Mishandling the Haqqani Memo
By Ahmed Quraishi
Islamabad, Pakistan
Pakistan comes out worse off after Memogate. Before the case, we knew a group of Pakistanis will not hesitate to invite a foreign power to decapitate their own military commanders. But after the case, we know that our political elite will not only cover up a national security breach but also blackmail the country to avoid prosecution.
The case also shows that our military might be able to shake off the American mess on our borders but not the domestic mess. Not yet at least. This mess is a national security threat to the wellbeing of Pakistani citizens. Our country is drifting headless in the second decade of the 21 st century. And let us not forget that our current mess at the top was largely the bright idea of a former US government and was endorsed and executed by our previous president.
What other country in the world gambles its future like this?
Let’s not mince words here. The memo was a breathtaking example of treason. The only thing not determined yet is at what level of federal government. It was a serious national security breach and deserved immediate judicial attention.
But if the memo was bad, what we see now is worse: a government blackmailing its army and intelligence chiefs with dismissal from service if they pursue the security breach; a prime minister dragging an ally like China into the case and embarrassing it; and a main accused in the case and his spouse blatantly inviting foreign rescuers. Talking about MNA Farahnaz Isphahani, is there a law that bars a sitting Member of Parliament from touring foreign capitals inviting interference in a national security case pending before her country’s Supreme Court?
Not to mention the farce over deposing a key witness. In what democracy can senior government officials get away with blunt threats to a witness? And why is it that the judicial commission probing the case has not heard of something called Skype?
We want accountability, especially after a decade of selling Pakistan cheap for someone else’s war. But what we see instead is everyone walking scot-free. It doesn’t matter if you kill a hundred heart patients, plant a bomb, or openly act as an agent of foreign powers, you will never be punished in Pakistan. This has to stop. Giving the Pakistani state some backbone has become indispensable. Without accountability, even the Pakistani public is losing faith in our nation’s future.
Memogate can create a much needed precedent for the kind of fate that should await anyone in Islamabad who decides to betray the country. If nothing else, let’s learn how beacons of democracy like United States and Israel have dealt with their treason convicts. We are even softer than India, where a female Indian diplomat accused last year of spying for a foreign government was initially handed over to the country’s spooks for interrogation. We are too soft for our own good. We lodged the main accused in Memogate in President House.
In a responsible democracy, senior members of PPPP should have been the first to ask our President and the (now ex-) ambassador to Washington to de-link themselves from party and government pending their legal cases. But ours is hardly a democracy thanks to politicians that lack maturity and good judgment. [Congratulations to our nation, by the way. Peshawar airport now has new name. A key development goal achieved. Someday when we have real democracy someone please introduce legislation to bar failed politicians from naming public properties after their party leaders.]
It is a failure of our democracy that no veteran politician in the ruling party was ready to put loyalty to the party and country above loyalty to the President. And this is how a failed experiment in democracy scuttles an important probe linked to national security.
