American agenda rules
Pakistan
By Senator Qazi
Hussain Ahmad
Amir
Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan and
Chairperson, Muttahida
Majlis-e-Amal
President Bush is visiting Pakistan by
squeezing precious time from his occupation in the large-scale security
issues Washington has created for itself all over the world. Therefore,
his visit purely aims at securing Washington's strategic interests in the
region with the help of his ally General Musharraf at a time when US
troops are facing a retreat in Afghanistan and Iraq due to massive public
resistance.
Contrary to the expectations generated
by the pro-government lobbies and opinion makers, this visit has nothing
to do with any strategic interests of the state of Pakistan. Washington
has time and again in the recent past proved that it considers India as
the most trusted partner in South Asia and the Bush administration has
openly declared Delhi its 'Natural Strategic Ally' for its long term
interests in the region. Naturally, Bush's visit will focus on
strengthening India's position in the region against rivals like China and
Pakistan, and protecting its interests at all costs.
It has been an open secret that,
besides uprooting Islamic fundamentalism, Washington's prime objective in
the region is to help India become a regional super power to counter
China's economic, strategic and military growth so that Beijing is
confined to the Asian region and blocking its march towards expanding its
strategic interest all over the world. To achieve this objective
Washington wants to force Pakistan to acknowledge Indian hegemony in the
region and solve the Kashmir issue for the sake of Delhi's strategic
interests. The recent inking of Washington's nuclear cooperation agreement
with India is an ample proof of that.
The Bush administration is trying to
make both countries acknowledge the LoC as international border, with
slight changes and the Kashmiri people should remain contended with a
temporary and limited internal autonomy. This offer of limited internal
autonomy is actually a political trap because it could be withdrawn any
time once the situation is normalised. India desperately wants to withdraw
the privileged status already given to Kashmir in its
constitution.
Pakistan is ruled by a military general
in uniform and under a de facto martial law, which was proved when Rangers
moved into Lahore and sealed the city on January 26 to foil the rally
condemning blasphemous caricatures reportedly without any formal request
by the civil administration. Besides, the Corps Commander used a
threatening tone against the opposition parties leading the mass protests
against the west.
President Bush has repeatedly praised
General Musharraf's role in the US-launched war against terror because he
extended unprecedented cooperation to the US army against the wishes of
the Pakistani people. Perhaps as a reward, Bush has recently stated
clearly that he likes Musharraf's model of democracy. Acknowledging the
military commander as head of state of a democratic country proved that
Bush has dual standards for Pakistani people and he is backing Musharraf's
policies that are against the interests of the Pakistani nation and
democracy, just because they serve Washington's
interests.
The real agenda of Bush in Pakistan is
to speed up military operation in the Tribal Areas, even if innocent
civilians are killed and carry out Bajaur like attacks to pursue hunting
Islamists in the name of Al-Qaeda. Take action against religious
seminaries to root out concepts of jihad and fundamentals of Islam,
secularisation of syllabi and consolidation of the Aga Khan Education
Foundation for this purpose. To force Pakistan to roll back its nuclear
programme and hand over Dr Qadeer Khan for investigation and extracting
information from him to use as a pretext for attacking Iran. Patronisation
of Israeli and Indian nuclear programmes, force Pakistan to accept an
Indian designed solution of the Kashmir dispute and agree upon extending
an anti-Taliban like role against Iran.
Musharraf is rejoicing that Bush has no
objection to his being president in uniform. He is a true believer of the
fallacy that the combined support of GHQ and Washington is the guarantee
of his remaining in power in Islamabad. The time has come for the people
to disprove the myth and prove that after the Almighty the people are the
real source of political power.
Now that it is proved beyond doubt that
the interests of US and Pakistan are in serious clash in the region, since
Washington considers Islamabad's nuclear programme the Islamic ideology of
the country as the biggest threat to its global defence strategy. Its
focus is to denuclearise and secularize Pakistan, which if implemented,
would leave the very existence of the country meaningless. Without Islam
that has served as the real binding force for different nationalities in
the country, the doors of further disintegration of the country will
become wide open.
Washington would love to see Pakistan
denuded of its status of being the only nuclear power of the Muslim world
and reduced to a satellite state of India. US think tanks have already
predicted Pakistan being wiped out of the world map by 2015, while Stephen
Cohen, director of a top US think tank, Brookings Institute, has stated
that Pakistan must become a secular state in order to maintain its
existence otherwise it will not survive as an Islamic
state.
How the enemies of Pakistan think alike
is reflected from the experience of top Pakistani journalist who once
shared with me his conversation with former Indian Prime Minister PV
Narasimha Rao. According to him Mr Rao stated categorically during a
private meeting that India would never tolerate Pakistan's existence as an
Islamic state since it naturally influenced over 200 million strong Muslim
minority and would accept it as a secular state. Secondly, India would
never give freedom to Kashmir but would give as much constitutional
autonomy as was required.
The height of misfortune is that our
armed forces are on a warpath with their own nation for lust of power and
on the whims of an individual, when internal and external security
concerns demand complete national harmony at this crucial juncture. Open
armed operations are made against Pakistani civilians in Tribal Areas and
Balochistan, while on the other hand the country is suffering under
serious terrorism, target killings, lawlessness and confrontation of state
security arms against the religious quarters amidst operations against the
religious seminaries. The dictatorial rulers are standing behind the
western anti-Islam forces waging a vicious war against Islam whose one
front is the blasphemous caricatures of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
while the actual objective is to influence Islamic civilization under that
of an unbridled and naked western civilization.
There is a need for a public awakening
and launching of a movement against the oppressive rulers so that a
patriotic and a government actually represented by the public can be
installed in Pakistan, which can protect the national interests and cater
the public sentiments and needs. For this purpose the national
consultation council comprising all religious and political parties,
including MMA and ARD, formulated proposals to launch a movement to force
Musharraf to resign and install an interim government under the
constitution to hold free, fair elections under a permanent election
commission and restore the constitution as on October 12, 1999. The
interim government should force harmony between the army and the people,
and make all national institutions perform their duties according to the
constitution. Solving the problems of poor people should be its top
priority besides abolishing an oppressive economic system and reduction of
tax burden on the common person to provide genuine
relief.
The national
consultation committee has declared President Bush's visit to Pakistan as
unwelcoming since it is aimed at strengthening the dictatorial rule of an
individual to promote the US agenda over Pakistan. | 
