Husain Haqqani Controversy, The Real Cover Up
The latest controversy surrounding
Husain Haqqani continues to grow as different parties try to score some
political points. Whether it is PMLN trying to solidify its power, or PPP’s
unseemly willingness to turn on one of its own, everyone knows that piling on someone
who has openly criticised the Army’s policies towards militants is a low risk
proposition. The reality is that this latest episode is nothing but a repeat of
past dramas, and like those too nothing will come of it except distracting from
the actual problems facing the nation.
As it has already been pointed out, there is not any new information in Haqqani’s
latest article. There was never a denial that he issued visas to Americans
working for the US government, but as already explained in his statement to the Abbottabad Commission that no
unauthorised visas were issued to Americans agents while he was Ambassador.
This brings up an important point: There has already been a commission to
investigate these claims, and it has already produced a report! However, as
always, it has been kept secret from the people opening
the door to conspiracy theories and confusion. If there is some great concern
over Haqqani’s article, the obvious answer is to follow advice of Justice Javed
Iqbal, who headed the Abbottabad Commission and publish the complete report so
the people can know the actual findings.
This raises another important point:
While we have already had a commission investigate Abbottabad raid, nothing has
been done to investigate and explain any of the following:
§ How Taliban leaders were issued official passports and CNICs and able to travel in
and out of Pakistan without detection.
§ Cover up of Mullah Omar life and death in
Pakistan.
§ Admission of Sartaj Aziz that Pakistan
hosts Taliban leadership.
§ Statement of former DG-ISI that it is ‘probable’ ISI knew Osama bin Laden was living in Pakistan.
§ Interview with former DG-ISI who termed 150 killed school
children of APS Peshawar as ‘collateral damage‘ of Pakistan’s own security strategy.
§ Statement of security officials that ISI agents drink Blue Label Whiskey with CIA
agents after carrying out secret operations inside Pakistan.
§ How thousands can defy
government bans and praise a convicted killer in the captial.
§ Extent of jihadi infiltration in Armed Forces that led to PNS Mehran attack.
§ Kidnapping and torture of Umar Cheema.
§ Murder of journalist Saleem Shahzad.
§ Torture and murder of Aftab
Ahmed.
§ Torture of Waqas
Goraya.
This is only a partial list of
unanswered questions that the state has shown no interest in investigating. Do
we have nothing better to do than try to interpret and decode hidden messages
in Husain Haqqani’s writings?
In Husain Haqqani’s latest article he
gave the example of passing messages between US officials and Pakistan
officials. As was obvious to anyone who can read, he was explaining that this
is the job of a diplomat – to pass messages back and forth. Nowhere does he say
that he issued any unauthorised visas, and no one has shown any evidence that
he did. Does the state really want to push things to the limit that records of
every visa and who authorised them (including military personnel) are leaked to
the public?
The obvious next step is not to constitute a new commission but
to release to the public the report already compiled by Abbottabad Commission
and once again face the inevitable questions about how Osama bin Laden was able
to enter Pakistan and live next door to PMA Kakul without ever being noticed by
our own agencies. Next we can answer questions about why officials continue to
accuse civilians of treason for any contacts with CIA when it is well known
that most cooperation was with Army and ISI agents and
not civilians. Most importantly, though, we must stop allowing this pathetic
political point scoring to continue as cover up for the lies and failures of
state policy that continue to plague our nation and cause the deaths of hundreds of innocents.
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