Bin Laden Unites Pakistan

By Malik Siraj Akbar

Decades have passed since Pakistan’s  elected government, the 

opposition, the military and the media spoke the same language on one issue. The 

last time when one saw overwhelming consensus among all these 

segments of society was perhaps the war with India in 1965.

The killing of Al-Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad in  a secret operation of American Navy has significantly annoyed all sections of opinion in the country.

The international community definitely has every right to ask if everyone  in Pakistan’s military was on the same page about dealing with Osama Bin Laden. The Pakistanis are not apologetic about providing shelter to Bin Laden but incensed over the international community’s full disregard for what they call “our sacrifices” in the war against terror.

Frankly, in Pakistan, Osama Bin Laden has never been more popular than Indian actress Kareena Kapoor.

What has united the Pakistanis right now is not the killing of Bin Laden but the way the whole operation was conducted without informing and involving them.

There are more anti-US sentiments than pro-Bin Laden protests in the country.

Presidency

The Punjabi-dominted military does not like Sindhi President Asif Ali Zardari even in a normal day. He is equally unpopular with the country’s top opposition leader and former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif. Religious parties view him as an American puppet who is more pro-US than his spouse late Benazir Bhutto, the twice-elected prime minister. In the last many years, Zardari has matured into as a master politician, of a kind who knows how to survive in Pakistan’s tumultuous political arena. He has skillfully saved his face at the time of crises and put the military in front to face the heat of extraordinary circumstances. One such moment was the recent row between the U.S and Pakistan over the killing of two Pakistani nationals by a C.I.A contractor Raymond Davis.

Someone who can stick to power for long amidst all odds is often considered as a distinguished politician in the Pakistani lexicon. Zardari has eventually mastered that art.

Without directly annoying the White House, President Zardari insisted in an articlein the Washington Post that the world community should acknowledge Pakistan’s role in the war against terror. He knew the world wanted him to substantiate his claims through actions rather than words only.

“Some abroad insist that this is not the case, but they are wrong. Pakistanis are united.”

Prime Minister

Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, a former speaker of the National Assembly and the current Prime Minister, lashed at the United States in his address to the Parliament. [Read the full text of his speech]. He directly blamed the U.S. for facilitating Osma Bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda network to establish a base in Pakistan because of the former’s interests during the Cold War.

To the Pakistani premier, the post-Bin Laden episode is a deliberate effort by “our detractors”  to “offload their own shortcomings” intended to “stigmatizes Pakistan.”

“It is disingenuous for anyone to blame Pakistan or State institutions of Pakistan including the ISI and the armed forces for being in cahoots with the Al-Qaeda,” he said, “it is perhaps necessary to remind everyone about that era which has been so well documented including in the CNN series on the Cold War showing video footage of high ranking US officials exhorting the Afghans and Mujahideen to wage Jihad, to go back to their homes, to go back to their mosques, in the name of Islam and as a national duty. For us, all of this was real. We have continued to suffer from its effects.”

The Prime Minister has, however, announced an investigation to find out if Bin Laden hid inside Pakistan with the assistance of some elements from the Pakistani government. A relatively unknown army officer, Lieutenant General Javed Iqbal, will head the probe.

The credibility of this investigation team is questionable as it will be led by a military officer given the fact that what needs to be investigated at the moment is the very involvement of the Pakistani army in this embarrassing case. Pakistan does not have a meritorious history of investigations carried out by the men in Khaki as they make every effort to hide the findings of such investigations from the civilian population.

Transparency and access to accurate  information is another area where the masses in Pakistan feel permanently excluded.

The Army

There is no doubt that the Pakistani army is stronger than both the President and the Prime Minister in terms of determining and influencing foreign policy issues.

Writing for the B.B.C South Asia, award-winning respected journalist M. Ilyas Khansays in his article “Pakistan’s army ridiculed after Bin Laden Raid“, “for the first time in decades, the powerful Pakistani military establishment has failed to find an excuse to pin the blame on the “bloody civilians” who now control political power. The army is not only suspected of having sheltered Bin Laden, it is also under fire for having failed to detect the raid. So while few people in Pakistan are really in love with the civilian government, everybody knows that this time an explanation must come from the military.”

Most vociferous reactions have come from the Pakistani army.

In a meeting of top commanders soon after Bin Laden’s killing, army chief Kayani, who is a former head of the I.S.I, clearly warned the United States of “dire consequences” if more such unilateral operations were conducted on their territory in the future.

BBC’s Ilyas Khan has rightly described the military’s predicament.

“For the first time in decades, the powerful Pakistani military establishment has failed to find an excuse to pin the blame on the “bloody civilians” who now control political power.”

Opposition

Among all tragedies that have struck Pakistan, absence of a progressive and liberal political opposition tops the list. All four major opposition parties, the Pakistan Muslim League  (PML) of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Jammat-e-Islami, a permanent supporter of the I.S.I, pro-Taliban Jammiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) and the Justice Movement of former Cricket captain Imran Khan, are conservative, anti-US and pro-Islamic system (Sharia).

The vote bank of all these four parties largely hinges upon their anti-US rhetoric.

Lawyers

Pakistani lawyers’ community is widely perceived to be progressive and liberal. After the success of their historic movement that led to the restoration of the countries’ sacked chief justice and the downfall of former dictator-president General Pervez Musharraf, lawyers have become a strong pressure group in the country’s politics.

The lawyers’ response to the OBL’s killing is not dissimilar from the official stance. In an extraordinary demonstration of unity and anguish, several top lawyers, including Asma Jhangir, the president of the Supreme Court of the Supreme Court Bar Association and U.N’s Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief, have strongly criticized the U.S for violating international laws.

Lawyers are insisting the formation of a judicial committee to investigate the matter.

In a joint press conference yesterday at Lahore High Court, the representatives of Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association, Punjab Bar Council and Lahore Bar Association, senior lawyers demanded a broad-based investigation into the history of Al-Qaeda chief’s presence inside Pakistan.

Latif Khan Afridi, the vice chairman of Pakistan Bar Council, says a committee that does not have the power to hold everyone accountable does not make sense.

“It is the time the (intelligence) agencies were held accountable,” he was quoted inDaily Jang, Pakistan’s most circulated Urdu language newspaper.

Media

While journalists across the world look with anticipation at  their Pakistani counterparts for important information about OBL’s killing, Pakistan’s is among the rare media in the world which are still not fully convinced that Bin Laden is dead.

For many decades, the I.S.I has enrolled top and some junior journalists on its payroll in order to make sure that they adhere to the military’s internal and external policies. Many reporters and newspaper owners are oftentimes rewarded with residential plots and foreign trips for their loyalties with the country’s military establishment.

Television talkshow hosts have emerged in the recent times as a power center. The best term that we use to describe them is “anchorocracy” (referring to the dominance of the anchor persons).

The Pakistani media, heavily dominated by right-wing reporters and talk-show hosts, have begun an unsolicited campaign to “improve” the image of the army through different articles and write-ups.  For example, Jang reporter Sabir Shah wrote a detailed piece showing how intelligence agencies around the world had failed from time to time. The article seemed to have been “planted” in the newspaper to convince the Pakistani readers that it was unfair to solely blame the I.S.I for the Bin Laden fiasco.

In a talk-show on ARY News, right-wing newspaper columnist Haroon Rashid  said, “the C.I.A has cheated Pakistan” while the Prime Minister had failed to demonstrate the same level of leadership as was exhibited by the top military commanders in response to the Abbottabad raid.

“Pakistanis have not suffered from such trauma since 1971,” he said, alluding to the disintegration of Pakistan when Bangladesh emerged on the world map as an independent country, “Americans are trying to create a role for Indian inside Afghanistan.” (Courtesy: Foreignpolicyblogs)