The Abbottabad episode of May 2, 2011, provides the opportunity to restore our national sovereignty and establish a new level of relationship with our immediate neighbours and countries beyond. It is a 'blessing in disguise to restore national honour and dignity. In fact, the 2/5 episode was a hoax and a big lie, the same as the 9/11 episode was a big lie for an excuse to launch a crusade against the Muslim world. Osamas look-alike prisoner from Bagram was picked up and brought to Abbottabad and killed in cold blood in front of his family members, who were living there. In fact, OBL had been killed in Afghanistan some time back and his body may still be lying in a mortuary in Afghanistan. They showed a bullet-ridden picture of Osama, which was two years old, and another photo that had no resemblance with him. His body was dumped into the sea to hide the crime committed in such a clumsy manner. The 2/5 episode was the finale of the 9/11 lies and was meant to achieve three main objectives: i With the mission accomplished, Obama was to gain political advantage in the forthcoming elections; i To find an excuse for the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. i To defame the Pakistan government, its armed forces and the ISI. On all the three counts, the US President has gained and Pakistan now is reeling under pressure, blaming its own armed forces and the ISI for the failure to safeguard territorial sovereignty, not knowing that we ourselves have pillaged the countrys sovereignty as a matter of political expediency. It is a sad story, but needs to be remembered. With the first military takeover of Ayub Khan in 1958, the Americans entered Pakistan and established their tentacles, and got so entrenched that they were able to boot out Ayub Khan, when they found him getting too big for his boots. Ironically, a political movement was launched to replace him with Yahya Khan, who became the catalyst for the dismemberment of Pakistan. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto took over as the first elected Prime Minister of Pakistan. He was a visionary leader and statesman, and did not fit into the 'American agenda of Great Game on the Global Chessboard. Thus, he became an unwanted leader, because he opened the way to China; he asked King Faisal to assume the leadership of the Muslim world and also laid the foundation for Pakistans nuclear programme. Therefore, he had to be punished and made a horrible example at the hands of a military dictator and a compliant judiciary. General Zia joined the American war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan from 1980-88. During this period, the CIA established a vast spy network in Pakistan, gaining access to our national institutions, the media and the civil society. After the Soviet retreat, the Americans turned their back on Afghanistan, denying power sharing to the Taliban and induced a civil war and got Zia removed from the scene because he was promoting the mujahideen cause. Benazir Bhutto took over in 1988, and soon came under pressure to clip the ISI wings because the Americans were awed by its professional prowess of defeating the Soviets in Afghanistan. The ISI was ruthlessly purged and Pakistan lost its eyes and ears into Afghanistan. In 1998, when Nawaz Sharif carried out atomic explosions in response to the Indians, he became an undesirable person. A political movement was started, supporting a military takeover in 1999. This was the time, the Americans were ready to launch a crusade against the Muslim world and played the 9/11 drama. Musharraf was pressurised to accept all the seven conditionalities imposed on him. He decided to join the war against our brotherly Muslim country and subsequently allowed the US marines and the CIA to monitor the Pak-Afghan borders. He also pulled out the ISI from these areas, thus bartering away the territorial sovereignty of Pakistan. By this time, RAW had already established its spy network in Afghanistan and joined hands with the CIA, infesting Pakistans entire border region with enemy agents and provocateurs, and by 2005, succeeded in turning the Afghan war on Pakistan. The recent Raymond Davis arrest has revealed that the CIA and RAW had penetrated deep into Pakistan and were responsible for the insurgency in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, and most of the terror attacks taking place in Pakistan. Therefore, our government rightly decided to reclaim the lost territory through the army and the ISI. They are in action, and have earned the ire of the US government, who are feeling so uncomfortable. It is interesting to note that the Americans did not blame their armed forces or the intelligence agencies for their failure to protect the country from the 9/11 catastrophe. Similarly, after the 2008 Mumbai attacks, the Indians did not blame their armed forces or the intelligence agencies. In fact, they pointed their finger directly at Pakistan, while the Americans put the entire blame on Osama and Al-Qaeda. No wonder, the CIA and RAW joined by sympathisers in Pakistan, now are putting the blame on our armed forces and the ISI, who have sacrificed so much in blood and sweat to safeguard national sovereignty. The USA made a monster of Osama and Al-Qaeda, who, after 1990, in fact had no role in Afghanistan or in Pakistan. The Al-Qaeda may have carried out a few suicide missions against American targets while sitting idle in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, but the Western media blamed them for most of the terror acts in Afghanistan and the region to create an enemy and to demonise the freedom movement of the Afghans. In fact, after 9/11, Osama had been hiding in caves and culverts, and had lost his clout. That is the reason that on his death, there has been no visible reaction; Osamas myth, so assiduously created, has exploded. The 2/5 episode is a blessing in disguise for our government, the armed force and the intelligence agencies, to act in concert and weed out enemy agents and provocateurs, ruthlessly. In fact, a kind of large-scale fumigation campaign would be necessary to eliminate the termites, eating into our very foundation. The process has already begun in Balochistan and must be expanded to cover entire Pakistan. Once our national sovereignty is restored, it will provide the foundation to establish a meaningful relationship with our neighbours and countries beyond. Certainly, a complete re-think is needed, to restructure our relationship with the US, in particular. The Elegy. The Pakistani nation has had such high expectations from the democratic government to deliver a sovereign Parliament and an independent judiciary - the guarantors of national sovereignty, but unfortunately both the institutions have been so methodically suppressed to render them ineffective. Our national sovereignty has been debased and humiliated by one and all who mattered in Pakistan, exactly in the same manner as Mukhtaran Mai, the helpless Pakistani woman, lost her honour in broad daylight. Dont cry Pakistan The writer is former Chief of Army Staff, Pakistan. Email: friendsfoundation@live.co.uk