasion by U.S.-led forces, al-Qaeda had
no presence at all in Pakistan - nor was it a sanctuary for the Afghan Taliban.
It was only after the ouster
of the Taliban that fleeing remnants of al-Qaeda snuck into our territory and
became such a festering sore. Meanwhile, most Taliban slipped back to their
native places in Afghanistan unscathed, to be with their tribes, regroup and
carry on with the fighting.
While embedded Western
journalists went to town shouting about how Pakistanis weren't preventing or
nabbing devious fighters, Musharraf took the tirade quietly, loath to utter
some home truths. For one, he could have told the puny 20,000-strong force of U.S.-led
raiders that Afghanistan, one of the world's more obstreperous nations, has
been vanquishing and expelling huge invading armies for ages.
Pervez
Musharraf tells the BBC's Matt Frie about why he has
reentered politics - and why he is campaigning in New York and
This petty force never showed
the spine to take on the fleeing Taliban and al-Qaeda, obviously for fear of
death and injury. They remained immovably ensconced in their Kabul and Bagram redoubts. Yet, instead of demanding some soldiering
from the invaders and insisting that they come out and corral the fleeing Taliban
and al-Qaeda remnants, Musharraf was slavishly defensive and apologetic, behaving
as though the invaders need only munch on pistachios in their fortified holes
while Pakistan's military does all the fighting. Musharraf's slavishness cost this
nation horrendously. Thanks to embedded Western journalists and media with global
reach, without putting in much fighting, the invaders came across as great
heroes. So for Musharraf's silence, our military came to be viewed around the
world as a scheming force colluding with Afghan Taliban and their allies. And
this, despite the sacrifice of so many precious lives in fighting those who
were permitted to sneak onto our land by the cowardly invaders.
For this unforgivable sin, this
baneful impression of Pakistan's military has permanently stuck in the global public
mind. Not only that, we're still viewed as playing a double game in the
spurious war on terror - even as a horrific double game is being played on us. Musharraf
now speaks of how India's Afghanistan consulates in Kandahar and Jalalabad are in to much proximate to us. But he made no issue
of it when he ruled.
Even when the nestling places
of alien and hostile agencies turned post-Taliban Afghanistan against us, he
said nothing. Even when hundreds of Indo-Tibetan border police and paramilitary
specializing in infiltration and subversion were deployed in Afghanistan, he
said nothing. Even with the deep infestation of Balochistan and our tribal
regions with cash, weapons and Afghan and Indian agents, he said nothing. Even with
the virtual ouster of our own agencies by alien intruders from the tribal
region, he said nothing. Even with the suspicious presence in our tribal belt’s
remote areas by foreign faces, he said nothing. By 2004, even with the alarming
voices emerging from our tribal niches and the frightening talk of a trumped-up
tribal assembly later that year, which would have turned our national
solidarity topsy-turvy if it had taken place, he said nothing. Is this because he
had to utter the dreaded letters: CIA?
All through his time in
office, he kept banging the drum about Pakistan’s strategic location. But a
strategic location isn't an automatic asset. It has to be turned into one. So what
did Musharraf make of it? The Chinese built us the Gwadar
port, a priceless strategic asset. Yet Musharraf instead of letting the
builder run it, he gave it to the state-run Singapore Port Authority, likely at
America’s behest.
Meanwhile, the Indians made
an asset of a non-asset by building a 135 mile road from Delaram
to Zaranj to connect up with Iran's Chabahar port and neutralize ours at Gwadar.
It was Russian resistance
that forced India to abandon the Farkhor Air Base
project in Tajikistan - but with Russia's blessing that New Delhi set up its
first air base abroad at Ayni near the Afghan border,
which, in addition to a strong helicopter fleet, hosts a jet-fighter squadron.
All of this happened on Musharraf's
watch. So if he intends to unseal his lips now, he must speak the whole truth -
or keep quiet. He causes harm when he holds back what must be said.
