The context for Mukhtar’s comments is the negotiations between the Taliban and the Americans, .and the growing fear in Islamabad that Pakistan could be simply ignored as the talks make progress. This is something that Pakistan will not like to relish, having very carefully crafted the Good Taliban concept and having played host to the Taliban leadership all along.
After the fall of Kabul to the allied forces, Mullah Omar and his large entourage including the who is who of the Shura found a respectable hide out on the outskirts of Quetta and thus came into usage the phrase, Quetta Shura, even as Rawalpindi-Islamabad persisted with their denial myths. Left to itself, Pakistan army leadership will be happy to see the Haqqanis at the negotiating table.
As of now, Washington has no sympathy for the Haqqani network and has placed them in the category of dangerous militants whose scalps it is keen to possess as war trophies.
It is possible to see Mukhtar’s comment as a not so veiled warning to the US- that it cannot ignore Islamabad’s potential if a break through is needed. Also the message that Mullah Omar is our guest and you can meet himonly if we facilitate. Mark his words: ‘The U.S. will not be able to hold talks with the Taliban without Pakistan’s involvement’.
Put differently, just like in the days leading to the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Kabul, now also in the emergence of a new Afghanistan with Taliban in the loop directly or as presiding deity, Pakistan wants to play a key role and thus fulfil its dream of wresting strategic depth in the areas beyond the Durand Line.
Whether the Americans are impressed by the Mukhtar speak are not, the perfect give away from this bravado is that Pakistan is into the game of deception and denials as a matter of state policy and Abbottabad was neither an aberration nor symptomatic of a manifest ignorance. It also lends credence to what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had said on her first visit to Islamabad that Pakistani leadership knew the whereabouts of the Islamist leadership – al- Qaeda and Taliban.
In their deposition before US Congress Armed Services Committee, Vice Admiral William McRaven and Lt. Gen. John Allen echoed the undiplomatic speak of Hillary. ‘Pakistan is not doing anything against the Haqqani network Mullah Omer is present in Pakistan and the ISI and the Pakistan army is well aware of his whereabouts’, both said thereby setting at rest doubts whether the US is aware of the Pakistan game. McRaven and Allen, however, don’t throw light on the US inaction and on the ifs and buts for the continued courting of Pakistan. May be it is not their brief.
