Bibi goes nuclear, but why?
By Khalid Hasan
Contrary to the view initially taken by most people of Benazirs remarks, namely that she had said what she had said to appease the United States and endear herself even more to the Bush-Cheney tag team, her remarks were actually directed at Gen Pervez Musharraf and the junta
Benazir Bhutto was in town for three days, but had it been left to former Senator Akbar Khawaja, who followed her like a shadow and never let her out of his sight till such time as he would be told to go home and grab some shut-eye, we would never have known she was here. That being so, if there is a prize for keeping secrets, Akbar Khawaja should get it.
Whenever you asked him what Bibi was going to do that day, the answer was a sepulchral silence, followed by, I dont know. And when you prodded him, all he would come up with would be, I can only tell you what I know. But you say you know nothing, he would be reminded. I have to go now, he would say, and the line would go dead. You could keep calling thereafter as long as you liked, but all you would get would be a recording asking you to leave a message after pressing 1.
During Bibis press conference with Pakistani reporters two Indian correspondents came uninvited, but we let them be (something we wouldnt expect in a similar situation from their side) old Khawaja kept standing behind Bibi, more immobile than the Statue of Liberty in gale force winds.
For the hour or so that Bibi was there, I kept trying to catch Khawajas eye but failed. Only at the end did I realise that I was no match for the three or four TV cameras lining the wall facing Bibi and Khawaja.
Compared to the petrified former senator and his leader, who now floats high into the stratosphere, Asif Ali Zardari was pure bonhomie. Before Bibis arrival in the room he preceded her by half an hour he kept exchanging jokes with one and all. I actually did not realise A to Z had landed, till I heard him recite a snatch from that old Iqbal Bano song: Hum bhi tau paray hai rahoon mein. The line was flung at me since I had failed to see him enter for the simple reason that I have no eyes at the back of my head, and the ones in front need reading glasses.
Bibi spoke for twenty or so minutes in her delightful Urdu. When it came to question time, I asked her if she would kindly switch to English since one of the Indian correspondents, being from South India, did not even understand Hindi, what to say of Urdu. The good sport that she is, she obliged, which eased our lives since taking notes in English of her Gulabi Urdu laced with such words as kartat, boltat and samjhavat is an art I have not quite mastered.
But now the $64,000 question. Why did Bibi offer to provide the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) access to Dr AQ Khan? She first threw this bombshell in answer to a question at the Middle East Institute meeting on Tuesday, September 25. That evening, there was a flurry of calls between her and some who thought her offer was akin to a monkey wrench into the works. She decided to go along with them and agreed to a contradiction, which Farhatullah Babar issued from Islamabad. The draft of the clarification was prepared by Husain Haqqani from Boston (Sharif), I have it on good authority. The clarification declared that she hadnt said what she was supposed to have said. She was only answering a hypothetical question and it was unfortunate that Mohtarma Bhuttos words are being distorted to imply that she promised any unlawful handing over of anyone to foreigners.
The clarification must have made many in Islamabad heave a sigh of relief, but she did not let them take too many sighs, because the next day at her press conference with us, when asked again as to what exactly she had said about Dr Khan, she opened her heavy guns on the Khan affair, in the process taking the mickey out of the clarification issued earlier.
She said she saw no difference between the Pakistan government having Dr Khan respond to questions put by the IAEA and having the IAEA question Dr Khan face to face. The PPP, she thundered on, would not collude with or cover up proliferation. It would not let Pakistan be seen as a lawless and rogue nation, because it would be unfair to the people of Pakistan. She declared that she wanted to give a clear message to the international community that Pakistan does not protect those who proliferate.
Now here is the answer to the $64,000 question. Contrary to the view initially taken by most people of Benazirs remarks, namely that she had said what she had said to appease the United States and endear herself even more to the Bush-Cheney tag team, her remarks were actually directed at Gen Pervez Musharraf and the junta. The message was clear. If you dont play ball with me, I will blow the whistle on all of you when I get a chance. After all, doesnt everyone know in Pakistan that Dr Khan is the Jesus Christ in this affair, having agreed to take the sins of the real movers and shakers of this trade on his shoulders and to be crucified.
Touché. Miss Bhutto, touché.
Khalid Hasan is Daily Times US-based correspondent. His e-mail is
khasan2@cox.net
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan
why?
, drinking beer is much better.
