Bhadra
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[h=1]Real CIA agents of Pakistan[/h]If you say Pakistan should grant India reciprocal MFN status because India granted it MFN status sixteen years ago and trade normally, or liberalise the visa regime, or allow cultural contacts for the benefit or entertainment of the people, or support the Aman ki Asha initiative by a media group, you are a CIA agent, writes Najam Sethi.
These are difficult times for free thinking professional journalists in Pakistan. Eleven were killed last year in the line of duty. They were either caught in the crossfire of ethnic or extremist violence or targeted and eliminated for their political views.
Saleem Shehzad, for example, was abducted, tortured and killed, allegedly by a state agency last year, and a commission of inquiry is still floundering in the woods. He had exposed the infiltration of the armed forces by elements close to or affiliated with Al-Qaeda or the Taliban. Several journalists from Balochistan have been killed by nonstate vigilantes allied to the security state, others have fled to Europe or USA and applied for asylum, because they had sympathies with the nationalist cause in the province and had spoken up about the excesses of the "security" agencies. Some from Karachi have taken refuge in safe havens abroad because they were threatened by ethnic or sectarian groups or parties.
Now an insidious campaign is afoot to target senior journalists who question the wisdom of the security establishment on a host of thorny issues. They are being labeled as "American-CIA Agents". This is an incitement to violence in the highly charged anti-American environment that prevails in Pakistan today. Consider.
If you say the military's notion of "strategic depth" in Afghanistan is misplaced or outdated or counter-productive, you are a CIA agent.
If you say the military was either complicit or incompetent in the OBLA bbottabad case, you are a CIA agent.
If you say that the civilians should have control over the military as stipulated in the constitution, you are a CIA agent.
If you say that the military shouldn't enter into peace deals with the Taliban that enable them to reorganise and seize Pakistani territory, you are a CIA agent.
If you say that the drones have taken a welcome toll of Al-Qaeda and Taliban extremist leaders in Waziristan, you are a CIA agent.
If you say that the military's annual defense budget, which amounts to nearly half of all tax revenues, should be scrutinised by a parliamentary committee, or audited by the Auditor-General of Pakistan, you are a CIA agent.
If you say Pakistan should grant India reciprocal MFN status because India granted it MFN status sixteen years ago and trade normally, or liberalise the visa regime, or allow cultural contacts for the benefit or entertainment of the people, or support the Aman ki Asha initiative by a media group, you are a CIA agent.
If you say that the one and same resignation criterion should be applied to both Ambassador Hussain Haqqani and DG-ISI Shuja Pasha - one is accused of trying to influence the American government to back up the civilian government of Pakistan in its attempt to establish civilian control over its army and the other is accused of seeking the support of Arab regimes for the overthrow of the civilian regime (both accusations come from the one and same individual, Mansoor Ijaz) - you are a CIA agent.
If you say we should construct a social welfare state in place of a national security state, you are a CIA agent.
If you say that fundamental citizens rights enshrined in the constitution cannot be violated at the altar of a narrow definition of national security defined exclusively by the security state, you are a CIA agent.
If you say that human rights violations in Balochistan carried out by the security agencies are as condemnable as the ethnic cleansing of Punjabi settlers by the Baloch insurgents, you are a CIA agent.
If you say that Pakistan's foreign policy should not be the exclusive domain of the military establishment, you are a CIA agent.
If you say that the Pakistan military's conventional and nuclear weapons doctrine amounts to a crippling arms race with India rather than a minimal optimal defensive deterrence, you are a CIA agent.
If you say that the ISI is an unaccountable state within a state, you are a CIA agent.
If you say that belttightening measures to control budgetary deficits and inflation should apply to wasteful aspects of defense expenditures no less than to wasteful aspects of civilian government expenditures, you are a CIA agent.
If you say that the Supreme Court should pull out Air Marshal Asghar Khan's ISI-Mehrangate 1991 case from cold storage and adjudge it along with the Memogate 2011 case, you are a CIA agent.
The list of unaccountable double standards is endless. The irony is that the Pakistan military remains the single largest recipient of American aid in the last sixty five years.
The irony is that all military coups in Pakistan have drawn legal and political sustenance from America. The irony is that the Pakistani military has signed more defense pacts and agreements with America than all civilian governments to date. The irony is the Pakistan military has partnered America in Afghanistan in the 1980s, fought its war on terror and leased out Pakistani air bases and Pakistan air space corridors to America in the 2000s, and sent hundreds of officers for training and education to America in the last six decades.
The irony is that all those liberal progressive anti-imperialist Pakistani citizens who have opposed US hegemony and protested American interventions all their lives are today branded as CIA agents by the very state security agencies who have been American agents all their lives.
- The writer is editor of The Friday Times
Source:
News - Latest News - Breaking News India - Live Update - India Today
These are difficult times for free thinking professional journalists in Pakistan. Eleven were killed last year in the line of duty. They were either caught in the crossfire of ethnic or extremist violence or targeted and eliminated for their political views.
Saleem Shehzad, for example, was abducted, tortured and killed, allegedly by a state agency last year, and a commission of inquiry is still floundering in the woods. He had exposed the infiltration of the armed forces by elements close to or affiliated with Al-Qaeda or the Taliban. Several journalists from Balochistan have been killed by nonstate vigilantes allied to the security state, others have fled to Europe or USA and applied for asylum, because they had sympathies with the nationalist cause in the province and had spoken up about the excesses of the "security" agencies. Some from Karachi have taken refuge in safe havens abroad because they were threatened by ethnic or sectarian groups or parties.
Now an insidious campaign is afoot to target senior journalists who question the wisdom of the security establishment on a host of thorny issues. They are being labeled as "American-CIA Agents". This is an incitement to violence in the highly charged anti-American environment that prevails in Pakistan today. Consider.
If you say the military's notion of "strategic depth" in Afghanistan is misplaced or outdated or counter-productive, you are a CIA agent.
If you say the military was either complicit or incompetent in the OBLA bbottabad case, you are a CIA agent.
If you say that the civilians should have control over the military as stipulated in the constitution, you are a CIA agent.
If you say that the military shouldn't enter into peace deals with the Taliban that enable them to reorganise and seize Pakistani territory, you are a CIA agent.
If you say that the drones have taken a welcome toll of Al-Qaeda and Taliban extremist leaders in Waziristan, you are a CIA agent.
If you say that the military's annual defense budget, which amounts to nearly half of all tax revenues, should be scrutinised by a parliamentary committee, or audited by the Auditor-General of Pakistan, you are a CIA agent.
If you say Pakistan should grant India reciprocal MFN status because India granted it MFN status sixteen years ago and trade normally, or liberalise the visa regime, or allow cultural contacts for the benefit or entertainment of the people, or support the Aman ki Asha initiative by a media group, you are a CIA agent.
If you say that the one and same resignation criterion should be applied to both Ambassador Hussain Haqqani and DG-ISI Shuja Pasha - one is accused of trying to influence the American government to back up the civilian government of Pakistan in its attempt to establish civilian control over its army and the other is accused of seeking the support of Arab regimes for the overthrow of the civilian regime (both accusations come from the one and same individual, Mansoor Ijaz) - you are a CIA agent.
If you say we should construct a social welfare state in place of a national security state, you are a CIA agent.
If you say that fundamental citizens rights enshrined in the constitution cannot be violated at the altar of a narrow definition of national security defined exclusively by the security state, you are a CIA agent.
If you say that human rights violations in Balochistan carried out by the security agencies are as condemnable as the ethnic cleansing of Punjabi settlers by the Baloch insurgents, you are a CIA agent.
If you say that Pakistan's foreign policy should not be the exclusive domain of the military establishment, you are a CIA agent.
If you say that the Pakistan military's conventional and nuclear weapons doctrine amounts to a crippling arms race with India rather than a minimal optimal defensive deterrence, you are a CIA agent.
If you say that the ISI is an unaccountable state within a state, you are a CIA agent.
If you say that belttightening measures to control budgetary deficits and inflation should apply to wasteful aspects of defense expenditures no less than to wasteful aspects of civilian government expenditures, you are a CIA agent.
If you say that the Supreme Court should pull out Air Marshal Asghar Khan's ISI-Mehrangate 1991 case from cold storage and adjudge it along with the Memogate 2011 case, you are a CIA agent.
The list of unaccountable double standards is endless. The irony is that the Pakistan military remains the single largest recipient of American aid in the last sixty five years.
The irony is that all military coups in Pakistan have drawn legal and political sustenance from America. The irony is that the Pakistani military has signed more defense pacts and agreements with America than all civilian governments to date. The irony is the Pakistan military has partnered America in Afghanistan in the 1980s, fought its war on terror and leased out Pakistani air bases and Pakistan air space corridors to America in the 2000s, and sent hundreds of officers for training and education to America in the last six decades.
The irony is that all those liberal progressive anti-imperialist Pakistani citizens who have opposed US hegemony and protested American interventions all their lives are today branded as CIA agents by the very state security agencies who have been American agents all their lives.
- The writer is editor of The Friday Times
Source:
News - Latest News - Breaking News India - Live Update - India Today
Pakistan is hilarious!!!!!
