One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter - Hafez el Assad of Syria - 1986
The U.S. relationship with Pakistan is long and complicated. The U.S. originally allied with Pakistan against Communist China, while the Chinese wooed India. In the 1950s the U.S. began flying U-2 spy planes from Pakistan over the Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan to spy on the huge Soviet missile base there. Gary Powers, U2 pilot, was on such a mission when his U2 malfunctioned and descended to a lower altitude and the Soviets shot his U2 down.
Pakistan was a major base and a starting point for the U.S. support of the mujahideen in Afghanistan that eventually resulted in the defeat of the Soviets in Afghanistan. I highly recommend the movie "Charlie Wilson's War" in that regard.
Listen to the Pakistani foreign minister in the video below. Sometimes, it seems, things are not as black and white as they seem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4yakfjBifE
The U.S. relationship with Pakistan is long and complicated. The U.S. originally allied with Pakistan against Communist China, while the Chinese wooed India. In the 1950s the U.S. began flying U-2 spy planes from Pakistan over the Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan to spy on the huge Soviet missile base there. Gary Powers, U2 pilot, was on such a mission when his U2 malfunctioned and descended to a lower altitude and the Soviets shot his U2 down.
Pakistan was a major base and a starting point for the U.S. support of the mujahideen in Afghanistan that eventually resulted in the defeat of the Soviets in Afghanistan. I highly recommend the movie "Charlie Wilson's War" in that regard.
Listen to the Pakistani foreign minister in the video below. Sometimes, it seems, things are not as black and white as they seem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4yakfjBifE
Hafiz Saeed, pictured above, the
internationally recognized terrorist and chief of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba –
says he will contest Pakistan’s next election to directly challenge former
prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
Saeed,
head of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and its offshoot Jamaat-ud-Dawa, announced
that he will run under the Milli Muslim League banner and stand in Nawaz’s
former stronghold.
The Milli
Muslim League office on Lahore’s Mohini Road comes under the NA-120
constituency, which the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has
dominated since the 1980s. Sharif, the recently ousted PM, contested the 2013
election in that seat.
Sharif’s wife Kulsoom Nawaz won the
by-election in NA-120 in September, but it was the Hafiz Sayeed-backed Sheikh
Yaqoob who made headlines after bagging 5,822 votes.
“I created quite a storm didn’t I?”
Yaqoob said. “And now
a similar uproar has been created by the office that we’ve opened in NA-120.”
Yaqoob said the party building in
Lahore had been gifted to him by a friend and wasn’t officially MML property
yet – before revealing that the office would eventually be used by Hafiz Saeed
to “launch his assault”.
His
goal? Retaliate strongly against the US
But Saeed has a new task at hand, party
insiders said. US President Donald Trump’s tweet on New Year’s Day condemning
Pakistan as a ‘‘safe haven’’ for terrorists has not gone unnoticed. Saeed’s
supporters have vowed to “strongly retaliate”.
The Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) (logo above) leaders held a
meeting with Hafiz Saeed following the US President’s shot across the bow,
insiders said. “Trump’s tweet proves
that not only is the US now speaking India’s language, it is the PML-N
government that is also doing the same,” JuD spokesperson Nadeem Awan said. “If
the government does take action against us, we will go to the court, where we
will get justice as usual.”
Milli Muslim League Finance
Secretary Ehsan Ullah says JuD plans to ‘‘give a befitting response to the US
for insulting Pakistan.”
“If there is one person that can defend
Pakistan it is Hafiz Saeed,” he said. “That is why true patriots in Pakistan
always defend him.”
‘True patriots’ is usually a reference
to Pakistan’s powerful military, which is reported to be backing Saeed.
Multiple military insiders have confirmed that the MML’s move to “mainstream”
is an Army-led project to allow former jihadists to enter politics.
A senior military official said, “It is a combination of keeping
control over important national matters like security, defense and foreign
policy, but also giving these former militant groups that have served the state
a route into the mainstream where their energies can be utilized.”
Another retired military official said:
“Hafiz Saeed symbolizes Pakistan’s decades-old Kashmir policy, and Pakistan
taking action against him would mean saying that that the policy was wrong.”
However, the JuD and Hafiz Saeed will
have to cross a major hurdle if they really want to join electoral
politics. The Election Commission of Pakistan is yet to register the Milli
Muslim League as a political party.
“The Interior Ministry has sent us a
letter that says that the Milli Muslim League is linked to the banned
Lashkar-e-Taiba and its offshoot Jamaat-ud-Dawa, and has been placed under
restriction. Hence, it is opposing the party’s registration,” an election
official said.
But, for now, Saeed is all set to storm
Sharif’s personal stronghold. Political observers say the move is a ploy by the
Pakistan Army to weaken Sharif further.
“On December 24, Hafiz Saeed and I
discussed the upcoming strategy in detail. We are confident that we can uproot
the Sharif family from NA-120, Lahore, Punjab and then all of Pakistan,” Yaqoob
said. He claimed that Saeed’s JuD had done more for the constituency
and the city than the ruling party.
Saeed’s aides revealed that while he
wants to create “a proper Islamic state” in Pakistan that would “honestly”
fight for the “liberation of Kashmir’’, his motive was partly a personal
vendetta. Saeed’s future was reportedly discussed by Pakistan’s civil and
military leaders in a national security meeting in October 2016, details of
which were revealed by a leading daily paper, known since as the “Dawn Leaks“.
“After benefiting from Hafiz Saeed’s
support for years they backtracked and started taking orders from India,” JuD
spokesman Nadeem Awan alleged. “India’s biggest demand was taking action against
Hafiz Saeed, which is why the Sharif family put him under house arrest for 10
months. But now the (Lahore) High Court has declared him as innocent,” he said.
Awan maintains that while there is a
personal element to Saeed’s fight against the Sharifs, ousting the PML-N from
power ‘‘is the most patriotic thing that anyone can struggle for’’.
“We are looking for patriotic allies
and would welcome anyone on board. But as can be seen in Lahore, with all
parties allying against the PML-N, there are few fights more patriotic than
striving for the Sharif family’s ouster,” the JuD spokesman said. “We need a
government that acts in Pakistan’s best interests – not India’s.”
So, Pakistan’s fragile political scene is facing an ominous crossroad.
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