Do I Hate Husain Haqqani?

A US-based Pakistani Aqil Nadeem is sympathetic to Husain Haqqani, the disgraced former ambassador of Pakistan to United States.  So he asked me a couple of questions on Facebook. My answers were brief and I'm sharing them here.

I am doing this because this is a subject I've written a lot about, professionally, since there's nothing personal at play.

Mr. Nadeem accused me of hating Mr. Haqqani. And then he accused the judicial commission probing Haqqani's role in writing a treasonous anti-Pakistan memo to US military of leaking the conclusions of forensic experts who believe Haqqani is guilty as charged.

I have no hatred or grudge against Mr. Husain Haqqani. Never met him or crossed path with him and so I have no personal agenda or feelings for him.  However, I do have very clear feelings and ideas on the need to curb the growing trend of Pakistanis being recruited to work for foreign governments. This has happened after 2002 with US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and the subsequent destabilization of the region.  The United States and Israel have treated treason harshly and we should be no different. Those who do harm to this nation and people must be pursued and tried.

The alleged acts committed by Haqqani are very serious. See this following link if you want to get a clear idea about what Haqqani did wrong in this particular case: http://j.mp/wpCNso . I also have a very clear idea on what will happen to Pakistan if we don't get tough on treason, especially when we have seen massive covert operations and recruitment by CIA inside Pakistan, activities that have little to do with the war on terror and everything to do with other strategic American goals regarding Pakistan. See this link to understand this point better: http://bit.ly/yZlyoT .

On the second point.  Mr. Nadeem is partially right.  It is unusual that the Memo Commission is yet to make its conclusions public but a report quoting unnamed sources is already out claiming the commission's judicial experts are sure Haqqani is guilty of treason.

This leak is not unusual. But I am not sure there is deliberate leaking of information by Memo Commission.

If you live in Pakistan, you'd know there are hardly any secrets here. When GHQ and ISI requested closed-door meetings to brief the parliament last year, a lot of the info leaked out to TV and papers by evening and next day. When the forensic testing was taking place in London in Haqqani's case, there were diplomats and employees of the Pakistan High Commission in the building, their assistants, local Pakistani journalists, members of the commission, their support staffers, the forensic experts and their assisting teams. Anyone could have leaked the info.  It is incorrect to accuse the Memo Commission itself of doing this.

If the commission was leaking, it should have happened before too but didn't.

Then there are the diplomats in London. Haqqani doesn't have any allies or friends in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They hate him en masse over there. So anyone could have leaked this info about Haqqani's culpability in writing the anti-Pakistan memo. 

How Pakistan Protects Treason

We released a traitor back in 1969 despite strong evidence. Two years later he led an insurgency in support of an Indian invasion of Pakistan. Today we have released another traitor with a proven track record of working to blackmail Pakistan. I'd like every patriotic Pakistani to remember three things:

1. How our political parties, politicians and judiciary have worked together, passively, to protect and free a traitor. It’s as if the country’s security is the concern of ISI or the military and not the collective responsibility of politicians and others.

2. How the US worked overtime to get Husain Haqqani released, an American asset beyond a shadow of doubt. The way the US government issued a statement welcoming his escape from Pakistan is a telltale sign.

3. How a sitting Member of Parliament, Farahnaz Isphahani, and Haqqani’s spouse, landed in Washington to lobby against Pakistan, its military and its intelligence community. She privately told a British newspaper she escaped Pakistan because she was afraid the country’s military would kidnap her. Bad for her, the British journalist published this off-the-record comment, forcing her to issue a clarification. The statement shows deep malice against the country’s national security institutions. It proves how Haqqani and his boss, President Zardari, is every bit guilty of the contents of The Memo. [If you haven’t seen this brief, point-by-point reading into The Memo, please do. It is not every day that one sees a first-class evidence of what treason looks like. For Urdu version, click here.]

Last, the reluctance of our military establishment to take a decisive stand on this case and preferring instead to avoid a confrontation with the pro-US government is understandable but disturbing.

This attitude is part of the general ailment that afflicts our failed political system. It is not difficult to see how this country will get out of anyone’s control down the road. A big and drastic change is required. [Wait for new ideas in this regard, expected to be floated next month in a special ceremony in Islamabad. The event will use the platform of Project For Pakistan In 21st Century, an independent Islamabad-based think tank.]

Regarding The Memo, I will spare our military harsher criticism because I understand that it is busy trying to limit the damage of the 2002-2011 years. Good luck guys doing that. But remember: our homeland is beyond correction through installments. The state can be restructured top down. It requires good Pakistanis, civilians and uniformed, men and women of will more than anything else.