Failed Expectations

Columnist ALI ASHRAF KHAN scores the visit of the US President as a failure.

I remember having seen a cartoon in the archives of sub-continent’s newspapers’ history, when Sir Stafford Cripps was coming out to India to meet the Indian leaders with certain plans for Independence. The Congress leaders developed high hopes and a great expectation from him because he was a labour party MP. So, in this cartoon, while coming in he was shown clad in Indian dress with a Gandhi cap on his head. But he had nothing tangible to offer and on the eve of his departure back to England, he was shown to be clad as a real John Bull with a top hat and tailcoat. The moral of the story behind the cartoon is that after all Sir Stafford Cripps was a Britisher and he had the interest of Great Britain close to his heart than of India. So, this is what actually happened to President Clinton’s visit, first his itinerary in South Asia did not include Pakistan. The Indians took it as a point in their favour and were jubilant and they tried to exclude Pakistan from United States Presidential visit. Diplomacy demanded otherwise and Pakistan was included in the itinerary by fits and starts. This is how diplomacy runs. Pakistan considered it as a defeat for India and our people in the diplomatic arena were jubilant and may be for the consumption of the people developed high hopes that the messiah would solve the problem of Kashmir, while they themselves were convinced far from it.

If one has a careful study at the US President’s itinerary in India and his address to the Indian Parliament it would be evident that Kashmir was not the core issue for which he had come to South Asia. He had come on a business visit and therefore addressed the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry in Bombay and also America needs skilled personnel for information technology, which he has obtained from India. Of course he gave a diplomatic advice to the contenders of Kashmir to start a dialogue, which India has rejected. Kashmir is now not the core issue for Indians or for the Americans and world at large. Because they are Christian fundamentalist otherwise they would have taken action in Kashmir as well, as they did in East Timor. It is an irony of fate that a fundamentalist calls the other person a fundamentalist as a thief calls the other person a thief. In sugar coated words Pakistan has been advised to utilize their energy towards nation-building rather than fighting a useless war in Kashmir. President Clinton has conveniently forgotten that Pakistan fought a useless war in Afghanistan for Americans against another Super Power and drove them away. President Clinton also forgets that Pakistan provided a bridge between America and China when Henry Kissinger made a secret visit to Chou en Lai, when Pakistan press reported that he was lying sick in Murree. President Clinton refers it as we walk together in Afghanistan and China and that too in the hour of their need, why does America not walk together with Pakistan to Kashmir and repay the debt which it owes to Pakistan in making them the sole Super Power of the world at that time, India was in the Russian camp, this is how the American diplomacy runs. General Ziaul Haq was the front American man in their war in Afghanistan against Russia, after America was installed as sole Super Power, General Ziaul Haq naturally turned his attention to Kashmir, consequently he was eliminated.

Now America is seeking goodwill and hand of friendship of India as a bulwark against China and the possible rise of Russia again, that is why, every paragraph of Washington Accord of July 4th, 1999 was discussed with the Indian Prime Minister on phone before it was meekly signed by Pakistan Prime Minister ignoring the popular wish of the people of Pakistan and Kargil was handed over on a silver platter to India. It is a bleak history of Pakistan that while the soldiers fight valiantly and win the battle, our politicians lose it on the diplomatic table, this is what happened in Kargil and this is what made Nawaz Sharif to dismiss General Pervez Musharraf to please the Americans, the newly found friends of India.

President Clinton should have confronted the Prime Minister of India with a fact of history that in fact an offer was made by India to Prime Minister of Pakistan to take Kashmir and forget about Hyderabad Deccan, which was still under a standstill agreement with the British government and talks were going on between the Nizam of Hyderabad and the government of Pakistan for accession of Hyderabad also with Pakistan. While Pope John Paul II is apologizing for the deeds and misdeeds of Christian Fundamentalists against Jews and Muslims for the last 2000 years. The future President of America will be apologizing for the deeds and misdeeds of Hindu and Christian Fundamentalists in the shape of President Clinton, 2000 years hence.

So to say, the visit of President Clinton to Pakistan has been successful, readers of history have yet to read any visit of any dignitary to anywhere being unsuccessful and so is President Clinton’s visit a success. The moot point is what is the net result or the outcome of this visit? President Clinton talks of Pakistan’s isolation in world politics, does he want us to become yet another state of the US as Hawaii Islands are.

Where is the United Nations? Where is the world conscience? When their resolutions on Kashmir is flouted right, left and centre by India, who themselves had approached the United Nations to come to their rescue, when the American interest is involved in Iraq, United Nations forces are quick to act and when American interest is not involved in Kashmir, the contending parties are advised to start a meaningless dialogue which they have been doing for the last fifty years. But one cannot convince the unconvinceable (Mai Na Manoon.) It is time now that America repays the debts it owes to Pakistan and not simply act as a mediator as a matter of grace, at the request of the two warring cats who are approaching a monkey.

Let Pakistan revamp its foreign policy and plan to stand on its own two feet with innumerable natural and mineral resources it has got, and try to get back the ill-gotten wealth of Pakistanis deposited in American Banks. Our Finance Minister is reported to be well aware of the details of all these accounts and their transactions, he should act and prove that he is a Pakistani first, he is a Pakistani second and he is a Pakistani last and his loyalty is with Pakistan and Pakistan alone. And as a matter of goodwill and to prove his sincerity, he should surrender his green card, if he has any and burn his boats in the shores of New York.