Saving face

The face-savers are in place, the fig-leaves strategically deployed. Now that the Defence Committee of the Cabinet DCC in Islamabad has...

The face-savers are in place, the fig-leaves strategically deployed. Now that the Defence Committee of the Cabinet DCC in Islamabad has jointly decided to appeal8217; to the mujahideen to disengage in Kargil, the crosshairs are no longer on Nawaz Sharif. The mujahideen, too, should have no problem, given the fact that their role in internationalising the Kashmir issue has been publicly lauded. And especially given the fact that most of the mujahideen8217; are regular Pakistani armymen who have simply stopped shaving, under orders from Islamabad. Despite that, two of the major groups have flatly refused to recall their men. And the Pakistani newspapers conveys the impression that the public is not too eager to see a few hundred irregular fighters return from the Line of Control. There does indeed appear to some truth in Nawaz Sharif8217;s claim that he has no control over the mujahideen.

But it is certainly not the whole truth. The Pakistani establishment has a stranglehold over the jihadis. On the front, Pakistaniarmy transport and mules make up their supply train. The majority were armed by Pakistan and all of them are dependent on the army for ammunition. Many of them have been recruited and trained in camps within Pakistan, and are no strangers to its army. Only a few groups are independent of Pakistani control in the limited sense that they are funded directly by the Arab world. All told, there is little reason for the Pakistani Defence Committee of the Cabinet to approach them as plaintiffs, on bended knee. It is the Committee that controls the mujahideen, not the other way round. This is a charade, played out to support the thesis that the army is at ease in its barracks while the mujahideen raise Cain on the LoC. Pakistan had to play out yet another charade and refuse to take back the bodies of its own soldiers, who were dressed like irregular fighters when they fell but had enough evidence on their persons to prove that they were enlisted men. A fall in recruitment levels in the Pakistani army after Kargilshould occasion no surprise. A commander who leaves his dead behind on the field is repugnant to his troops; one who disowns them, doubly so.

But it appears that Pakistan must play out the charade to the bitter end, trying to shore up an illusion that the whole world saw through weeks ago. Very well. For men of substance, face-savers and fig-leaves are essential wear. But let them at least drop the pretence within Pakistan. The impression that the Pakistani government has tried to foist upon the media is that the mujahideen arrived in Kashmir without touching Pakistani soil anywhere. Were this to be true, it should constitute a very great miracle, such as the teleportation device often seen in Star Trek. The government will have its work cut out if it is to move towards the Lahore profess again, as it piously declared in Washington. The national mood in Pakistan is distrustful and confrontationist at present. It will have to change substantially if a return to diplomacy is to be backed by thenational will. It is the government which will have to work this change. For starters, it should stop deluding its own people.