Mr. President, I am
taking this opportunity to write you in response to your new strategy with
relation to Afghanistan and Pakistan, announced recently and to draw your
attention to the factual situation from the hard facts, which should be in the
notice of the people of America in general and in particular in your kind
notice as President of America.
Mr. President,
unfortunate incident of 9/11 had jolted the whole world. I will not go into
various theories and reports on this incident but fact remain that USA directly
suffered because of this act of terrorism. The investigations reveal that none
of 19 terrorists involved in this heinous crime was of Pakistani origin. In
retaliation, the US President Bush decided to attack the terrorists including
Osama Bin Laden inside Afghanistan who, reportedly, was the mastermind behind
the 9/11 incident and sought the help of President General Musharraf who agreed
to cooperate in the larger interest of the global security. The Government of
Pakistan, consequently, allowed the space both on ground and air.
Similarly, in the past
USA used the soil of Pakistan to fight its war against the erstwhile Soviet
Union in Afghanistan. The meeting of Mr. William Casey, the then Director of
CIA and Mr. Akhtar A. Rehman, the then DG ISI is also a part of record and this
was another favour to USA by helping America in this war. Pakistan became ally
both times in good faith and to help the international community on the said
war against terrorism.
As a result of
Pakistan’s engagement in the war on terror, the terrorists (Taliban) became
enemies of Pakistan for helping USA and the war shifted from Afghanistan to the
soil of Pakistan and we lost Malakand, Swat another areas of Fata to Taliban.
History is a stanch
witness to the sacrifices of Pakistan in fighting this war which was imposed on
us in a bid to do more and more for USA and its allies. We had been nursing,
feeding more than 5.8 million refugees with additional financial burden on
account of hosting millions of Afghan refugees. Is it not doing more for
Afghanistan apart from helping Afghanistan in their war on terrorism?
Mr. President, this is
only Pakistan and Afghanistan where there is no international border control
and more than 7000 Afghans move freely to Pakistan on daily basis but
Afghanistan never acknowledged and appreciated this generosity of Pakistan
rather blamed Pakistan.
It is a matter of fact
that Pakistan has always given full support to USA starting from provision of
logistic support, facility of air space, sharing of intelligence and conducted
many common operations on the Pak-Afghan border.
Pakistan shares the
concerns of the international community vis-à-vis fragile political and
security situation of Afghanistan and Pakistan would, at the same time, remind
the international community including USA that Pakistan had played its due and
sincere role in the war on terror despite its own financial constraints.
If the situation in
Afghanistan is deteriorating coupled with frequent terrorist attacks against
the US and Afghan personnel and installations despite the heavy presence of US
and allied forces in Afghanistan and pumping of billions of dollars then the US
Administration is advised to look for the causes and solutions inside
Afghanistan rather than Pakistan. Afghanistan has, in fact, become hotbed of
terrorism and the terrorist activities inside Pakistan are planned and executed
from the soil of Afghanistan contrary to the claim made by you Mr. President.
Mr. President, it is
also matter of record that before the start of Zarb-e-Azb, Pakistan had warned
Afghanistan to seal the borders to deny the opportunity to the terrorists to
cross border in Afghanistan but unfortunately Afghanistan did not cooperate.
Now these terrorists are playing in the hands of RAW and NSD, who are being
funded and trained by these agencies to carry out terrorist activities inside
Pakistan. It is, therefore, absolutely out of context to blame Pakistan for any
failure of Afghanistan and allied forces in that country.
Afghanistan is
contributing 42% of the drugs to the world and supplying the direct death to
European countries and Afghanistan despite having all the support of law
enforcement approach have so far failed to stop this growth and supply of
drugs.
The US rhetoric
vis-à-vis ‘Do More’ had been non-ending despite the facts that Pakistan has
done everything possible to combat the terrorists at the cost of its own
security and sovereignty. The decision for use of drone attacks on Pakistan
soil was a unilateral decision of USA and protest was made against the drone
attacks to Mr. Holbrooke, the then Ambassador of USA to Pakistan and
Afghanistan. I proposed at that time that drone attacks in Pakistani territory
are counterproductive and the local innocent victims are also joining the
terrorist organisations, hence drone attacks should be stopped by USA and let
Pakistan and USA both to device a common strategy to deal the terrorists both
aerial and on ground. USA never agreed to have a common counter-terrorism
strategy against the common enemy means terrorists.
I in the capacity of
former federal interior minister of Pakistan and having dealt with the issues
directly can confirm to you that I have always been advocating with President
Bush, President Barack Obama, Ms. Condoleezza Rice and Mr. John Kerry for a
common strategy to fight against these terrorists. I have always been giving
the suggestion of common counter-terrorism strategy being an ally of USA for
which I have been persistently talking on media, writing to all forums
including yourself but no attention was given in the past on my suggestion.
I refer to my article
published in Pakistan leading English Newspaper “The News” dated 20th August,
2017 titled “Do More Pakistan’ syndromes of USA” and my earlier eight points
advice sent to you on 19th May, 2017, wherein I had requested you to please
take along the entire Muslim community to fight against few terrorists and you
will have full support of Muslims against terrorists.
Mr. President, your
threat to the Pakistani nation had been viewed as a callous as Pakistan was
expecting that you will treat Pakistan as victim of war and would appreciate
its sacrifices in the war on terror. Despite threats from eastern borders,
Pakistan has focused its resources both in terms of personnel and finances, on
fighting against terrorists inside Pakistan and along Pak-Afghan border. The
claim that US has provided billions of dollars to Pakistan has been made out of
context as it was never been financial aid but payment against services
provided by Pakistan to US forces.
I really appreciated
your idea of common strategy for fighting the war against terrorism. People of
Pakistan will welcome the outlines of your common strategy against the common
enemy and Pakistan will not hesitate to continue to fight against the
terrorists and contribute in your common strategy to weed out these enemies of
humanity.
Mr. President,
Pakistan is a peaceful nation and has suffered a lot since 1979 being supporter
of USA – both in Soviet-Afghan war and now in this war on terror -- and instead
of asking us to do more, I propose Mr. President you do more and we will
contribute our more input in your new strategy to fight against the terrorism
for the sake of international peace and to make the world peaceful and
terrorism free.
Last but not the
least, we are a sovereign state which has always helped USA in this war hence,
please do not lend your ears to the Indian Prime Minister Modi as he is
inimical against Pakistan and kindly review Mr. Modi’s record being a terrorist
having once banned to visit USA. He functions through RSS of India, which has a
motto to inflict Pakistan at all forums. People of Pakistan will always support
any strategy against the terrorists under your vision and we expect that this
menace can only be finished with collective wisdom and collective common
strategy at all levels to smash these terrorists.
With Best
Regards,
Senator A. Rehman
Malik
Former federal
interior minister of Pakistan.
The letter has been published in ‘The News International’ on 25
August, 2017
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