Kasuri's
visit was only about cuff links and fluff
Shaheen
Sehbai
MR.
KHURSHID Mahmud Kasuri apparently takes his job very seriously
and probably thinks he will be the next Z.A. Bhutto of Pakistan,
having reached the Foreign Ministry riding on some General’s
shoulder. He likes his tie matching his mood, his shoes properly
shining, his suit demonstrably attractive and, if he could do
it, he would leave the price tag on each of these items for every
one to see.
But
his sparkling cuff links could not make up for the missing links
of authority, legitimacy and credibility.
For
almost two weeks the suave Foreign Minister went up and down,
left and right, meeting anyone and everyone in these United States,
will little else to do than making repetitive speeches to people
who already knew what he can, and cannot say, or where on the
shelf should they keep his uttered words. His hosts made it a
point that the publicity whims of the visiting dignitary were
met to the max, no matter if he did not hear one favorable word
about policy from anyone responsible.
So
Mr. Kasuri was allowed the privilege of meeting the President,
his VP, his National Security Adviser, his Attorney General, Defense
Secretary, Secretary of State, you name it. He was seen by all
important players at Capitol Hill, in both parties. This busy
schedule was partly because of the six PR companies which Pakistan
and the Musharraf Government have hired in US and Mr. Kasuri had
sent them a warning well before he landed in Washington: "Show
me the meat that you buy from our dollars, or else."
But
ultimately nothing came out of the visit except the huffing and
puffing. In concrete terms Mr. Ashcroft, who was first reluctant
to see him, told him clearly Pakistan was going to stay on the
Registration List. Mr. Colin Powell politely told him he would
see what could be done not to embarrass the Government in Islamabad,
but that means nothing. No body bought his argument that deportation
of Pakistanis will strengthen the Mullas and hamper Pakistan's
cooperation in the US war on terror. Conversely Mr. Powell repeated
the mantra of the two US Ambassadors in South Asia on infiltration
of terrorists into Kashmir from Pakistan. Well known senior officials
anonymously repeated that pregnant message to the media well in
time for Mr. Kasuri to listen.
But
that was not enough. Washington was not happy with the way Pakistan
and its government was raising the Registration issue to undiplomatic
noisy levels which could give other countries similar ideas. So
it was decided somewhere to convey some public messages as well,
showing this anger.
Pakistan
had been saying that its nationals were not involved in terrorism
or crimes so they should be excluded from the Registration process.
The US arrested over 30 Pakistanis while Mr. Kasuri was in town
on criminal charges ranging from credit card fraud to other crimes.
Among them were some known Washington DC/ Virginia public figures.
A senior Pakistani journalist Ejaz Haider, on invitation of a
respected think tank, was picked up from outside his office, because
he had not reported for registration. The issue of Kashmiri infiltration
was raised again. The religious outfit Lashkar Jhangvi was put
on the Terrorist Organizations List. Tommy Franks was dispatched
to Islamabad to talk frankly on Iraq. He was content with talking
to the military president and did not bother to see the civilians.
The Prime Minister was deliberately away on a useless non-mission
to the Gulf countries.
All
these things happened when Mr. Kasuri was being offered the best
ever treatment meted out to any South Asian Foreign Minister in
the United States. Praise was being showered on Pakistan’s
support for war against terror and words were in such abundance
Mr. Kasuri decided to extend his visit, making it probably the
longest ever official visit by any Foreign Minister of Pakistan
to the United States. This may be some kind of a record, though
it has not been checked yet.
So
what is Mr. Kasuri going to take back and tell his people back
home, other than: “I met everybody who is any body in America
but nobody told me what I wanted to hear. You tell me should I
call my visit a success or a failure.”
The
Foreign Minister made some basic mistakes in conceptualizing the
framework of the visit, setting its goals and projecting its image,
to begin with. He was supposed to arrive here on or around January
28 but landed here 10 days ahead of schedule as his Prime Minister
(not experienced diplomatically as one should be) linked his early
departure to the Registration issue. Actually the issue was neither
on the US agenda nor Kasuri's until he could meet Mr. Powell.
Mr. Kasuri used the early arrival to be present in the UN Security
Council. Later he went around shopping for audiences to pass his
time until Secretary Powell could receive him in Washington DC.
When
he arrived in DC, ahead of his meetings, his lobbyists, who had
their jobs and countless dollars at stake, divided VIP meetings
among themselves and worked on taking Mr. Kasuri to meet Don Rumsfeld,
Vice President Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, John Ashcroft and several
House and Senate leaders. Mr. Bush dropped in when he was with
Ms. Rice. The visit was turned into an extended photo-op gala
and exchange of pleasantries. In the meantime the US side was
sizing up the intellect and capacity of the man wearing splashy
suits, never less than three pieces, sparkling cuff links and
golden tie pins. For his ego it was a trip to the moon.
No
one told him that hyping up the Registration issue was a fatal
diplomatic mistake as there was no way Ashcroft could remove Pakistan
from the list the way Armenia was exempted in the beginning. Pakistan
is genuinely believed in Washington to be the launching pad for
terrorists and even US Ambassadors have started to say this publicly.
So how could Washington exempt Pakistanis from this screening
process.
It
was not visualized that such a generous access to US policy makers
could be used by an “elected representative” to push
the democratic agenda in Pakistan, to lobby these high and mighty
men to consider politicians equal to, if not better than, Generals,
to trust the will of the moderate and liberal masses of Pakistan
and not to look through the prism of an extremist religious country,
to drum up support for the long neglected and decaying institutions
of Pakistan and not for individuals in uniform who may be there
today, and may not be there tomorrow, like General Zia ul Haq.
Mr.
Kasuri would not have attempted to discuss these issues with any
of the leading lights of the US. Had he done so, he may have raised
his own profile and that of the politicians and may have started
a thought process in Washington, which, given time and input,
could have made him a candidate for the next powerful Prime Minister
or President of Pakistan, his power flowing from the ballot box
and not the barrel of the gun. He missed the bus while busy shining
his shoes.
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