As a confession it may bring no credit to the Nawaz Sharif government or the GHQ Shura that has been calling the shots on India policy but the admission by Sartaj Aziz that there is ‘insufficient’ evidence against Indian spy Jadhav in Pakistan’s custody for nine months is a welcome development.
The de facto foreign minister of Pakistan, Sartaj Aziz spoke the home truth at last on the Kulbhushan Jadhav issue. Evidence to nail Jadhav is insufficient, he told Pakistan Parliament’s Upper House, the Senate on Wednesday.
And added that he could not set any time frame to gather requisite evidence. It is because he is not sure when the intelligence agencies would complete the task. “I don’t know how long they would take to give additional information,” said Aziz frankly.
For this admission, he is bound to face flak from his own foreign office and the military establishment who had gone to the town a while ago that a dossier on Jadhav was in the works to present to the UN while some media outlets had said the dossier was indeed handed over to Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.
Within minute, the foreign office expectedly swung into damage control.
Sartaj Aziz is an old war horse when it comes to Pak- India diplomacy; he is known to measure each word. In that sense he is neither a Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri nor a Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
Moreover he is a staunch Nawaz loyalist, and he always walks the extra mile to protect the interest of his PML-N master. So much so his word deserves to be taken seriously and without a pinch of salt.
Aziz’s admission that the government could not finalise a dossier on “captured Indian spy” Kulbhushan Jadhav because of “inadequate evidence provided so far” came in the course of his interaction with the members of the Senate Committee of the Whole House.
Significantly, the committee has been set up to prepare policy guidelines on relations, mainly between Pakistan and India in view of the emerging regional situation.
Aziz kicked in Pakistan’s self-goal while responding to Senator Mushahid Hussain’s criticism over delay in finalisation of the planned dossier for mobilising international opinion on “Indian involvement in subversive activities” in Pakistan. The delay, Hussain said, was causing embarrassment for the country.
Jadhav’s capture from Balochistan was announced nine months ago in March and was flaunted by Pakistan’s permanent establishment, the military, as a “proof of Indian interference and state sponsored terrorism”.
Aziz said that the material provided to the Foreign Office on Jadhav’s activities was mere statements.
“It is not that material has been provided and it’s lacking in English and we are overcoming it. The [provided] material, in our view, was insufficient,” he stated, according to Baqir Sajjad Syed’s dispatch in Dawn
Intelligence agencies have been investigating Jadhav’s role in sponsoring terrorism in Pakistan and his local connections for close to nine months now. They (intelligence agencies) have been told to strengthen the evidence with a view to making it water tight and convincing for the international community, Pakistan’s top diplomat stated.
And in a disarming remark said he was not sure when the task would be completed. “I don’t know how long they (intelligence agencies) would take to give additional information,” Aziz told the Senate body.
Expectedly the Pakistan Foreign Office quickly jumped into a damage limitation mode by denying that the Adviser had decried the information furnished by quarters concerned as not enough.
“The statement attributed to the Adviser (Aziz) is absolutely incorrect. The Adviser had said that the investigations regarding the network of Kulbhushan Jadhav are ongoing and the dossier shall be completed upon conclusion of the investigation,” a statement from the Foreign Ministry’s spokesman office said.
Aziz-speak in the Senate Committee is also significant for another reason, namely his calibrated effort to deny full credit for success in the anti – terrorism fight to the GHQ. This is a snub to the military in a manner of speaking since the public relations wing of the Army has been working overtime to project Gen Raheel Sharif as the champion of the campaign against terrorists with his Operation Zarb-e-Azb
Aziz said it was wrong to give the entire credit to the military in fighting terrorism and defended Sharif government’s record in this regard. “It is wrong to state that only the armed forces had a role in the Operation Zarb-e-Azb and the government and political parties had not”.
He recalled that the political consensus developed before the launch of National Action Plan on counterterrorism was crucial and a major step. “This government has given a better performance in two-and-a-half years compared to the preceding 10 years. We (government) are fully alive and actively facilitating the armed forces in the ongoing operation against the militants.
“The infrastructure of non-state actors has almost been destroyed in North Waziristan and unregistered and irregular seminaries are being closed. The government does not discriminate between the non-state actors when it comes to formulate policy.”
Aziz went on to say the government was very clear in terms of policy, but achieving the desired results needed time.
The opposition was not convinced and lashed out at the government’s track record of fighting terrorism. The Senators strongly advocated zero tolerance for the banned outfits and their facilitators. The recent by-election in Jhang also echoed during the meeting, which was seen as a failure of the much-talked about NAP. The son of the founder of a banned outfit and its active member got elected an MPA
Senator Farhatullah Babar of the PPP said: “Non implementation of the National Action Plan is the grotesque failure of the government as the fourth schedulers among the non-state actors even take part in elections without being noticed.”
He recalled that the policy guidelines had categorically stated “no room for non-state actors” and “the soil of Pakistan not to be allowed for use by them”. But the violent non-state actors have acquired some mythical character as no one seems able to see them whenever they rear their heads and strike mysteriously, particularly at a time of peace overtures between India and Pakistan, Babar told the PM’s Advisor bluntly.
Babar said that soon after former Indian PM Vajpayee’s 1998 visit to Lahore, the non-state actors climbed Kargil heights without being noticed by anyone. Within four days of President Asif Zardari’s offer of talks on no-first use of nuclear weapons, the militants struck Mumbai on November 26 again without being noticed, he said.
Within a week of Modi’s visit to Raiwind in December last year, he recalled, they struck at the Pathankot airport. “And only recently, the Jaish-e-Muhammad secured the Chinese support against the United Nations sanctions without being noticed by the Foreign Office or any agency,” he said.
Senator Babar emphasised the state has to do something against these mythical elements who seem to adorn some ‘sulemani cap’ that makes them invisible to everyone. He pointed out that the policy guidelines also categorically stated ‘no room for non-state actors’ and ‘the soil of Pakistan not to be allowed by them’.
“This also meant that if there were allegations of our soil having been used for this purpose, then it must be investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice,” he said. However neither the Mumbai attackers nor those who attacked the Pathankot air base had been chased to the logical conclusion.
The PPP leader said that the Senate had also recommended the setting up of a task force for formulating a doable and sustainable Pakistan’s policy on India and Kashmir but the government had only set up a committee under the foreign secretary and including representatives of some other ministries and rejected a committee that also included members of parliament.
“How a committee of bureaucrats be expected to recommend new options other than the standard ones they have been flaunting for decades,” Senator Babar asked and noted that the Senate guidelines included ‘taking of politically difficult decisions to build mutual trust and confidence leading towards an honourable and amicable settlement of Kashmir issue’.
Babar said, “There is a need for a long term sustainable Kashmir policy which is honourable and doable and at the same time provided room for improving relations in other areas in a sustained manner.”
Another Senator Jahanzeb Jamaldini of BNP-Mengal said he was pained to see soft corner for terrorists and extremists. Sherry Rehman, a former envoy to the United, and a PPP senior also regretted that people included in the fourth schedule were contesting elections, while the institutions that were to enforce the restrictions on them seemed to suffering from paralysis.
Senator Sherry Rehman of PPP said the government was not clear about the constitution of the National Security Committee of parliament. She also noted the issue of Kulbhushan Yadav had not been taken up properly at the international fora.
She said that members of the banned outfits were coming to parliament after contesting the election and the organisations responsible for regulating them were doing nothing.
Fielding a wide range of questions, Aziz said measures were being taken for securing the Pak-Afghan border and to control the smuggling. He held out an assurance that parliament and the parliamentary committees would be consulted and apprised on the policies being formulated to this effect.
Aziz concluded saying Pakistan wanted peaceful co-existence in the region and there was no point to be disappointed: he added the foreign ministry was making its best efforts for better relations with the world community.
—– by m rama rao