Inquiry and Analysis Series Report No. 1339
After Trump’s Afghanistan Speech, Pakistani Leaders Declare: ‘Pakistan Will Become The Graveyard Of U.S. Soldiers’; ‘U.S. Must Not Think Of The Nuclear Pakistan As Its Colony’
By: Tufail Ahmad*
Introduction
This paper reviews Pakistani leaders’ reactions to the U.S. President Donald Trump’s Afghanistan policy speech. On August 21, 2017, Trump delivered a speech outlining the new U.S. strategy on Afghanistan and South Asia. He noted that “hard-won gains” in Iraq “slipped back into the hands of terrorist enemies” in 2011 because “America hastily and mistakenly withdrew [its troops from Iraq].” Reversing former president Barack Obama’s strategy, which centered on exit dates, Trump outlined “a shift from a time-based approach to one based on conditions” for U.S. troops to exit war zones because it was “counterproductive… to announce in advance the dates we intend to begin, or end, military options.”
Trump also criticized Pakistan’s continuing role in supporting jihadi groups in Afghanistan. He stated: “Today, 20 U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations are active in Afghanistan and Pakistan – the highest concentration in any region anywhere in the world. For its part, Pakistan often gives safe haven to agents of chaos, violence, and terror. The threat is worse because Pakistan and India are two nuclear-armed states whose tense relations threaten to spiral into conflict.”
The U.S. president said: “America will continue its support for the Afghan government and the Afghan military as they confront the Taliban.” He added: “The next pillar of our new strategy is to change the approach and how to deal with Pakistan. We can no longer be silent about Pakistan’s safe havens for terrorist organizations, the Taliban, and other groups that pose a threat to the region and beyond. Pakistan has much to gain from partnering with our effort in Afghanistan. It has much to lose by continuing to harbor criminals and terrorists.”
President Trump reminded the Americans and the world that Pakistan aids terrorists who kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, stating: “Pakistan has also sheltered the same organizations that try every single day to kill our people. We have been paying Pakistan billions and billions of dollars at the same time they are housing the very terrorists that we are fighting. But that will have to change, and that will change immediately. No partnership can survive a country’s harboring of militants and terrorists who target U.S. service members and officials.”
Pakistan’s political and religious leaders, who are used to seeing transitions of leaders in the White House and sometimes just wait for an administration to give way to another, gave strong reactions to the Trump speech. It should be noted that acts of terrorism in Pakistan and India’s Jammu and Kashmir state are rooted in Pakistan, which is seen to be supporting jihadi organizations active in both the countries. This review of Pakistani religious and political leaders’ reactions is limited to their comments appearing in the Urdu media in Pakistan.
Leaders of Difa-e-Pakistan Council address the press in Islamabad (image: Roznama Ummat).
Inquiry and Analysis Series Report No. 1336
By: Tufail Ahmad*
The Targeting Of America, Israel, And India In Pakistan’s Urdu Press After U.S. Designates Kashmiri Jihadi Group Hizbul Mujahideen A Foreign Terrorist Organization
Kashmiris protest against the U.S. designation of Hizbul Mujahideen as an FTO (image: Dawn.com).
Introduction
On August 16, 2017, the U.S. designated the Pakistan-based Kashmiri jihadi group Hizbul Mujahideen a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). The U.S. State Department said in a statement: “Today’s action notifies the U.S. public and the international community that HM [Hizbul Mujahideen] is a terrorist organization. Terrorism designations expose and isolate organizations and individuals, and deny them access to the U.S. financial system.”
Hizbul Mujahideen is one of around two dozen jihadi organizations that were formed in Pakistan over the past three decades with the singular purpose of waging jihad against India in Jammu and Kashmir. Their operational bases were established in the Pakistan-controlled part of Jammu and Kashmir. These groups were united under the banner of the Muttahida Jihad Council, which is led by Syed Salahuddin. While most outfits are no longer functional, Hizbul Mujahideen, established in 1989, continues to wage jihad in Indian Kashmir with the support of Pakistan. It is led by Yusuf Shah aka Syed Salahuddin, who is a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under U.S. State Department Executive Order 13224.
Jammu and Kashmir is divided by a Line of Control (LoC) between India and Pakistan. After the Pakistani military’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), aided by the CIA and Saudi Arabia, brought the Afghan jihad of the 1980s to an end in 1989, the ISI smelled victory against the USSR in Afghanistan. The ISI thought it could achieve a similar feat against India in Kashmir. After the Afghan jihad ended, most anti-India jihadi organizations were formed by the ISI. Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen are the two lead organizations fighting India in Kashmir currently.
This paper reviews the reactions of Kashmiri and Pakistani leaders – as appearing in the Urdu-language and other newspapers published from Pakistan and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir – to the U.S.’s designation of Hizbul Mujahideen as an FTO.
Inquiry and Analysis Series Report No. 1337
By: Tufail Ahmad*
Discussing The Islamist Identity Of Pakistan
Roznama Ummat cover page reads: “Hanging of Mumtaz Qadri sank Nawaz Sharif.”
Introduction
Pakistan marks its Independence Day on August 14. Each year, it is also a day to discuss Pakistan’s identity and its future. The liberal argument is that Pakistan was founded as a state for Indian Muslims, while those in the orthodox and Islamist camp argue that it is a state created exclusively in the name of Islam, the first since Prophet Muhammad established an Islamic state in Medina. These ideological camps view Pakistan divergently, with the difference being that those in the orthodox and Islamist camp are, unlike their liberal critics, consequential.
On July 28, the Supreme Court of Pakistan disqualified Nawaz Sharif as a member of the Pakistani parliament for not disclosing earnings, thereby ousting him as the country’s prime minister. The disqualification came under, among others, a law that Sharif was not sadiq and ameen (“honest” and “trustworthy”) as per Article 62 of the Pakistani constitution. These Islamic clauses requiring a lawmaker to be sadiq and ameen were introduced by Pakistan’s Islamist military ruler General Ziaul Haq. Later, Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), a pro-Islamist party, had opposed the removal of these clauses from the constitution.
When Sharif was removed from power, the Urdu-language Islamist daily Roznama Ummat carried a photograph of Malik Mumtaz Qadri on its front page, conveying a message that Sharif’s ouster was due to divine intervention from Allah. Mumtaz Qadri, an elite security commando, had assassinated Salman Taseer, the liberal governor of Punjab province, having deemed him to have committed blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad by advocating reforms in Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. Qadri was hanged during Sharif’s tenure as prime minister. Roznama Ummat’s headline read: “The hanging of Mumtaz Qadri sank Nawaz Sharif.” The news story was accompanied by a photograph of Qadri with the following words: “This is why the killing of the lovers [of Prophet Muhammad] was prohibited.”
Such attempts, on a daily basis, to interpret current events in terms of Islam are central to Pakistan’s identity and the ensuing Islamism, the non-weaponized version of jihadism, which blocks solutions to Pakistan’s numerous problems. In the days around Independence Day, Urdu newspapers published comments and articles to bring out the Islamist identity of Pakistan. This paper, therefore, revisits some of the Islamist ideas debated around Independence Day.
From its birth Pakistan has always been a double talker.
There can be NO solution for Afghanistan as long as the Pakistani Muslims are not reigned in.
Wherever there are Islamists there are major problems.