It is high time that the US and the world called the Pakistani bluff, and demanded that the country and its leadership fulfil its commitments to neutralise terrorism from its soil, and engage in international relations in accordance with contemporary
There is, in fact, significant and mounting evidence that the extraordinarylicence that Pakistan and its dictator have long enjoyed is approaching, if notan end, at least some measure of curtailment. Recent reports from UK suggestthat opinion within the security establishment is becoming increasingly hostileto Pakistan, and an internal document has accused Pakistan's ISI of supportingthe Al Qaeda and Taliban. The document suggested, further, that the ISI shouldbe dismantled and that Gen Musharraf himself should resign.
Pakistan's continuing role in supporting and sponsoring terrorism has beenwidely acknowledged by a range of Western sources, including officials,particularly among those who are directly connected or familiar withdevelopments on the ground— including the leaders of the US-led militaryalliance forces deployed in Afghanistan. It is useful to recall that, asrecently as September 21, 2006, Marine General James Jones, NATO's top militarycommander in Afghanistan, became the latest in a string of US officials toconfirm that the Taliban leadership was directing the Afghan insurgency fromQuetta in Pakistan. Nevertheless, most Western Governments try to studiouslylook the other way, and Gen Musharraf continues to receive pats on the back fromPresident Bush and the State Department.
India's leaders have also shown themselves to be periodically susceptible tothis selective blindness, and have only recently reclassified Pakistan as a'victim' rather than a perpetrator of terrorism. Only an occasional leader, likeAfghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, has remained steadfast in his insistencethat Pakistan is an essential part, indeed core, of the problem of terrorism,and not any part of a possible solution.
Just over the last six months,
The reality, however, is that most of these are low-value targets, and thefew who had a significant position or presence in the Al Qaeda were onlyarrested by Pakistani forces when they were left with little choice, as Westernintelligence agencies had provided specific and detailed intelligence on theirlocation. Pakistan's 'cooperation' in the 'Global war on terror' has been bothreluctant and meagre. Pakistan seeks constantly to keep the instrumentalities ofterrorism— the various terrorist groups operating on and from its soil—alive in the long-term expectation that, eventually, US and Western enthusiasmfor and commitments in the region will wane, creating the space for arestoration of Pakistan's strategic over-reach through terrorism across Southand Central Asia.
K.P.S. Gill is a former Punjab DGP and is currently advisor to theChhattisgarh government on Naxalite affairs. This piece first appeared in the Pioneer