‘Boots on the ground’
Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has been interacting actively with foreign media in recent days. Notable interviews with HBO and The New York Timesand his op-ed in The Washington Postpoint to this fact. Now his interview with the Chinese CGTN on June 29, 2021 has emerged. The PM’s message in all these has been an unequivocal rejection of any notion of providing the US bases, air corridors or any other form of presence on Pakistani soil, including ‘boots on the ground’, for counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan post-withdrawal. In the CGTN interview, Imran Khan has underlined the close and solid relationship between Pakistan and China, which has stood the test of time and tough situations for Pakistan. He has spelt out Pakistan’s position in clear terms that we would never join any US-led alliance against China, no matter what the pressure, which he considered “very unfair”. Pakistan wants good relations with all countries, Imran Khan said, and was puzzled by the “strange, great rivalry” unfolding in the region. He made reference to the ‘Quad’, a grouping of the US, India and a couple of other countries as another instance of the kind of pressures that were being directly and indirectly directed at Pakistan. Imran Khan spelt out the road to deepening Pakistan’s ties with China through trade and economic cooperation, pointing to CPEC as the biggest thing happening in Pakistan. The PM received support from the Senate Committee on Defence and National Security when it reminded the government that it was bound to adhere to the recommendations of the 2012 report of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security while setting the future course of relations with the US. The recommendations that were unanimously approved by parliament on April 12, 2012 in the aftermath of the November 2011 Salala incident in which about 28 Pakistani troops were killed in an attack by US forces on Pakistani military checkposts along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, include forbidding any bases, foreign ‘boots on the ground’ and foreign intelligence operations on Pakistani soil. The report categorically banned any covert or overt operations, private security contractors or foreign bases on Pakistani territory. A copy of the report has been dispatched to the Ministry of Defence with a note that its recommendations should be considered Pakistan’s state policy guidelines.
Pakistan has bitter experiences of allowing the presence of US bases, personnel or facilities on its soil. In the heyday of our alliance with the US, we gave them the Badaber base near Peshawar, from which Gary Powers’ U-2 flight for intelligence surveillance of the then Soviet Union took off and, after it was shot down over that country, earned us the wrath of the Soviet Union. During the Afghan wars, Pakistan became a virtual happy hunting ground for US air bases, intelligence operations and security contractors. The results were, to put it mildly, troubling for Pakistan and its citizens. With the end of the Cold War, no pertinent or pressing considerations exist for us to entertain the reported desire of the US to have drone bases and an intelligence gathering presence on our soil for operations in Afghanistan. The fallout of developments in that country is enough to focus on without reverting to our past penchant for inviting or buckling under pressure to a US military and intelligence presence on our soil. There may be elements in our military and security establishment that can wax nostalgic about the good old days of US largesse that flowed in return for kow towing to US demands. But with a battle hardened professional armed forces and a nuclear deterrent, it does not behove Pakistan any longer to play the satrap. Our independence, sovereignty, self-respect and dignity, badly battered by our past, needs now to be firmly established.
No comments:
Post a Comment