What forced Joe Biden to speak against Pakistan Nukes?
Comment
Ansar M Bhatti
US President Joe Biden’s remarks
that Pakistan may be a dangerous place for it to have nuclear weapons without
cohesion have caused uproar among all strata of the society. While different
interpretations of the statement continue to pour in, one thing is for sure
that US-Pakistan relations that seemed to have been put on track after removal
of the Imran Khan government may again be derailed, albeit not for a long time.
Pakistan- US interests are
interlinked, especially when it comes to regional security and peace. Ever
since the Afghan war, this relationship has seen many ups and downs with each
side doubting others sincerity and seriousness. But despite all these vicissitudes this
relationship continued to sustain and it will sustain even now.
The timing of the US President’s
statement is quite intriguing. Our Army Chief has just concluded the US visit.
Before him, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had an extensive tour. Even
before becoming the foreign minister Bilawal had visited America and interacted
with high level US officials. Therefore it was quite surprising for all and
sundry that how come the US President issues a statement against Pakistan when
both the high level visits were dubbed as highly successful?
In the light of the above, one is
forced to assume that perhaps all did not go well during these high level
visits. Joe Biden’s statement is purely military-specific. The purpose of the
statement appears to be putting pressure on the Pakistan Army when it points
out as if there was no cohesion within the institution. Some analysts believe
when Biden talked about cohesion, he actually meant cohesion in the ranks of
the political leadership.
Pakistan is faced with a deep
political crisis these days. Imran Khan is on the roads dubbing the incumbent
government a ‘stooge’ of America. Unlike, the government is doing its best to
keep the former prime minister in limits by using various conventional and
non-conventional methods. This is of course an unwarranted method employed by
the respective governments against their opponents. However, it seems as if
these methods are not helping the government much given the fact that
popularity of Imran Khan has touched new heights simply because this government
has failed to perform. People’s miseries have multiplied, no doubt, during six
months.
After Ishaq Dar’s return
Pakistani currency recovered a bit but the current depreciation of dollar is
not because of the government policies or Ishaq Daq has any magic wand. It was
because of certain factors including Pakistan-US improved relations. Then the
PML N government is devising policies only for one year i.e till the next
elections.
In case of longer term policies
indeed the government cannot achieve economic targets. Since these fiscal
arrangements are election-specific and short term therefore it is very much
likely that as soon as this government goes, inflation may again sky-rocket.
The dollar may also go beyond control. Agreed, if relations with the United
States are put back on track, the biggest beneficiary shall be Pakistan’s
sagging economy, but the question is can these relations become normal any time
soon?
The appointment of the new army
chief is yet another issue the present government has to deal with. Imran
Khan’s threat to organize a long march is still lurking. As analysts believe he
is probably waiting for the ‘divine approval’ before he sets off on the march.
There is still no answer to the
question as to why Joe Biden chose this particular time for his tirade against
the Pakistani nuclear program? If the American administration or the
establishment wants to put pressure on the Pakistan Army, the question is why
they want to do it? I personally think
it will not take long for this secret to become public.
On our part, Pakistani leadership
needs to act in a responsible manner. It should also sit together when
sovereignty and national pride is at stake, but unfortunately it may not happen
because personal interests and egos of our worthy leaders appear to be more
important than the national cause. For the political system to work smoothly we
also need to have a real power transfer. What we have seen after 1988 is that
power has always been shared – not transferred to the elected representatives.
The recent statement of Imran
Khan that he was not allowed to wield full power when he was the prime
minister, is in fact a classic example of ‘shared power’ phenomena. But then if
such a thing happens the politicians solely are responsible for that. When they
are ruling, they just forget about who had elected them and sent them to the assemblies.
Their bad governance and disconnect from the masses creates a vacuum. The
un-elected forces then jump into the fray to fill that vacuum.
Imran Khan, as many would opine,
delivered a googly when he proposed that the current army chief may continue his
work till the time of the new elections. It was indeed a surprise move on his
part for he had been blaming the establishment for his ouster. The trick
nevertheless put the sitting government in trouble. They were really faced with
a situation of to be or not to be.
But at the end of the day they
perhaps decided not to pay any heed to this proposal. As things have transpired
in the recent weeks, the Imran Khan era ‘same page’ arrangement seems to have
been resurrected. The government wanted
to postpone the by-elections, but the Election Commission, which probably
wanted to entertain the govt plea, could not do so. On audio leaks, some voices
within the PDM believe it may be yet another move to ditch them since leaks
that belong to them happen to be of severe nature as compared with the ones
relating to PTI.
And above all, the stunning defeat of the PDM in the by-elections should ring alarm bells within the govt and allies ranks. The win, for sure, will put PTI in a better bargaining position besides further strengthening its narrative of the American involvement in the removal of the Imran Khan Government.
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