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| Pakistan is the new Graveyard of Empires | |
By Farooq Ganderbali
History of Asia tells us that Afghanistan has been a Graveyard of Empires. No foreign ruler or country has been able to tame the country for long and those who did make various attempts to do so have faced tragedy and defeat. In the recent history, it was the British, otherwise a powerful empire stretching across the vast Indian Ocean, which met its mettle in Afghanistan. Then the Soviets who lost not only their troops and honour but their own country. After the defeat in Afghanistan, the Soviet empire took a few months to collapse. The Russians were followed by the Americans who came chasing al Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden and various other terrorist leaders and groups, spent a trillion dollars, lost several thousand soldiers and then returned not entirely defeated but certainly not victorious.
But the Afghan story has all along be told within a narrow prism. The commentators and analysts forgot to mention Pakistan, an emerging Graveyard next to the existing one in Afghanistan. Here, unlike Afghanistan, the story is yet to unfold but you can see the signs of a similar meltdown. Leave aside the British who divided the subcontinent and left with no victorious call or even an honourable exit. It was a hasty retreat---the British had had enough of the sub-continent. The Americans were quick to follow the British legacy. They thought, many of them still do think, that they would not repeat the mistakes the British did. They boasted that they knew how to handle Pakistan. Like a client state.
The Americans had money and a big enemy to deal with—the Soviets in the Cold War era. They wanted as many countries on their side to stop what they called as the march of communism across the world. India was hesitant to throw its hat into the ring—the memories of the colonial rule was too fresh to be siding with another empire in the making. India chose to be non-aligned. The Americans chose Pakistan, pumped the impoverished country with arms and ammunition which the small newly independent country could not even use except to kill each other or find an excuse to launch wars against India, either directly or indirectly. Pakistan was jubilant at the US patronage. They got best of the American weaponry—at cheap price, most often even free with the debt getting waived off subsequently. The Americans trained them, kept them happy at the international fora and foiled any attempt by India to take Pakistan to task for fomenting trouble in India.
With the US backing, Pakistan armed first the Nagas and then any one who was willing to take up arms against the Indian state. After the ignominious 1971 defeat at the hands of India and the breaking up of its eastern board, Pakistan decided to arm and train Kashmiris to target the Indian state. The training camps set up in Pakistan occupied Kashmir and other places to train recruits from India and Pakistan were open secret. India wanted the US and other western powers to censure Pakistan for creating and supporting the terrorist infrastructure. The Americans of course refused—Pakistan was too dear to them and their strategic interest to contain the Communist Soviet Union.
The Americans also pumped in untold resources into Pakistan-- dollars in bags, weapons in crates flowed freely into Pakistan armoury which it used to create the mujahideen in Afghanistan—in plain words the first organised terrorist group—some of whom later on graduated to target the patron itself—the US.
For all what the US did, and continue to do, Pakistan chose first to help al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden to escape the US bombing after the 9/11 attack. Pakistan refused to help the Americans in getting bin Laden in 2001 when he was in the safe custody of the Taliban which the Pakistan Army had armed and trained and helped to capture Kabul. The Taliban plainly refused to hand over bin Laden to the US. If Pakistan had insisted, the Taliban could have relented but the former chose not to. The Americans knew about it but could not do much. They also remained in doubt on how to deal with Pakistan which helped al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden to find sanctuary in Pakistan. Laden in fact was housed in a specially built mult-storied house close to Pakistan Military Academy in Abbottabad. The place of bin Laden’s sanctuary was chosen with care—it was always within the view of the security personnel at the academy. The ISI had a special unit to oversee bin Laden’s escape and safety—the house was built to special specifications under the supervision of ISI officers who, after bin Laden and his family moved in, were also responsible for running the house.
Although the former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Pakistan a snake pit (or close to it) and other top US officials have had other nomenclatures to describe Pakistan’s deceit, the US continues to maintain Pakistan as a client state, once again doling dollars and weapons to a state which should have been declared a terrorist state long time ago and sanctioned. The Osama bin Laden story showed how the US was deceived by its ``strategic ally``. It also told another disturbing story—the US is deeply entrenched into Pakistan and is set to meet a fate far worse than it did in Iraq in the recent years.
Keeping all these lessons and indications at bay, the new suitor who is knocking at the doors of Pakistan with some desperation is China. It has also coined all the terms of endearment already—higher than the Himalayas, deeper than the ocean, all-weather ally, and there will be more in the near future. Like the US, China sees Pakistan as a key client state—one which could keep India engaged in little wars on its western border and one which could help China deal with the US. The Chinese have not been as generous as the Americans but they are new to the game and will soon be drawn into the `snake pit`, as the Americans did. The Chinese have now announced investing some $45 billion in Pakistan over the next several years without really calculating that if they did go ahead with their plans, it could sink like a dead stone in a quicksand.
It will take China a few years to realise that Pakistan is a dangerous quick sand to get closer to. It is a terrorist state, a failing one, and has shown little inclination to strike a path towards progress and development. It is also the frontier post of Wahhabi ideology which fuels terrorist groups like ISIS, al Qaeda and a whole host of them. Some of them are in Sinkiang.
In some ways, Chinese would meet their waterloo in Pakistan sooner than the Americans. The Chinese use all kinds of repressive measures against their Muslim population. Hundreds of Uighur Muslims have been brutally killed in secret military crackdowns. Secret prisons have sprung up in the western most region of China where Uighur men and women are incarcerated, for ever. There is no record of these killings and incarcerations. Elsewhere the Chinese authorities have imposed several restrictions on the Muslim communities in carrying out their religious duties and rituals. In some places, the Muslims have been forbidden to fast in the month of Ramzan, in other places other restrictions on prayer timings have been imposed. There is in essence several restrictions on Muslim communities in China which is likely to raise protests in Pakistan which calls itself the flag bearer of Islam.
The other point of conflict is the Chinese behaviour towards their client states and their people. The Chinese corporations in Africa have been ruthless with local population and their resources. In Gilgit Baltistan, where Chinese workers have been working on the highway and hydroelectric projects, there have been clashes with local people. These clashes are likely to increase in number and intensity as more and more Chinese companies and workers find their way into Pakistan to build the China-Pakistan corridor. May be these are early days of engagement but it is clear that China is slowly getting drawn into the quick sand of Pakistan’s duplicitous games.
(The author is a Freelance Journalist and columnist)
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Scoop News and Scoop News does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)
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