Pakistani generals are reputed to be lucky. The more
ambitious a general the better it is. Even gods conspire in their favor.
Whenever in power, they seem to attract money and new opportunities. Today, Pakistan
and its military would turn any other green with envy. Not only certain
segments of the civil society are keen, as in the past, to build the military
high command’s image as the ultimate savior, both friends and foe seem to help in boosting the institution’s image. So, its not odd for the former ISI
chief Lt. General Asad Durrani to feel so smug and confident as he appeared to
be during his interviews to the BBC and Al-Jazeera English in February 2015. With
an Oscar and Nobel prizes to boost about, we now have other things to rejoice
such as the economic corridor to be constructed by China. Soon pictures of the
corridor with Chinese trucks will replace paintings of F-16s painted on the
sides of buses and trucks.
But an even greater
stroke of luck is in the form of Seymour Hersh’s story about American operation
to kill Osama bin laden on May 2nd, 2011. While many have rubbished
it as baseless, others consider it as conspiracy to damage Pakistan or threaten
Chinese investment in the country. You may wonder how the OBL story, which says
that Pakistan knew about the operation to kill him, is connected with Beijing
investing in the country. The conspiracy against Chinese investment is the same logic that is used to argue that since
India’s home minister stated that he had no clue of Dawood Ibrahim’s whereabouts,
his lack of knowledge should automatically extend to LeT’s Zaki-ur-Rehman
Lakhvi and Hafiz Saeed. With such ministers India certainly has no locus standi
on demanding legal proceedings against Mumbai attack suspects. Had it been the
UPA government in India many a passionate anchors there would already have
accused their own minister of being an agent for Pakistan’s intelligence.
Referring to the Hersh
report, one wonders how has Pakistan media not noticed that it is a
super-positive story that aught to clear any doubts people had about the
military’s incompetence. It is the American that come out looking silly rather
than GHQ, Rawalpindi. As the former ISI chief, who is used as one of the main
sources of Hersh’s piece, said in February the world’s most famous terrorist
was kept as quid pro quo at some later date. And like General Musharraf is
supposed to have saved the country by cooperating excessively with the US after
9/11, Generals Kiyani and Pasha also turned visionary and cut a deal with
Washington especially after the CIA got wind of bin Laden’s whereabouts. What
is for sure is that whoever provided this information to Hersh was fairly
sympathetic to Pakistan. According to the story, Pakistan kept OBL as a
prisoner and he had little control over Al-Qaeeda operations during that period.
The story suggests that the Obama administration lied and build a hype in
killing an unarmed and ineffective terrorist, and didn’t even find anything
worth its while. So, then it wasn’t such a bad idea after all for Pakistan to
betray a spent force?
And this particular
ISI chief is just amazing as everyone wants to talk to him – from the British
and American to Indian. In fact, he is also one of the key sources of
information of the first book about to be published on the ISI which will be the
first of its kind (written by a German the book should be out on the stalls in August).
Many believe that this
opinion piece is to build up interest in Hersh’s forthcoming book. But it seems
he has other ‘partners in this crime’. The former ISI chief’s February
interview appears to be part of this campaign as a disclosure was made in
London by the retired general strongly suggesting that Pakistan did keep bin
Laden (smart generals today know how to suggest things without being caught for
doing so legally). Interestingly, such stories were being spread by military’s
own sources even in 2011. The military was confronted with a catch-22 of
whether to admit collusion or incompetence. It seems they opted for the former.
Logically, the story
should result in a demand for a fresh inquiry into the Abbotabad incident to
answer questions raised by Hersh. Not only that this will not happen but such
demand will be touted as a RAW-driven conspiracy. Already, there is pressure on social media from strange accounts reminding people of lack of patriotism for questioning military on many recent developments. Notwithstanding problems one
may have with some of the details, `Hersh's story cannot be outrightly dismissed as illogical and a complete fabrication. It draws attention towards many facts such as how did American helicopters sneak into Pakistan? If we were to believe the air chief’s
perspective that is recorded in the leaked version of the Abbotabad Commission
report `9the only inquiry conducted by Pakistan) in which he claimed that since they were not supposed to watch out for
threat from Afghanistan and so there was little radar cover, how about when the
helicopter flew back with OBL’s body? Surely, someone picked up the noise
generated by the helicopter crashing stones throw away from PMA Kakul? Or do we
not monitor sensitive areas inside our air space? It’s a better idea to think
that our generals were on top and had arranged all of that else many would
think this is a re-play of generals sleeping while an attack was carried out
across the BRB canal during the 1965 war. The story, however, makes one curious about his sources and especially how much was fed by Asad Durrani.
If wishes were horses
one would like a detailed inquiry into the Abbotabad operation. Meanwhile, the
echo of Pakistani sources is quite audible in Hersh’s story. For example,
recently a Pakistan intelligence agency-friendly journalist was feverishly tweeting about Kiyani
being investigated for corruption. Seems the source of the tweet and Hersh
reference to Kiyani’s investigation are similar. In any case, Pakistan military
has found another bad guy – after Yahya Khan and Ziaul Haq – its Kiyani who
will be suspected and demonized for the future generations. Not that the
investigation against him will go very far but many in command of the GHQ will
come out looking bright and shinning in comparison. More important, the story
will not be a dent in Pakistan military’s relations with the US, Europe or
China. We have a luck general in charge.
