By Shireen M Mazari

For some it may seem surprising to find that even as the Pakistani state ups the military ante against terrorists in the country, and the nation suffers an increase in targeted suicide attacks, the US also ups the ante in terms of accusations against the Pakistani state and histrionics relating to Osama bin Laden's purported presence in Pakistan. However, for many of us who feel the US has a particular design for Pakistan, the present US vitriol relating to Pakistan and terrorism is not unexpected at all. In any event, the point-counter point statements of the US threatening to take military action in Pakistani territory and Pakistan absolutely rejecting such action is more of a charade because the US and NATO have been violating Pakistani sovereignty since they began military operations in Afghanistan post-9/11. In fact, it is precisely this sort of adventurism on the part of these forces that makes the Pakistani state's own fight against terrorism more difficult because accusations of acting on US behest immediately begin to flow by opportunist political forces. No matter that our own state and nation are threatened directly by these extremist terrorists who are also playing the US game of polarising our state and society.

So what are US designs towards Pakistan? Certainly, even though they may intrude into our territory for limited military objectives, their real intent is not so much to invade and occupy Pakistan as it is to destabilise and perhaps push it to disintegration into smaller Muslim "states" -- potential client states for the US. As has been stated earlier in these columns, the US has been seeking to destabilise, break down and reconstruct the Greater or Broader Middle East to its own liking. It was not a coincidence that a retired US Army Intelligence Officer, Ralph Peters' now infamous article, Blood Borders, was published in the US Armed Forces Journal in July 2006 just when US Secretary of State, Miss Rice, was looking favourably on the death and destruction being wreaked on Lebanon by Israel as simply the "birth pangs" of a new Middle East. The expression of intent was clear in both these statements -- the division and restructuring of the Muslim states of the region. Of course, let us accept the complicity, either intentionally or unwittingly, of our own people in these lands, to the US neo imperialist design.

After all, since these clear expressions of US intent in our region (since we are now part of the so-called Broader Middle East) we have witnessed the following: a bloody split between Hamas and Fatah; renewed violence and chaos in Lebanon; renewed efforts by the US to destabilise the Iranian regime aided and abetted by some Muslim factional interests; upsurge of violence and terrorism in Pakistan with an inexplicable flow of weapons in the terrorists' hands -- weapons that even the Pakistani military does not possess!

It is within this new US design that we must see its policies towards Pakistan wherein the division of Pakistan is being contemplated so that eventually it comprises only Sindh and Punjab, with a "Free Balochistan" to be carved from Pakistani and Iranian territories and, equally bizarre, NWFP to be given to Afghanistan to compensate the latter for its loss to Persia in the West -- as the Peters design states! So one would have a set of client states perhaps more dependent on and compliant to the US. Sounds absurd but look at the developments that have and are taking place presently.

Earlier this year, the US Congress passed a bill relating to the implementation of the 9/11 Commission recommendations. The section on Pakistan effectively takes Pakistan-US relations to the Pressler days with restrictions placed on US security assistance to Pakistan in the form of a Presidential waiver. Worse than Pressler times, such a waiver would now require US Presidential certification not just on nuclear non-proliferation but also on a whole range of intrusive issues relating to terrorism and the setting up of secular state schools.

Alongside this action from the US Congress, we had John Negroponte's testimony in the US Senate in January 2007 in which he accused Pakistan of being a "major source of Islamic extremism" and a safe haven for Taliban and "home for some top terrorist leaders." Alongside, he also raised the proliferation issue which showed once again that the real intent of the US is to undermine our nuclear assets over the long term. No mention has ever been made of the Indian treaties of nuclear cooperation with Saddam's Iraq and with Iran.

Now we are seeing this rhetoric against Pakistan becoming more intense with high ranking US Administration members and the Christian zealot Bush himself declaring that support was being provided for not only the Taliban but also al-Qaeda within Pakistan. We have also had the declassified section of the US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) released earlier this month, which has declared that al-Qaeda is regrouping in Pakistan's tribal areas.

Never mind that the US intelligence can hardly be treated credibly given its deliberately concocted lies to justify the US invasion of Iraq, the problem is that it has provided fodder for the US which seeks desperately to have some diversion to its growing failures in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sure enough, the US policy makers have followed with histrionics about the US need to attack inside Pakistani territory -- perhaps without informing Pakistan and in any case certainly without seeking permission from Pakistan! The final note of bellicosity has come from the new US intelligence Chief -- that Osama is alive and in Pakistan (rationally, bin Laden's chances of still being alive are minimal).

Beyond all this rhetoric, if we keep in mind the old and historic links between the rabidly anti-communist Islamists and successive US regimes; the continuing failure of the US Administration to declare the BLA a terrorist organisation; the refusal of the US-propped Karzai regime to close down the BLA office in central Kabul; the Indo-US strategic partnership and India's questionable activities in Afghanistan; and reports (not denied by the US Administration) from the US media that the US was using the terrorist group Jundullah to destabilise the Iranian state; we can see a clearer pattern of the US neo-imperialist designs against Pakistan and other Muslim states. Add to this another interesting fact: terrorist Abdullah Mehsud, who was taken from Afghanistan to Guantanamo then released to Kabul found his way back to Pakistan and one of his early terrorist actions was targeting Chinese engineers (Mehsud reportedly died during a raid in Zhob district on Tuesday). All a mere coincidence? Perhaps, but too many dots can be connected if one looks at the larger picture to ignore an unholy alliance between the Mullahs and the US. After all, those who do not believe in temporal state boundaries amongst Muslims have no loyalty to such national entities. This fits in perfectly with US designs for the Broader Middle East.

The question is: when will we in Pakistan wake up to this US design and forge a national consensus to deal with our own fifth columnists aiding and abetting this nefarious design? Only if we heed Jinnah's advice to the state and its people, which has a resonant clarity in terms of the place of religion within the state and relations amongst the citizenry and between them and the state. Too many compromises and fears have blurred the raison d'etre for Pakistan. It is time to clear where we are coming from so that we know clearly where to head for in the future.


The writer is director general of the Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad. Email: smnews80@hotmail.com

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