Pakistan’s
Disconnect With Reality
The recent leak of the report of the Commission set
up to investigate the May 2, 2011 raid and killing of Osama Bin Laden (also
known as the Abbottabad Commission) has brought to the fore once more the
growing radicalization and deepening cleavages within Pakistan.
After reading the 337-page Abbottabad Commission report one is left with only
worrying conclusions.
Pakistan's security establishment appears to be
living in the 1980s where India is still the existential threat, the jihadis
are not that much of a problem and the civilians have no role in decision
making. The civilians at all levels, from bureaucrats to political leaders,
appear to be reconciled to their second citizen status in decision making and
hence either do nothing or adhere to the security establishment's line. And the
wider population, including the youth, has grown more conservative and conspiracy
ridden over the years.
In repeated interviews with top security officials
what comes out is that India was the "main military threat," the
"direct threat" as it was "a country with which there existed a
conflict over territory or some other political or resource issue." The
security officials' response to the May 2, 2011 incident was either to refer to
it as a "betrayal" by the U.S. or, as the former DG ISI stated, blame
the civilians: "We are a very weak state and also a very scared state. We
will take anything and not respond. It all boils down to corrupt and low grade
governance." What is not asked here is why blame the civilians when the
military has been ruling the country and still controls security policy,
domestic and foreign? And this was especially true during the time that Bin
Laden entered Pakistan, lived in Karachi and move all over the country.
At regular intervals police and military officials
asserted, "nobody imagined" that Bin Laden would be "living deep
inside Pakistan or in any military town." A serving major of the Pakistan
army found it difficult to believe that Osama Bin Laden would have chosen to
live in Abbottabad because the "high water level" of the ground was
not conducive for building an escape tunnel. Further, a family as large as
Osama Bin Laden and the two brothers who were his helpers would have required a
large support staff (eg cook, driver) and they did not have that. These
assertions would have more credence if these very officials had also not stated
on record that high value targets (HVTs) had been previously caught in
Pakistan's cities including Karachi, Faisalabad and Abbottabad.
Pakistan's move towards a society where radical
Islamist militant groups and their charity counterparts have a deep presence
has been well known for some time. This report only provides further
justification for this view. It is stated by different people throughout the
report how the Abbottabad area was home to "strong conservative religious
and even militant" groups especially the anti-Shia Sunni militant group
the Sipaha e Sahaba Pakistan. The local intelligence (ISI) officers stated that
the area where the Bin Laden compound was located, Dam Tor and Nawan Shehr,
were areas where Al Qaeda was "active." Al Qaeda leader Abu Faraj Al
Libbi had been found in a compound at a distance of less than a mile away from
the Bin Laden residence.
Hence, even though the security especially
intelligence personnel knew about the presence and growing spread of the
radical Islamist groups they did not see them as a threat, rather continued to
see them as assets in some form or the other. The seemingly contradictory
mindset of Pakistani security personnel is exemplified in the views of Major
Amir Aziz who had earlier asserted that Bin Laden could not have stayed in
Abbottabad. Major Aziz later stated Abbottabad was the "ideal place"
for someone like Osama Bin Laden to hide. Elaborating on his statement he
remarked that the presence of "families of many terrorists" in this
region was a surety against "suicidal attacks since terrorists would not
like to harm their own families." Further, according to the major, the
bodies of martyred militants "were buried with great honor in
Abbottabad." Zia's legacy of Islamization within the military apparently
lives on.
What is visible throughout the report are the
minimal role and resources with the civilian administration, from the local to
the top levels. The Regional Criminal Investigation Officer (RCIO), Abbottabad
had limited manpower and his office was like a "post office" just
"receiving and passing on information" to the other agencies with no
links to the local ISI and other intelligence agencies. The top civilian
officials of the province and even the federal level were "cut out of the
loop despite their clear responsibilities" which is a result of years of
military rule whereby the civilians are considered only marginal to decision
making.
While the report brings to the
forefront some of these issues which have been plaguing Pakistan for a long
time, what is also evident is the worldview that its represents. One discerns a
surrealistic atmosphere, where people are more willing to believe that Osama
Bin Laden was never there, that the only way he could be there was because the
CIA placed him there and that there were CIA agents present all over Pakistan.
That this view reflects that of the average Pakistani was evident in a Pew poll conducted in June 21, 2011 where 63 percent of
Pakistanis disapproved of the American operation and a further 55 percent
believed it was a bad thing that Osama bin Laden was dead.
Further, for the writers of the report the growing
radicalization of Pakistani society and the civil-military imbalance are not as
important as asserting their "anger" and "outrage" over the
"violation" of Pakistan's "sovereignty and territorial
integrity" by the U.S. The American action is termed "a criminal act
of murder" and an "American act of war" without any thought for
the fact that the person living in that compound was the world's most wanted
terrorist.
The report has brought to light facts that are
important. However, it has also brought forth disconnect between how Pakistanis
and the rest of the world view the same issue.
No comments:
Post a Comment