And WikiLeaks go on

The WikiLeaks go on exposing prominent figures, with most politicians shown as trying to curry favour with the USA, and now it has shown President Asif Zardari in the same light, because a report mentioned him as telling a congressional delegation that 'we are here because of you and thanking the US government for the holding of elections, While PML(N) Quaid Mian Nawaz Sharif told the US Ambassador he was pro-American, the President told the delegation that Pakistan would not act without consulting the USA. This showed him spreading information about his governments subservience to the USA not at a governmental level, but to the US congress. The statement has not been denied by President Zardari, but he spoke on the phone with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and agreed with her that the WikiLeaks would not affect the Pak-US strategic partnership. Though he did not say so, it is to be presumed that the 'consultations, which actually sounds like 'permission to anyone who understands the nature of relations between countries like Pakistan and the USA, would continue. WikiLeaks have had many consequences, and one of them has been that Pakistani politicians have been shown as dependent on the USA, and seeking its favour. Pakistani politicians have apparently forgotten that the people of Pakistan strongly oppose the USAs policies for their anti-Muslim nature, particularly because of their support for the illegal occupiers of Kashmir and Palestine, and their direct occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq. Pakistanis are also upset at the neocolonial nature of American friendship, and the special status of American citizens in countries like Pakistan. With the war on terror the icing on the cake, the assumption by Pakistani politicians that the USA can help them should be abandoned, along with the unseemly struggle for its approval. It is true that in this, as well as in many other respects, WikiLeaks have not provided new information, but they have been instrumental in providing further evidence for what has already been known, or at least strongly suspected. At present, the government needs urgently to make some gesture asserting its independence. The best possible move is to end its participation in the war on terror, and to end the cooperation which the USA needs to continue its war. Apart from following policies which bring obloquy upon its friends, the USA has shown, through the WikiLeaks, that it cannot be trusted to keep diplomatic exchanges secret. And as President Zardaris example has shown, even congressional delegations, which are routinely accompanied by Embassy personnel, are not sacrosanct.

ePaper - Nawaiwaqt