Opinion Pakistan’s fresh face

The last time Pakistan had such a youthful foreign minister was when Field Marshal Ayub Khan gave the flamboyant Zulfikar Ali Bhutto the job in 1962. Bhutto was 34 years old then,and so is Hina now. The visit to India this week is the first big test for Hina.

Hailing from a feudal family with roots in Khar Garbi village in Muzaffargarh district of Punjab,Hina graduated from the prestigious Lahore University of Management Sciences and got a management degree from University of Massachusetts in the United States.

She owns the fashionable Polo Lounge hotel that caters to the upper crust frequenting the polo grounds in Lahore. Her father,Ghulam Rabbani Khar,apparently encouraged her to take up a political career.

Like her father,her uncle Ghulam Mustafa Khar was a high-flyer in the Punjab’s political arena. Mustafa Khar served as the chief minister of Punjab and was the colourful protagonist of the book,My Feudal Lord,authored by one of his wives,Tehmina Durrani.

With a pocket borough in hand,Hina had no problem being elected consecutively to the National Assembly on different party tickets — the first time on the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) platform in 2002,and on a Pakistan Peoples Party ticket in 2008.

Her performance in the ministry of economic affairs and statistics — she was the first Pakistan woman to present the annual budget — was impressive enough to encourage Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari to make her the junior minister in the high profile ministry of foreign affairs. When the top slot fell vacant with the resignation of Shah Mehmood Qureshi earlier this year,Hina moved up.

Afghanistan shuffle

If Pakistan’s foreign office has a new face,the large US diplomatic and military establishments in Afghanistan have had a makeover too.

The change of guard comes as the United States begins to draw down its troops and hand over security responsibilities to the Afghan forces.

Veteran diplomat Ryan Crocker has replaced Karl Eikenberry as the US ambassador to Afghanistan. Eikenberry,from the US army,served two military terms in Kabul during the last decade and returned as the American ambassdor in April 2009. He found himself at the centre of many political battles with the US army commander in Afghanistan,General Stanley McChrystal and President Hamid Karzai.

Eikenberry was deeply sceptical of McChrystal’s counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan and his call for a massive troop surge. He was deeply critical of Hamid Karzai’s style of governance,which he thought undermines whatever approach the United States might take in Afghanistan.

Crocker has had many tough ambassadorial assignments before — in Kuwait,Lebanon and Syria. He also reopened the US embassy in Kabul at the end of 2001 when the Taliban was ousted from power.

His experience as the US envoy to Pakistan (2004-07) and Iraq (2007-09) might stand him in good stead as he comes out of retirement to move to Kabul.

At his recent confirmation hearings in Washington,Crocker acknowledged the many obstacles like corruption that stand between the United States and its political objectives in Afghanistan. “If Iraq was hard — and it was hard — Afghanistan in many respects is harder,” he said. Crocker is expected to get along well with the new commander of US and international forces in Iraq,General John Allen,who has taken charge as the new commander of US and international forces in Afghanistan.

Allen’s predecessor,General David Petraeus,has gone to Washington to head the Central Intelligence Agency. Petraeus has replaced Leon Panetta,who has now become the US defence secretary.

Base reality

As he took charge of the US embassy in Kabul on Monday,Crocker declared that Washington “has no interest in permanent bases in Afghanistan.”

There has been some concern in Pakistan,Iran,China and Russia that despite withdrawing from Afghanistan,the Obama administration must retain some retain some powerful residual presence.

Washington and Kabul are negotiating a long-term strategic partnership agreement that is expected to specify the nature of the US military presence in Afghanistan after 2014,when American troops will end their combat role there.

The key word in Crocker’s statement may not be “bases”,but “permanent”. “We will stay as long as we need to and not one day more,” Crocker said. Insisting that Washington had no hidden agenda in Afghanistan,Crocker said the US has “no interest in using Afghanistan as a platform to project influence into neighbouring countries,” he said. “Our sole interest is in Afghanistan’s security and sustainable stability and ensuring it will never again become a haven for international terrorism.”

Crocker’s wordplay,however,leaves open-ended the prospect of US bases in Afghanistan targeting the terror groups in Pakistan that want to destabilise the government in Kabul.

The writer is a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research,Delhi