Table Of ContentDEADLY CONNECTION
DEADLY CONNECTION
THE COST OF BECOMING A FRONTLINE STATE
Ashish Shukla
VIJAYA BOOKS
In Loving Memory
of
Late Asmita Shukla (Bitti)
Preface
Mohammad Ali Jinnah and his associates from All India Muslim
League (AIML) successfully persuaded the departing British, on
the basis of a highly communal and divisive Two Nation Theory,
to divide British India and help them achieve a separate homeland
out of it. Since British were very much willing to accept such
demand, due to their own vested interests in the region, Pakistan
came into existence in August 1947. Pakistani establishment, from
day one, not only refused to acknowledge the common cultural
heritage of the Indian subcontinent, popularly known as Ganga-
Jamuni Tahjeeb but overemphasized on the point of being different
from India. Statements of some of the leaders of the Indian
National Congress, nothing more than the occasional emotional
outbursts unsubstantiated by Indian state’s policy and activities in
the region, were interpreted in a way that they were looking for
an opportunity to swallow the entire Pakistani state. Due to this
very attitude, Pakistan soon acquired a negative identity and started
its journey with a fundamentally false assumption that described
India as the enemy number one and an existential threat to its
survival. Now it needed some sort of parity vis-à-vis India to
overcome the fear psychosis.
All these false assumptions and perceived threats converted
Pakistan into a security state that, instead of devoting its energy
to serve the people, invested heavily to build an all-powerful army
capable of defending the territorial integrity of the state. This
inadvertently led to the strengthening of the military institution,
particularly the army, and prevented the growth of already weak
civilian institutions in the state. Military once in power, after the
first military coup in October 1958, appointed itself the guardian
of the Pakistani state and proclaimed not only to defend the
territorial integrity of the state, for which the institution is ideally
established in every state, but the ideological frontier, too. Since
then onwards, in order to gain legitimacy from the people, Islam–
not the welfare policies and services to the people–was repeatedly
evoked by the civilians and the military rulers. None tried to curb
and control the activities of religious right-wing and extremists
forces in the society. Instead, they were encouraged and actively
supported by the establishment to take upon the enemies of
Pakistan and bleed them with thousands cuts.
More than six decades have elapsed, since the inception of
Pakistan, but the Pakistani leaders miserably failed to meet the
modest expectations and aspirations of their fellow Muslim citizens,
for whom the state was carved out, let alone satisfying the
religious minorities who stayed back because of the repeated
promises made by Jinnah to them. The condition of religious
minorities in the country finds a reflection in a couplet by a young
Pakistani poet which says “Jane kab kaun kise maar de kafir
kahkar, Shahar ka shahar muslman bana firta hai” (No one
knows when one of them will be killed by anyone after being
termed a non-believer, everyone in the city is moving with a tag
of being Muslim.)
In Pakistan, it is the military which calls the shot, whether
from the front or behind the veil of civilian governments. On a
number of occasions, it has been proved that army holds a veto
on Pakistan’s India policy, Afghanistan policy, US policy and
nuclear policy. Nothing substantial can be changed without a clear
nod from the military establishment. One can understand the
power of the military with the fact that it hardly took a few hours
to remove an elected civilian government in 1999, which had a two
third majority in the National Assembly. With the fourth military
coup, General Pervez Musharraf, who, at present is facing several
severe charges, at home, including the murder of former Prime
Minister Benazir Bhutto and Judges detention case, took charge of
the country, first as the Chief Martial Law Administrator and then
as the President of Pakistan and ruled the country like his personal
fiefdom during one of the most crucial phases of Pakistan’s
history.
It was during his tenure when al-Qaeda successfully targeted
the symbols of economic growth and military power of the United
States—the World Trade Centre and Pentagon. The event shook
the world and as per the realist thinkers guided a structural change
in the international system. Richard Armitage, US’ Deputy Secretary
of State, threatened Pakistan to bomb back to Stone Age, if it
refused to cooperate with the Washington. In such an atmosphere,
Musharraf agreed to all the demands put forward by the United
States and joined “War on Terror” as a frontline state. Musharraf’s
decision was widely criticised by the right-wing forces at home
who blamed him for selling country’s sovereignty to the Americans.
However, after closely analysing the situation one would definitely
come to conclude that it was the best decision at that point of
time. Musharraf’s cooperation ended Pakistan’s international isolation
and supported the already collapsing economy in a great way.
There are reports that since 2001, Pakistan received more than
$20 billion in the form of direct economic and military aid. But
these facts represent only one aspect of the cooperation. In fact,
despite having some positive gains, Pakistan’s post 9/11 cooperation
with the United States has largely been negative.
It is not to suggest that in Pakistan everything has gone from
bad to worse. Indeed, in recent past, Pakistan has captured the
attention of national and international media for some good things.
After Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s regime, it was the only civilian
government in the history of Pakistan which successfully completed
its full term in office. It conducted a largely free and fair elections,
amid severe threats from Taliban and other extremist groups and
repeated attacks on secular political parties, and transferred the
power to another elected civilian regime. This is nothing less than
a watershed or a rarest in the rare event in the history of Pakistan.
For a country which has been under military boots, almost half of
the time since its inception, general elections and a peaceful
transfer of power can be considered a great relief and a significant
achievement in itself. However, this has not helped much to
improve Pakistan’s image internationally. Pakistan of today is
known to the outside world as the most dangerous spot on the
world map.
This very book is primarily based on my M. Phil. Dissertation
which was submitted to Jawaharlal Nehru University. The book
exclusively focuses on Pakistan-US counterterrorism cooperation
and its impact on Pakistani society during 2001 to 2010.
—Ashish Shukla
Acknowledgements
My first and foremost gratitude goes to Professor Uma Singh for
her valuable guidance and support without which it would not have
been possible to complete the book. I owe thanks to the Department
of Political Science, Banaras Hindu University, especially Prof.
Sanjay Srivastava who always helped me choosing the right
direction.
I am deeply indebted to Saurabh Mishra, Alok Pandey, Pallavi
Mishra, Abdul Hafeez Gandhi, Sumit Kumar, Mukesh Srivastava,
Shashi Kant Pandey, Mukut Nath Verma, Rajeev Kumar, Manisha
Mishra and Jai Dev Pandey for their moral support and timely
pieces of advice.
This work would not have become reality without the love and
blessings of my immediate and extended family members: Savitri
Shukla, D.D. Shukla, R.D. Shukla, C.P. Shukla, Shakuntala Shukla,
Anurag Shukla, Kapil Shukla, Sudha Shukla, Pradeep Shukla,
Pawan Shukla, Pratima Shukla, Prakhar Shukla, Alok Shukla and
Anand Shukla.
Besides, I am thankful also to following friends for their
patient encouragement: Divya Anand, Jyoti Chandra Chaurasia,
Pankaj, Anuj Kesari, Ashutosh Payasi, Shantanu Gupta, Lal Bahadur
Pushkar and Yugank Goyal.
Lastly, Vijaya Books and Vikas Printers, particularly Yogesh
Sharma who worked hard to get this book published in a very
short time.
—Ashish Shukla
Abbreviations
AIML All India Muslim League
ANP Awami National Party
APNEC All Pakistan Newspapers Employees Confederation
ARD Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy
CENTO Central Treaty Organisation
CIA Central Intelligence Agency
CII Council of Islamic Ideology
CJ Chief Justice
COAS Chief of Army Staff
CRS Congressional Research Service
EU European Union
FATA Federally Administered Tribal Areas
FC Frontier Constabulary
GHQ General Headquarters
GWOT Global War on Terrorism
HAG Harvard Advisory Group
HeI Hizb-e-Islami
HRCP Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
