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The politics of aid

By B. Raman
Friday, June 27, 2003

No popularly elected minister of the Jamali government
has been taken by Musharraf to the US. Shaukat Aziz is
the only minister who has accompanied him, ostensibly to
assist the general during discussions on the question of
future US assistance to Pakistan and to be present during
the signing of the bilateral investment and trade
promotion agreement.

Another person, with Cabinet status, but not a member of
the Cabinet, who has reportedly accompanied him is
Sharifuddin Pirzada, who is designated as adviser on
foreign policy and national security.

In Pakistani political circles, Pirzada is viewed as an
evil genius. He acted as the constitutional adviser to
Zia-ul Haq and helped him control the judiciary and
tampered with the Constitution. After seizing power on
October 12, 1999, one of Musharraf's first acts was to
appoint Pirzada as his adviser to perform a similar role.
He made the judiciary approve Musharraf's seizure of
power under the doctrine of necessity, rejected petitions
against Musharraf's referendum and upheld his right to
amend the Constitution.

Pirzada is even closer to the ruling families of Saudi
Arabia than Shaukat Aziz and had in the past played an
active role in persuading Saudi Arabia to fund the
Pakistani military nuclear development programme.

The inclusion of Aziz and Pirzada in the entourage
indicate that Musharraf anticipated America' suspicion
over the security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. He also
anticipated that concerns over Pakistani collusion with
North Korea and alleged activities of pro-Iran rogue
elements in the nuclear establishment might also figure
in his discussions with President Bush at Camp David and
hence wanted them to assist him.

The joint press conference addressed by Bush and
Musharraf after the meeting was silent on this issue, but
media reports and a subsequent media briefing by US
officials indicated that Pakistan's role in the
proliferation of nuclear and missile technologies, its
cooperation in the fight against terrorism and the need
for the restoration of genuine democracy in the country
were the three principal subjects of the discussions
between the two leaders.

Commenting on the three billion dollar aid package --
half in economic and half in military assistance --
spread over five years announced by Bush, an unnamed
senior administration official tried to dampen any
Pakistani euphoria by stating as follows during the media
briefing:

'This is a multi-year program, Congress has to approve
it, we have to make sure that it makes sense. That is why
-- I'm not using the term, conditionality, but basically
you've heard me raise major issues, as I was talking
earlier. And for Congress to appropriate the funds --
and, indeed, for the government to seek the funds -- I
think we're going to have to be satisfied that Pakistan
is indeed working vigorously with us in the war against
terrorism, is working vigorously to ensure that there is
no onward proliferation and is moving smartly towards
democracy. I'm not calling those conditions, but let's be
realistic, three years down the road, if things are going
badly in those areas, it's not going to happen. We're not
going to request it, Congress won't appropriate it. And
that is a bargain that the Pakistanis are entering into
with their eyes wide open.'

In Pakistan, the religious and other Opposition parties
have ridiculed the over-projected results of Musharraf's
meeting with Bush and made unfavourable comparisons of
the readiness with which Musharraf accepted the new aid
offer despite the conditions attached and the contempt
with which Zia rejected a US aid package as peanuts and
refused to accept any conditions. Typical of the
sarcastic comments in Pakistan are:
o Liaquat Baloch of the Jamat-e-Islami: The nation
should be informed which US demands Musharraf had
accepted in return for this dole. Musharraf had rendered
great service to the US by supporting its 'operations to
kill Muslims,' but he got only 'disgrace' in return. The
nation was under a burden of $38 billion debt, and this
grant would bring no change in the lives of Pakistanis.
Musharraf would have to hold talks with the Opposition
parties after his return from the US.

o Farhatullah Babar of Benazir's Pakistan People's
Party Parliamentarians: The package was far too short of
what could have been achieved given the losses incurred
in economic, political and social sectors by Pakistan
because of its support to the international community in
the fight against terrorism. The package is very small
compared with what US Centcom itself admitted on its
official web site recently that Pakistan had suffered a
$10 billion loss as a result of it offering its land and
air facilities and other logistic support in the fight
against terrorism. Zia got 4.2 billion dollars of aid and
40 F-16s from the US in return for offering the country
as a frontline state and to fight the proxy war in
Afghanistan in the 1980s. During Benazir Bhutto's first
government Pakistan got $4.6 billion and 60 F-16s from
the US even while Pakistan did not have to pay the price
of a frontline state. Musharraf has miserably failed to
capitalise on the fallout of September 11.

o Makhdoom Javed Hashmi of Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan
Muslim League: The package is disappointing. Pakistan had
suffered a huge loss during the war on terrorism in
Afghanistan, and this is only a peanut.

In background briefing for the Pakistani media, Shaukat
Aziz has been claiming that there are no conditions
attached to the package and that even though the US has
not accepted for the present the supply of new F-16
aircraft, the military component of the package could be
used for the upgradation of Pakistan's existing F-16
holdings.

Despite the encomiums showered on Musharraf by Bush for
his 'courageous' role in the war against terrorism, the
duplicity in Musharraf's stance on this issue became
evident in his statements during last year's visit as
well as during the current visit. His last year's visit
took place at a time when the ISI had already informed
him that Daniel Pearl, the US journalist, had been
murdered by his kidnappers and that Omar Sheikh, who
masterminded the kidnapping, had surrendered. But
Musharraf chose not to share this information with his
hosts lest it affect the atmospherics during the visit.
He gave them the impression that Pearl was alive and that
he was hopeful of finding him alive. He also stated that
Osama bin Laden could not be alive.

During the current visit, he has admitted the possibility
of bin Laden being alive and claimed that the difficulty
faced by his security agencies in smoking out Al Qaeda
remnants was due to the fact that they were operating
from the inaccessible localities of the Federally
Administered Tribal Areas where, according to him, no
army, either of the British or of Pakistan, had ever set
foot in the last 100 years. He further claimed that for
the first time in history he had sent his army into those
areas to hunt for Al Qaeda remnants.

Nobody pointed out to him that all the important arrests
made so far were not in FATA, but in the main cities of
Pakistan. Abu Zubaidah was captured in Faislabad in
Punjab, Ramzi Binalshibh and Walid bin Atash in Karachi
and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Rawalpindi where he was
living right under the army's nose in a house at a
walking distance from Musharraf's house.

These arrests showed that the terrorists were operating
right from the heart of Pakistan and not from
inaccessible areas where no Britisher or Pakistani
soldier had ever gone, as claimed by Musharraf. Even bin
Laden, injured and partially paralysed by a sharpnel, was
reportedly undergoing treatment in the Binori madrassa of
Karachi and was shifted from there to NWFP only after
Binalshibh's arrest in Karachi last September.

The encomiums showered by Bush on Musharraf for his
efforts to reform the madrassas and modernise the
Pakistani education system made one wonder how well-
briefed he is on the state of affairs in Pakistan.

Last year, Musharraf did proclaim an ordinance making it
obligatory for the madrassas to register themselves and
to take the government's prior permission before
admitting foreign students. When the fundamentalists
protested, he made the registration and the adoption of
the curriculum prescribed by the government voluntary and
said that those who did would be entitled to government
financial assistance.

Out of the about 8,000 madrassas, only about 1,000 have
registered themselves and the remaining 7,000 have
refused. According to media reports, there was a record
rush of students to join the madrassas this year as
compared to previous year. Flow of foreign students,
particularly from Iraq, has also increased. What
modernisation of the education system by Musharraf was
Bush talking of?

Read also:
Part I: The handshake at Camp David
http://rediff.com/news/raman.htm

B. Raman
http://rediff.com/news/raman.htm

News Plus
http://www.mantra.com/newsplus

Jai Maharaj
http://www.mantra.com/jai
Om Shanti

Panchaang for 28 Jyeshtth 5104, Friday, June 27, 2003:

Shubhanu Nama Samvatsare Dakshinaya Nartana Ritau
Mithun Mase Krishna Pakshe Shukr Vasara Yuktayam
Rohini-Mrgashir Nakshatr Shool-Ganda Yog
Vishti Karan Chaturdashi Yam Tithau

Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust

Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org

The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate

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