At the government level, the
Blackwater case is fast descending into a shameful farce. Despite all evidence
to the contrary, the Interior Minister [Rehman Malik] and his secretary
continue to promote the lie that there is no Blackwater in Pakistan. Yet on
Tuesday, the secretary doubled down on the lie by declaring, before the
National Assembly's Standing Committee on the Interior, that “neither
Blackwater and DynCorp nor any other such security agency is operating in the
country.”
Yet the record of the
Interior Ministry shows bore licenses [gun licenses] being sought by DynCorp through
the company's representative in Pakistan and the U.S. Embassy (copies of which
were published in The Nation). The documents also show that the U.S. Embassy
acknowledges DynCorp as working for it.
The
whole case of Inter
Risk was linked to DynCorp. The Interior Ministry is also aware of U.S.
security company affiliates working in Pakistan, often with Pakistani partners.
So why all the lying, even to Parliament? Even when investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill and
former-CIA operatives have provided extensive evidence of these operations in
Pakistan and Afghanistan, and even after officials of the North West Frontier
Province and Pakistani investigative journalists have done their own bit of
fact collection, Rehman Malik and his secretary refuse to budge from their
increasingly overt falsehoods. And this, despite the arrest of the interior minister's
private secretary in connection with the Inter Risk case and the issuance of illegal
gun licenses. What about the agenda of these companies is so threatening that
the Interior Ministry is prepared to lie to everyone concerned? Or is it just
due to scandal and U.S. pressure?
In a ridiculously arrogant
move, the U.S. Embassy has had the audacity to lodge a complaint because law
enforcement officials are enforcing laws against the carrying of unlicensed
weapons by U.S. Embassy employees (who don't hold diplomatic immunity) and for breaking
Pakistani law. Clearly, the United States seeks to put its employees, including
Pakistani nationals, above the law.
But what's even more shameful
is that the prime minister himself has taken up the U.S. complaint and seen fit
to form a committee to study the issue. Members of the committee include the
director general of Inter-Services Intelligence - who shouldn't be dragged into
local law enforcement matters that are the domain of the police - three federal
secretaries as well as Rehman Malik! If only this committee had been formed to
look into the issue of missing
persons, the nation would have been more assured of the commitment of its
leaders to the wellbeing of Pakistanis.
[Editor's Note: According
to Amnesty International, Hundreds of people who have “disappeared” were
detained under counter terrorism measures justified by Pakistan as part of the
US-led "war on terror."
