Pakistan Military Under Attack

[This column appeared in The News International today but an important paragraph was inadvertently dropped. Here is the full version.]

General Kayani's statement protesting the assault on the morale and reputation of Pakistan Armed Forces is a good move. But let us not kid ourselves. It’s too little, too late, and lacks legal punch.

Attacks on our military from inside and outside the country have become a thriving business since 2007. The inability of the State and the military to defend themselves is a matter of deep concern not only for our soldiers but also for the majority of patriotic Pakistanis. Blunt denigration of our military by domestic actors shot through the roof in this five-year period. Strangely, this unprecedented domestic military-bashing overlapped with a similar campaign originating in the United States against Pakistan Army and ISI. There is little evidence that a statement from the army chief would end the domestic part of the campaign, although there are signs the American-led external campaign has waned to some extent, but not ended.

The military in Pakistan is an easy target. Muhammad Shafqaat, a driver for the federal Interior Ministry, accused the ISI of kidnapping him along with his official car from a parking lot in Blue Area, Islamabad last month. It turns out the alleged kidnapping was staged as part of a plan to disrupt a probe into a four-billion rupees immigration fraud case. The spy agency had nothing to do with any of this but apparently Shafqaat thought mentioning ISI would make his story credible. In July, prominent journalist Najam Sethi accused our military of planning to kill him in an interview to a British newspaper. In June, political activist Asma Jehangir told a German broadcaster the ISI plotted her murder. In January, presidential adviser Farahnaz Ispahani was caught telling a British journalist in Washington with known links to her party that she flee Pakistan because she feared ISI was going to kidnap her. Ispahani denied she made the statement but the British journalist and her paper stood by the story.

The get-ISI campaign doesn’t end with these politically-motivated attacks. Afghanistan-based terrorist group BLA accused the ISI of jailing 6,000 Pakistani Baloch women. The group kidnapped a UN official from Quetta in 2009 and said it would exchange him for the Baloch women. Fortunately, the kidnapped UN official turned out to be an American citizen and the involvement of US government in the probe proved conclusively there was not a single Pakistani Baloch lady in any jail across Pakistan and there were no missing-person cases registered for any Baloch woman. One more lie against ISI stricken from the book.

A different kind of attack on Pakistani military emerged in 2010 when a British extremist group was found trying to recruit senior Pakistani officers. The group, Hizb Tahrir, is a British-origin and licensed religious extremist group. It uses gullible British Muslims to make inroads in countries in the Middle East and Central Asia. Saudi and Egyptian intelligence established the group’s links to British intelligence back in the 1990s and this led to some tense moments in Riyadh and Cairo’s relationship with London. The British group no longer operates in those countries. After 9/11, it apparently shifted operations to Pakistan and Central Asia. Unlike Cairo and Riyadh, Islamabad is yet to ask London to restrain British extremists.

The anti-military bias was also apparent in the case of retired general Javed Ashraf Qazi. A couple of unknown reporters misbehaved with him in clear violation of the norms of decency and professionalism, which led the general to lose temper and call them ‘idiots’. Almost all the media reports highlighted the remark and conveniently omitted the derogatory remarks made by the two unknown reporters that triggered the unfortunate incident.

Since 2007, the government and the military have allowed extreme forms of anti-military slander to pass as freedom of expression. American media commentaries abusing our military and leveling charges without evidence were reproduced by the media without objection from PEMRA or ISPR. The serious charges made by Sethi and Jahangir were met with a shy statement from Defense Ministry asking them to register a police complaint. As elections approach, some politicians will find it easier to make anti-military statements than answer voter questions about governance issues. We are also hearing rumors that some political parties and foreign media organizations are preparing for another round of military-bashing on the occasion of the release of the findings of the judicial commission into the American military incursion in Abbottabad.

If the government and the military are serious in containing military-bashing that is demoralizing our soldiers, they should start taking legal action against those who float conspiracy theories assailing the reputation of Pakistani military. Islamabad should also put a check on foreign meddling in our media where commentators have been recruited to promote a certain agenda serving foreign strategic purposes, including demonizing our military.

India's Racism In A Foreign Mask

An Indian-origin Baroness, Shreela Falther [Mrs. Gary Denis Flather] accuses Pakistani & Bangladeshi families in UK of producing more children to get state benefits. She defends large Indian families by saying they don't count because they're educating their kids. No, really, that's what she said.

What she is doing is to show a red cloth to the British right wing bull. In other words, it is okay for British Indian families - the largest Asian migrant community - to continue milking the government for child benefits because these families are educating their children. The Pakistanis and Bangladeshis are not, according to the Indian-born baroness.

I highlight this story because it represents a trend. More and more Indian-origin migrants are being quietly recruited by Indian government to serve Indian objectives where possible. New Delhi has shown special interest in recruiting Indian migrants sitting in positions of influence in their adopted homelands. And nowhere is this more apparent than in the United States, where Indian-origin journalists, Congressional aides, and TV anchors are already part of a loose network linked to Indian government lobbyists in DC. The Indians have picked this bright idea from none other than AIPAC, the formidable pro-Israel lobby group.

This is why you see more and more influential Indian-origin migrants in influential countries raising issues that serve the Indian government. For example, these prominent Indians would attack Pakistan, highlight dangers from 'Islamic terrorism', underplay Kashmir genocide, downplay high rates of girl infanticide in India, etc.

In this example, the Baroness is playing to the British rightwing by suggesting economic threats from Pakistani- and Bangladeshi-origin migrants. What she doesn't say is that her community of Indian-origin Brits stand to benefit if the other two migrant communities are downsized. This is a serious conflict of interest. But at least she's working for the interests of a friendly foreign government. Is there a law in England against that?

I am glad that I am not the only one who has noticed Indian-born Mrs. Flather's racism. In fact, that's the exact word that came to the mind of a British blogger, Suzanne Cameron-Blackie, when she heard the baroness's tirade.

Asia Bibi Is Our Sister

... and we Pakistanis need to stand by her. I endorse capital punishment for those who bash Islam and its sacred symbols. And no one bashes Islam in Pakistan. Certainly not our Pakistani Christian brothers and sisters whose forefathers played a great role in Pakistan Independence Movement.

We own and defend our great religion and our great Prophet. But harassing a poor Pakistani Christian woman in the name of blasphemy is not justice. The great, fair-minded leaders of Islam, like Omar and Ali, would never endorse this. Shame on these half-educated mullahs who can't offer a word of support to a weak and poor woman being wrongly accused of blasphemy.

Would anyone dare utter a word against our great religion in our country, let alone a poor and weak woman who earns a living as a domestic helper?

We need Omar R.A.'s and Ali R.A.'s justice in this case. And we Pakistani Muslims must force half-educated clergy in groups such as Sunni Tehreek [I have more respect for Jamaat Islami and Tanzeem Islami] to stop making uneducated comments in this case. We are no good if we can't protect the weak and the wrongly accused among us. Unfortunately, because of the inflammatory statements by the uneducated, a minority of westernized and secular-minded NGOs, funded by foreign money, are seizing this opportunity to bash Pakistan and Islam. PPPP Senator Sherry Rehman wants to abolish the blasphemy law. That's fine. But she never uttered a word against the injustice done to Dr. Aafia Siddiqui? No comparison between her case and that of Asia's. The point is that the few westernized and secularist Pakistanis will try to seize this case to bash Pakistan and our great religion.  Asia needs our help against a stupid law and a fake case. But the champions of her case must be Muslim scholars first and foremost, and if not then all the rest of Pakistanis who know how great and tolerant and open-minded Islam is even if these half-educated mullahs know nothing about it.

Blasphemy law was originally enacted against a sect, Qadiyanis, who claimed Mohammad, peace be upon him, is not the last Prophet. Ordinary good-hearted Pakistanis are misled by the mullahs into believing this law is somehow a hedge against Islam-bashers in the West, such as the people behind the infamous Danish cartoons. That's not true. Our laws can't be implemented on those outside Pakistan. And no one inside Pakistan can dare insult Islam. Case closed.

We will never be secular. We are modern, and we are Muslim and Islam has always been a big-hearted religion. This is our opportunity to prove otherwise to others in the world who heard the ignorant statements of a few mullahs in this case. These mullahs need to be told to shut up. We defend our religion. And we do this by not tolerating a word against our religion and by defending the innocent and the wrongly accused.

P.S. I tell the few mullahs who exploit this case: Honor Pakistani Christians. Remember that they sided with Pakistan when even some Muslim leaders were sitting in the laps of the Brits and Indians. Also remember that one of the wives of our Prophet, the Umm al-Momineen, Maria, was Christian. She became Muslim after marrying our Prophet. Her name was Christian but out of respect for her, our Prophet didn't let her change her name and insisted she keep her original Christian name.  Also remember when the Great Omar R.A. conquered Jerusalem, Al-Quds, he refused to pray in a church because he was afraid Muslims might seize it later and convert it into a church. Thanks to him, that church stands today side by side with a mosque that was built on a ground near the church where Omar prayed in the open. Asia is our sister. If Omar R.A. was here today, he would have given her justice no matter what some half-educated mullahs of 'sunni tehreek' or whatever this group is named might have said.