Munter urges long-term Pakistani
ties
WASHINGTON: Washington’s former envoy to Islamabad Cameron Munter
has called for a broader approach to fostering long-term US-Pakistan
relationship, with an emphasis on expanded people-to-people contacts.Speaking at a think-tank, he also underscored the need for the two countries to come out of the competing narratives that fault the other for failures in the relationship.
Munter discarded the view that US should adopt a policy of estrangement towards Pakistan. He said the recent revival of Pakistani supply routes for Nato and US supplies offers opportunities to advance the key US-Pakistan relationship.
On the one hand, the opportunity means Pakistan and US can cooperate toward peace and security goals in Afghanistan up to 2014, when the US-led international forces will end combat mission in that country.
While the opportunity in the post-2014 scenario will be different in the sense that the United States will view the region in a different way.
Munter was not sure if Pakistan and the US had reached a “meeting of the minds” on Afghanistan for 2014 goals and expected Afghan issue to get more attention in US policy until that deadline of withdrawal of combat troops.
But, beyond 2014, Munter indicated in his remarks that the United States would see Pakistan independent of Afghanistan and attach more importance to its relationship with Pakistan.
Over the years, he noted that the US policy makers and diplomats have been trying to balance relations with Pakistan between immediate US goals in Afghanistan and the demands of long-term ties with Islamabad.
“When you look at Pakistan through the telescope of Afghanistan you see Haqqani network (only),” he said.
Munter argued that “deeper” and “more sophisticated” ties with Pakistan would help overcome entrenched assumptions about each other’s motives.
“We will be able to conceive of our American policy towards Pakistan, I hope, in a way that is broader, has more of a long-term focus, and isn’t trapped by these narratives,” he said at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“We don’t change those narratives, but the question is, can we go around them?” Munter pondered.
The former envoy proposed a much greater US emphasis on forging people-to-people contacts, business and educational ties, and public diplomacy, so that “the face of America is your neighbor, an engineer who works on a Punjab ditch” and not “the face of Raymond Davis,” the former CIA contractor, who killed two Pakistanis in Lahore in January 2011, and whose actions undermined the ties.
He said that Pakistanis blaming the United States for their troubles has a lot to do with their daily frustrations and lack of solution to their problems.
Still, he noted that Pakistanis are not the only people who hold America responsible for their problems.
Contradicting common perceptions, Munter saw great scope for cooperation between the Pakistanis and Americans.
“I don’t think that this is a well thought-out fundamental anti-Americanism in Pakistan, 10 per cent people approve of us and 95 per cent people care deeply what we think. So that is I think the model that gives us the chance to have a positive effect on the country.
“This country has, I believe, more than any other country I have served in 30 years of foreign service, latent pro-Americanism. I have never been in a country, where I have felt that strongly.
In his remarks, Munter felt that instead of focusing too much on “bilateralness” the two countries should broaden it to include other countries that may help Pakistan overcome its problems.
‘Halt Nato supplies’ mantra revived
ISLAMABAD: Almost all the mainstream political parties decided to stay away from a multi-party conference called by Hafiz Mohammad Saeed’s controversial Jamaatud Dawa, leaving the forum for the representatives of various Islamic parties and a few other right-wing groups to evolve a “consensus” on what the strategy of Pakistan and the rest of the Muslim world should be to deal with the United States on a despicable video made by an American-based Coptic Christian on the Holy Prophet (PBUH).
Invitation was extended to every top politician and political party, from Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf to PML-N’s Mian Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan and leaders of the Awami National Party. But when the meeting started at a hotel in the federal capital, it became quite evident that none of the mainstream parties and leaders wanted to be represented at a show where an extreme position was expected to be taken on the controversial video and other related issues.
And this is exactly what happened at the forum. Hard-hitting speeches to denounce the United States and the West continued to echo throughout the meeting, with every prominent Islamic leader trying to beat the others in his call for taking extreme action against the US. If some called for expelling the American ambassador from the country, a few others threatened to block the Nato supplies for Afghanistan if, according to them, the US president decided against banning the video and punishing its producer.
Hafiz Saeed, whose organisation is on the list of banned groups in the US and remains on the watch-list of Pakistan government, was the most active of all. Primarily it was his show, and often during the course of the speeches he was seen moving from leader of one Islamic group to the other, apparently to make sure that a consensus was evolved on hard-hitting resolutions, not only against the United States but also to criticise leaders of many other Muslim countries for their “inaction” on the issue.
Other prominent leaders presented at the conference included JUI’s Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Jamaat-i-Islami’s Syed Munawar Hasan, leader of his own faction of JUI Maulana Samiul Haq, Maulana Mohammad Ahmed Ludhianvi, former ISI chief General Hamid Gul, and many others.
In a declaration adopted at the end of what was called ‘Tahaffuze Hurmate Rasool conference’, prominent Muslim states like Saudi Arabia, Turkey Egypt and others were asked to play their effective role in framing a law against blasphemy of all the holy Prophets including Muhammad (PBUH).
“This national consultative conference of leading religious political leaders demands of the Muslim countries’ rulers to establish a Muslim United Nations, and a separate unified defence and economic system if the UN and Security Council refrain from framing anti-blasphemy law,” the declaration said.
Frustrated over the lack of extreme action by the Muslim countries, some of the speakers called upon the Muslim countries to pull out of the so-called global war against terror and use the ‘oil weapon’ to get their demands met. They said American President Barrack Obama in his speech at UN General Assembly by refusing to ban the blasphemous film had laid the foundation for a ‘war of civilisations’.
At the same time some of the Islamic leaders threatened that if the Muslim rulers failed to heed their calls, the ‘Muhibbane Rasool’ (lovers of Holy Prophet) would come out on the street and would not return to their homes until these countries were swept by Islamic revolution.
A demand to convene a conference of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation was also made to enable member countries to sit together and plan a unified strategy to counter blasphemous actions of the Western world. They said the OIC should demand the handing over of the blasphemer film-maker to them for trial and meting out punishment. The speakers described restoration of Nato supplies without getting the drone attacks halted as a collective suicide.
Violence claims 19 lives in Karachi
KARACHI: Different incidents of violence during the past 24 hours
claimed 19 lives in Karachi whereas security personnel arrested 40 suspects
during a targeted operation in the city’s Gulbahar and Surjani town areas,
DawnNews reported on Thursday.In the latest incident of firing one person was killed in Orangi Town number 11-1/2 area near Khalil market in Karachi
Two persons were killed in a targeted attack in Karachi’s Buffer Zone and Aisha Manzil areas.
Incidents of firing claimed a life each in the city’s Malir, Baldia Town,Buffer Zone, Landhi, Dalmia, Korangi Industrial Area, and Garden area, where as two people died of gunshot wounds in Lee market area of the city.
A bullet-ridden body was found in Karachi’s Defense area whereas a trussed up body was found in Lyari area of the city.
Another two people died of gunshot wounds in Surjani Town area whereas another incident of firing claimed one life and wounded two others in New Karachi’s sector 11-E area near ‘Budh bazaar’ (Wednesday market).
Unknown gunmen opened indiscriminate firing at a hotel in Karachi’s Gulbahar area in Golimar, killing two persons and injuring two others.
Fear and panic gripped the area as shops and markets shut down in the vicinity.
Furthermore, police and rangers conducted a search operation in Gulbahar and Surjani Town areas, arresting 40 suspects.
Security personnel conducted a house to house search as a heavy contingent of police cordoned off the areas, sealing all entry and exit points, during the targeted operation.
No arms were recovered from the arrested suspects who were later shifted to an undisclosed location for questioning.
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