Press Release
Whose War is it?
Rifah Party Secretary General Slates PML(N) and TI for anti-military campaign
The people of Pakistan are thoroughly confused if the war their security forces are fighting is America’s War thrust upon Pakistan or is it their own war? The religious political parties have always maintained that it is America’s war, embracing which is morally wrong and has been costly for Pakistan. They say that attacks on the armed forces of Pakistan are legitimate Jihad as ‘reaction’ to attack on Lal Masjid in Islamabad and military operations in South Waziristan. Now Imran Khan, leader of TI, and Mian Nawaz Sharif (NS), leader of PML(N) have embraced that logic. The effect of these non-clerics (aided and assisted by TV anchors like Hamid Mir) is that a consensus is emerging in Pakistan that the armed forces are not just an entity separate from the nation but they have their own agenda. The anti-military platform has brought together some strange bed fellows. Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif have joined pro-US Asma Jehangir (AJ) and RAW propagandists who have long been busy portraying the Pakistan Army as ‘rogue Army’ and the ISI as a terrorist outfit.
RAW, AJ and their cohorts are happy that a broad anti-military alliance has come about which would keep the Pakistan Army fighting an ‘unwinnable war’ on the border with Afghanistan ignoring the real threat that comes from Sindhi, Mohajir and Baloch secessionists all of which are overtly supported by India and implicitly by the USA. Do the clerics and their non-cleric supporters not know that India and America support separatist forces in Pakistan? Imran and NS are doing great damage to Pakistan by reviling the Army and giving support to Indo-US protégés of long standing who have led ethnic separatists in Pakistan. Since the constituency of Rifah Party is the same as that of PML and TI, Rifah Party Secretary General - Brigadier ® Usman Khalid - has expressed alarm at these ‘patriotic political forces’ giving implicit support to anti-Pakistan forces. ‘It is time’, he said, ‘that we understand that the US and Pakistanis have different reasons for fighting astride the Pak-Afghan frontier but their enemy is the same.
The US invaded Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11 because Al-Qaeda which attacked the twin Towers in New York was based in that country. The USA could not have carried out the invasion with ground forces if Pakistan had not given permission for military equipment and logistic support to use its territory. America would then have relied entirely on air operations to invade Afghanistan and used Pakistan’s air space even if permission was denied. Would Pakistan have intercepted the US aircraft? Would that have been practical or wise? History would decide those questions but as things stand today the most probable verdict of history would be that Pakistan’s decision was fortuitous. The difficulty is that the politicians who lead political parties in Pakistan today are so inept that they have allowed a potential opportunity to become a crisis. How?
The Taliban rulers of Afghanistan were friendly to Pakistan as it was one of the three countries that recognised their government. But the Taliban did not give up on their ideology that visualised Afghanistan to be a base for further expansion, first into Pakistan. When an alliance of religious political parties (MMA) won the elections in the then NWFP and ruled it for five years, they facilitated the creation of Pakistani Taliban (TTP) who enforced their view of sharia in Waziristan and later in Bajaur and Swat. Much of Pakistan was alarmed that the Taliban view of sharia prohibited TV and VCR, closed down (or blew up) girls’ schools, and barber shops. Since TV cameras were not allowed in Waziristan general awareness of the truth about the Takfiri cult (the Taliban subscribe to) came about only after they established their rule in Swat. The people were shocked that the Takfiri (Taliban) believed that: 1) all those who do not follow their view of sharia are kafir or murted, and that 2) armed struggle to enforce sharia is legitimate jihad.
The Takfiri ideology in its present form was articulated in Egypt and Aiman al Zawahiri is its high priest. The armed forces of Pakistan are seen by the Takfiri as legitimate enemy as they are the principle obstacle to their dominance who routed them in Swat and are fighting them elsewhere. Imran, NS and religious political are quite wrong in saying that the Taliban attack the military because they see them as fighting America’s war. The Taliban themselves are fighting the war of Takfiri as followers of erstwhile khawarji. The Taliban appeared to have realised that their view of sharia and embracing the Takfiri cult has been a blunder. They may well distance themselves from both by just one fatwa by their Emir. But that would not solve the problem of Pakistan. The Takfiris bearing arms and engaging in actual fighting are very few but their supporters among the salafi, wahabi or deobandi are many. Besides, immoral and corrupt rulers in many countries in the Muslim world create a large body of support. Since the Takfiri (as al-Qaeda) have been supporting, even leading, resistance in occupied Muslim lands, they have enough credibility to survive military efforts against them. But if they lose the support of the public in Pakistan as they have in the Arab World, Pakistan could be saved – and saved quite easily. The Americans cannot fight our war against the Takfiri; the Muslims of Pakistan alone can fight and win this war.
Pakistan is fighting its war against the Takfiri; America is fighting its war against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. But on the ground both are the very same people. Therefore, it is right and proper for the USA and Pakistan to co-operate in crushing terrorists in Pakistan as well as Afghanistan. Their targets may be different to the extent their objectives are but it is counter-productive for Pakistan and the USA to engage in public quarrels the press and politicians relish so much. The religious political parties, Imran and NS, are quite wrong in calling it America’s war. We have the same enemy but our objectives are not the same. When it comes to India and its occupation of Jammu and Kashmir, America looks the other way. That notwithstanding, our war against the Takfiri is very much our own. Pakistani press and politicians are misleading the people and causing great damage to Pakistan by becoming the apologists and implicit supporters of the Takfiri. Ponder for a moment, what is the prime wish of our principle enemy - India? They would like nothing better than Pakistan and the USA falling out!
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3 Blacklands Drive, Hayes, Middlesex, UB4 8EU Tel:+44(0)2088484950, www.rifah.org,usmankhalid@rifah.org
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