Asif Ali Zardari, the President of Pakistan has been making, I don’t know how to put it, ‘admissions’, or ‘confessions’, or ‘revelations’ from time to time for quite some time. And the media everywhere, especially in India has been greeting him as somebody honest and sincere desirous of finding solutions for the innumerable problems his country face. However, the admissions are invariably followed by ‘clarifications’ by Gilani the Prime Minister of Pakistan or some other Pak Official.
Zardari made an admission on 7/07/2009 while interacting with former senior civil servants. He said, “Let us be truthful to ourselves and make candid admission of the realities”. He went on to say that Pakistan “deliberately created and nurtured” terrorists groups as a state policy to realize its short term objectives. Of course there is nothing new in that as everyone who has been watching the developments in Pakistan already knew it all. However, let us welcome his statement, ‘the candid admission’ as many media put it and hope that he will do what he can to stop such activities. He has said that he will fight the menace of terrorism in his own country and help bring peace to the region and the world as well. He said, “We are fighting the war against extremism and terrorism”.
As I am used to such admissions from Zardari, I expected a clarification on what he had said. It arrived soon. Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said on 9/07/2009 that Zardari’s admission was to be viewed in the context of the situation in Afghanistan after the departure of the Soviets! But Zardari had said, “The terrorists of today were the heroes of yesterday until 9/11 occurred and they began to haunt us as well”.
No one in Pakistan (perhaps except Zardari himself, Gilani, the Prime Minister and the Army) or in any other part of the world knows for sure how much authority does Zardari enjoy though he had, a couple of months ago said that the army had authority in its hemisphere and he had the authority over the whole of the country and the army is under civilian control. We cannot trust the words of the Pakistani authorities as they keep denying what was stated earlier. Immediately after the attack on Taj in Mumbay on 26 November 2008, Pakistan denied its hands in the incident.
However, the The New York Times had reported on 28 November 2008 that “The mounting evidence indicate that Pakistani militant group based in Kashmir, most likely Lashkar-e-Toiba or possibly another terror group I Kashmir , Jaish-e-Mohammed, was responsible for the dastardly attack”. The paper was quoting the American intelligence and official not Indian. India prepared a list of the terrorists it believed to be in Pakistan and handed over the list to the Pakistani authorities requesting them to extradite them to India for trial. Pakistan refused to comply with the request saying that there was no concrete evidence to the involvement of the Pakistani terrorists in the incident.
There are evidences, say Indian and American investigators, which point to the involvement of Pakistan in the attack. Kasab the lone survivor captured after the attack has said as much. Yet nothing concrete has happened.
Unless something concrete happens we need not to take the ‘admissions’ or ‘confessions’ or ‘revelations’ seriously.
Zardari made an admission on 7/07/2009 while interacting with former senior civil servants. He said, “Let us be truthful to ourselves and make candid admission of the realities”. He went on to say that Pakistan “deliberately created and nurtured” terrorists groups as a state policy to realize its short term objectives. Of course there is nothing new in that as everyone who has been watching the developments in Pakistan already knew it all. However, let us welcome his statement, ‘the candid admission’ as many media put it and hope that he will do what he can to stop such activities. He has said that he will fight the menace of terrorism in his own country and help bring peace to the region and the world as well. He said, “We are fighting the war against extremism and terrorism”.
As I am used to such admissions from Zardari, I expected a clarification on what he had said. It arrived soon. Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said on 9/07/2009 that Zardari’s admission was to be viewed in the context of the situation in Afghanistan after the departure of the Soviets! But Zardari had said, “The terrorists of today were the heroes of yesterday until 9/11 occurred and they began to haunt us as well”.
No one in Pakistan (perhaps except Zardari himself, Gilani, the Prime Minister and the Army) or in any other part of the world knows for sure how much authority does Zardari enjoy though he had, a couple of months ago said that the army had authority in its hemisphere and he had the authority over the whole of the country and the army is under civilian control. We cannot trust the words of the Pakistani authorities as they keep denying what was stated earlier. Immediately after the attack on Taj in Mumbay on 26 November 2008, Pakistan denied its hands in the incident.
However, the The New York Times had reported on 28 November 2008 that “The mounting evidence indicate that Pakistani militant group based in Kashmir, most likely Lashkar-e-Toiba or possibly another terror group I Kashmir , Jaish-e-Mohammed, was responsible for the dastardly attack”. The paper was quoting the American intelligence and official not Indian. India prepared a list of the terrorists it believed to be in Pakistan and handed over the list to the Pakistani authorities requesting them to extradite them to India for trial. Pakistan refused to comply with the request saying that there was no concrete evidence to the involvement of the Pakistani terrorists in the incident.
There are evidences, say Indian and American investigators, which point to the involvement of Pakistan in the attack. Kasab the lone survivor captured after the attack has said as much. Yet nothing concrete has happened.
Unless something concrete happens we need not to take the ‘admissions’ or ‘confessions’ or ‘revelations’ seriously.
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