While seeking to undermine the MQM andits supremo Altaf Hussain, the ISI,which is known as State within a State has
exposed its raw games
Carefully orchestrated Pakistan’s case that MQM and its London based supremo, Altaf Hussain have received RAW funding rests on a confessional statement MQM senior leader Tariq Mir reportedly made to the London Police. The "expose" British Journalist Owen Bennett – Jones, had aired on the BBC also rests on the same source.
The Pakistani media have gone to the town showing the six-page document on prime time TV on June 26. Yet, the London Metropolitan Police have no such ‘confessional’ document.
“It (the six-page statement) is not a police document”, London Metropolitan Police spokesman Alan Crockford told BBC in his brief response to their email with regard to the authenticity of Mr Mir’s alleged statement. He said: “After carefully examining the document we can confirm that it was not a police document,”
This statement punctures the story of British Journalist, whose BBC feature has placed the MQM on the firing line.
Owen claims in a report posted on the website of the BBC News that an unnamed Pakistani authoritative source had informed him that two leaders of the MQM had told British investigators that they had been receiving funds from the Indian government. He did not identify the authoritative source. There is no need for a thinking cap to identify the source. That is beside the point.
The limited point in this context is that he has demolished his own story and his credibility.
Also of the BBC, whose USP has been credibility. It is this BBC credibility that had made one miss the faultline in Owen’s story which appeared in the very opening sentence itself.
“Officials in Pakistan’s MQM party have told U.K. authorities they received Indian government funds, the BBC learnt from an authoritative Pakistani source,” Owens began his story.
What a give-away about the source. Probably he was not too sure of the credibility of the story given to him and hence he wanted to play a little safe.
Hisorically, Pakistan is known to indulge in kite flying when it comes to “evidence” against India whether it is Balochistan insurgency or Talibanised Waziristan belt. For a while Pakistani officials and political leadership has been declaring that United States would be presented with evidence against India.
While in Washington for an official dialogue, Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhary had said that Pakistan had evidence of India’s involvement in such activities, and told reporters that he had delivered the evidence to the US.
But we have on the authority of the State Department that Chaudhry did no such ‘presentation’.
“I am not aware of any such delivery,” said US State Department spokesman John Kirby when asked at a news briefing if Pakistan had shared those proofs with the United States.
“So far Pakistan has not shared with the United States any evidence of India’s involvement in terrorist activities inside its territory, he added, a report in Dawn from its Washington Correspondent said on July 2, 2015.
What a let down my countrymen, some patriotic Pakistani may like to say since none other than the defacto Foreign Minister had declared publicly that Islamabad would present RAW hand in Balochistan and Taliban to the Americans. And the Army chief has also been declaring his intentions of teaching a lesson to Indian agencies.
The fact of the matter is Pakistan’s permanent establishment revives the India (RAW) bogey every time it is under pressure at home. There is no doubt that the Army is under pressure since the Pakistan Taliban massacred innocent school children in Peshawar last December.
Unlike in the past, this time the Army chief and his deputies have preferred to join the orchestrated campaign of political parties which shows that there is a convergence between the political and military establishments.
The GHQ needs a new talking point after the failure of its ops to suppress the Pakistan Taliban and its inability to co-opt Afghanistan in its ops.
On its part, the ruling party PML- N badly needs to divert attention of the public reeling under power cuts that often last 23 hours even in Punjab. And also from rising prices in the month of Ramazan.
For long ISI has been seen as a holy cow. Not any longer. The killing of journalist Syed Shahzad in 2011 and the 2014 attack on Geo TV anchor Hamid Mir have resulted in a steady decline of the ISI’s stature within Pakistan. And it has become a target of civilian criticism but this has not stopped the ISI from meddling in domestic politics.
The extent to which ISI meddles in domestic politics is clear from the report submitted to the Supreme Court that ISI tapped 7000 phones in May, 2015. The report presented on June 16, 2015 by Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Sajid Ilyas Bhatti during the hearing of an old case regarding the power of spy agencies to tap telephones revealed that ISI had tapped tapped 6,523 phone numbers in Feb, 6,819 in March, 6,742 in April and 6,856 in May.
The report did not reveal whose numbers were tapped. Is there any need for such a revelation from ISI which is known as State within a State.
-POREG Desk
