Author: Khaled Ahmed
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: June 13, 2002
The din in Pakistan's Urdu newspapers
about the government's 'sudden about-turn' on the 'Kashmir cause' isn't
going to help General Musharraf's cause, reports KHALEDAHMED
The culture of jihad has been seeping
into the Pakistani mind for the past two decades, helped by state propaganda,
the rise of the charismatic warrior priest, and the empowerment of those
involved in it. In the minds of most people it, began to represent Pakistan
in the world outside, not the government or the armed forces of Pakistan.
Will it be possible to live without the daily headlines planted in the
press about the spiritual superiority of the Islamic warrior in contrast
to the evil Hindu empire next-door and the global threat of the assumed"
Western "crusade" against Islam?
Columnist Irshad Haqqani reproduced
Jann (June 1,2002) three letters objecting to his earlier view that Pakistan
should listen to (lie view of world powers. Anwaruz Badr from Karachi said
any stoppage of jihad would he a "betrayal of the thousands of Kashmiris
killed by the Indian troops and thousands of women raped by them".
The second letter was from Ahmad
Hussain from Muzaffarabad, complaining that Haqqani had washed his hands
of Kashmir, and that America would make Pakistan abandon first Kashmir,
then Karachi, Balochistan and NWFP The third letter was from lawyer Abdul
Hakim Awan from Gujranwala who thought terrorism should he stopped in Pakistan
but jihadi headquarters in PoK should he allowed to continue.
The Urdu press has carried such
a one sided opinion over the past months that it is difficult to even suggest
some flexibility in Pakistan's stance while it responds to India's Kashmir
policy. Had there been an effort on the part of newspapers to present a
varied picture, Haqqani's rational advice would not have aroused the kind
of anger one sees in the above letters.
Add to that the "statements", carried
without proper scrutiny, from the angry religious and jihadi leaders offended
with the change in Pakistan's Taliban policy, and you have all the doors
closed on the flexibility of response at times needed by the state in times
of crises. The first letter is straight from the congealed surface of propaganda
in Pakistan, repeating charges of murder and rape without regard to how
ineffective it has become as an instrument of persuasion. The second letter
draws from the fantasy of the evil designs of America, and the third one
advises allowing jihadis deemed sectarian terrorists in Pakistan to continue
operating from Kashmir without any guarantee against their parallel operations
inside Pakistan.
The secretary-general of Tehreek
Insaf, Meraj Muhammad Khan said in the daily Pakistan (June 1,2002) that
Pakistan should ask America which side it will he on if war broke out between
Pakistan and India. He said if Pakistan got rid of its nuclear weapons
it would he-come a fakir on the road. It appears that Imran Khan and his
deputy have converged to the same point of view from two different directions.
Quoted in Nawa-e-Waqt (May 29, 2002),
ex-ISI chief General (Retd) Hameed Gul said that the gas pipeline agreement
signed between Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan was an American conspiracy
which wanted to control the natural resources of ( central Asia after the
exhaustion of oil in the Gulf region. He added that getting the agreement
signed before the appearance of a genuine government in Kabul was a dangerous
game played by America.
Hameed Gul's statements have always
been rejectionist of Genera] Musharraf, if not altogether anarchist. He
initially condemned the rise of the Taliban as an American-British conspiracy
facilitated by the PPP government. Then he headed the pro-Taliban chorus
of the religious and jihadi parties. When the Taliban were being courted
by the oil companies it was kosher, although the Taliban's contradictions
with Iran and the Central Asian republics had foredoomed the deal. Pakistan
has once again supported the pipeline, hut at least this time the regional
contradictions don't compound the internal Afghan snags. The project promises
Pakistan a good opportunity to become a supplier of gas.(Daily Times)
