American Enterprise Institute Event (Part-II)

Pakistan needs a strong civilian rule: Haqqani

By Rana Fawad

WASHINGTON: Referring to the confusion the tribal people were faced with during and after the jihad, Haqqani told the audience that once he had a chance to visit a tribal elder who told him that a few years ago the Pakistani officials came to him and said those guys were mujahidin (holy warriors) so protect them, look after them.

That tribal elder married his daughter to one of those mujahideen and being the son-in-law, he became a part and parcel of the tribe. A few years later, the same officials went to that tribal elder and told him that the Americans were telling them that now those guys were terrorists, therefore, the government would not take any responsibility.

Haqqani said Benazir Bhutto’s real credit was that she was the first Pakistani leader since 9/11 to go to the people and say that terrorism was a threat to Pakistan. “Forget about all other things that are being said: feudal, tribal, Benazir Bhutto and her husband’s alleged corruption, etc. On the issue of terrorism she had the courage to speak out to crowds of the Pakistanis and tell them terrorism is our problem. We have to deal with it,” he added.

He was of the view that so far Musharraf’s biggest weakening had been that he was telling the Pakistanis he was under a lot of pressure from the Americans to deal with it. “That doesn’t mobilize the Pakistani public against the terrorists. That creates the problem as if terrorists wouldn’t be terrorists, they are just nice guys or old jihadis who want to do something for Islam,” he added.

Haqqani explained that those tribal people would not surrender those guys or turn in any information about Osama bin Laden despite the offers of millions of dollars as a reward because that money does not matter to them but the tribal loyalty does.

He told the audience that the people didn’t realize the loyalty factor. He said for instance one of Ayman al Zawahri’s wives belonged to a local tribe and that tribe was going to protect him as their son-in-law.

Haqqani said no doubt being the superpower of the world the US had to deal with all kinds of people, however, it should not delude itself that those were good guys and that’s what was happening in Musharraf’s case.

Haqqani mentioned that the emphasis of the US policy in relation to Pakistan had been supporting the Pakistan military and the intelligence services. He mentioned, “Since 1954, Pakistan has received something like 22 billion dollars in US economic and military assistance. Almost 17.7 billion dollars during this period have gone to the military regimes in Pakistan and only 3.4 billion dollars have gone to the civilian regimes.”

He said that the calculation would conclude the US subsidized the Pakistani military rules to the tune of 600 million dollars per year and provided only 181 million dollars under the civilian rules.

He clarified that he was not making any case for more US aid for civilian rules but the discussion was about the understanding why the military and intelligence services in Pakistan had so much control over Pakistan. Haqqani said as far as the question ‘who controlled Pakistan’ was concerned, the answer was ‘the military and intelligence agencies controlled Pakistan to the extent they could’ and now the jihadis and the extremists were controlling certain parts where the military and intelligence agencies didn’t have control.

“What Pakistan needs is a strong military that does not run covert operations and is not out of control. A strong military that is under civilian control,” he commented. Referring to Pakistan’s politics, he said it still had a mainstream and Benazir Bhutto as well as Nawaz Sharif represented that mainstream.

He said if some people thought those two Pakistani leaders were divisive, he would say they were not worse than the Democrats and Republicans of this country. As for Benazir’s and Nawaz Sharif’s alleged corruption, Haqqani stated that it should not be anybody’s business in the US to start mentioning their corruption and we even never find out about Musharraf’s and the military’s corruption because they keep things closer to their chest and they don’t allow anybody to reveal their corruption.

He commented that the real issue is Pakistan’s security and that the country does not remain a safe haven for the jihadis and for that Pakistan needs a strong civilian government with control over the military as well as intelligence agencies.

He emphasized that Pakistan needed to break away from the jihadi past and enter the future of modernity. “Can that happen? Absolutely,” he predicted.

Haqqani believed that the Pakistan army did not want a break with the US. He added that the US aid was important to the Pakistan military and there were people in the military who would rather have the US assistance than not have it. “So, instead of just pandering to them, if the US actually tells them that we are on to what you do and believe some of the things what some of the Pakistani civilians say, instead of being cynical about all of us, then I think there is hope,” he commented.

Criticizing the US approach towards Pervez Musharraf, Haqqani suggested that the US should ask critical questions instead of issuing statements showing faith in Musharraf. He said the question was why Musharraf was an American ally and termed him a flawed ally.’ He concluded his remarks saying, “It’s about time to point out how flawed the military intelligence complex that runs Pakistan is.”
(To be continued)