Hussain Haqqani has tried to remain in the headlines, mostly for all the wrong reasons in Pakistan. His latest confession abour helping US intelligence agencies by hoodwinking Pakistani intelligence agencies is not surprising; the only thing to worry is, why has he decided to expose his last master, Asif Ali Zardari?
One could go on to write a treatise on Hussain Haqqani’s journey from a flamboyant Jamat activist to his sojourn as US’ Ambassador in Pakistan’s embassy. It would however be appropriate to briefly cover his current honeymoon with India and US and dig out why he decided to spill the beans at this time.
Although it may appear to be boring and monotonous, it’s better to have a quick glance at Haqqani’s career, so that general public can have a better understanding of his leanings, motivations and moorings.
Hussain Haqqani has been a switch master; someone remarked that, he probably holds a world record for changing loyalties. His political journey began with JI when he was an active member of the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba. He was one of the first IJT leaders to introduce weapons and armed bodyguards at a university campus.
His first exposure to prominence in Pakistani corridors of power was as a PTV host covering the general elections of 1985 and praising the conduct of free and fair elections under a military regime as a proud member of so called Mullah-Military Alliance, which became the motivation for the title of his infamous book.
Switching sides, he became a media advisor to Punjab Chief Minister Nawaz Sharif when Benazir Bhutto was the Prime Minister of Pakistan (1988-1990). Haqqani’s prime job as the media advisor of Islami Jamhoori Itehad (IJI) was to develop and proliferate hateful and misleading propaganda against Benazir Bhutto.
The switching continued as he offered his services to the then caretaker Prime Minister Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi in 1990, and then switched back again to serve Nawaz Sharif when he became the Prime Minister. He was rewarded in 1992, and sent to Sri Lanka as Pakistan’s High Commissioner.
On the dismissal of Nawaz Sharif’s government on 18 April 1993 Hussain Haqqani took the first train under the auspices of Nawaz Sharif’s disposer and joined President Ghulam Ishaq Khan’s bandwagon. He was appointed as a special assistant to the caretaker Prime Minister Mir Balakh Sher Mazari with the rank of Minister of State.
We don’t know how he convinced Shaheed Benazir Bhutto about his loyalties, but the mere fact that BB Shaheed trusted him is a sorry state of our political naiveté and desire for loyalties and courting loyalists for political expedience. Last year when the PPP showed dismay with Haqqani’s conduct of he tweeted “Glad that I can now focus on research & writing without having to worry about ties to #PPP or its policies”.
After the dismissal of the Nawaz Sharif government by Pervez Musharraf, Haqqani tried to woo the dictator as well; however he became disenfranchised after being rebuffed by Musharraf’s team and as described by S M Hali, “spurned by the military junta, Haqqani found it opportune to spew venom against the military as well as his former party the rightist Islamists. Hussain Haqqani’s series of anti-Pakistan and anti-establishment articles, gleefully carried by the Indian Express and the western media, endeared him to Pakistan’s detractors.”
Haqqani has had an illustrious academic carrier as well, from Boston University to Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and lately with Hudson Institute in Washington; he has been regularly writing and lecturing in the US institutions and think tanks. The author of many books and a prolific orator, Haqqani has unfortunately spent all his energies and talents to appease his Indian and Western masters and sponsors.
Hussain Haqqani was labeled as the US Ambassador in Pakistani embassy in Washington due to his blatant support for CIA’s agenda. S M Hali described Haqqani’s unbecoming behavior and conduct in following words: “Hussain Haqqani’s shenanigans raised eyebrows in Islamabad, being contrary to Pakistan’s wellbeing e.g. granting visas to visit Pakistan to dubious characters like Raymond Davis and the infamous Blackwater group, a notorious private contractor, which was spreading its tentacles in Pakistan for undercover activities on behalf of the US agencies. Numerous anti-Pakistan articles in the western media as well as US legislation curbing financial support and levying stringent conditions on Pakistan carried Hussain Haqqani’s footprint. The scandal that ultimately brought about Hussain Haqqani’s downfall was the “Memogate”, which was aimed at vilifying Pakistan Army, the ISI and Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.
In June 2012, a judicial commission concluded that the memo had been written on instruction by Haqqani, and that, in doing so, the Ambassador was not loyal to Pakistan and had sought to undermine the security of the country’s nuclear assets, the armed forces, the ISI and the Constitution.”
We are yet to find any such character in Indian diplomatic corps or anywhere else in the world.
Hussain Haqqani’s current tirade against Pakistan and her defence forces has almost become a regular feature. He has been proposing to the Trump administration to put a squeeze on Pakistan and her military, so as to draw maximum mileage on Afghanistan and India. His disclosure in Washington Post and acknowledgement that he was more loyal to American interest then of Pakistan and the fact that he helped CIA induct hundreds of agents into Pakistan without clearance and knowledge of Pakistani intelligence agencies should qualify him to win a Purple Heart from President Trump.
No wonder, Haqqani has now become a mouthpiece of Indian RAW and the Doval-Modi cabal of butchers. Could any Indian Ambassador even think of launching an anti-India book from Islamabad? Hussain Haqqani has the distinction of doing it from Delhi. Another major contribution of Hussain Haqqani has been to create SAATH forum, aimed at rallying Pakistani intellectuals, sub nationalists, dissident leaders and academicians with one point agenda, bash Pakistani military right in the middle of the longest war being fought for the very survival of Pakistan.
Hussain Haqqani must remember that it is Pakistan that gave him all the respect and honor; however the Pakistani nation cannot tolerate her own people betraying the nation at the behest of foreign masters. We will finish with a quote from 1st Century Roman philosopher, politician and constitutionalist, Marcus Tullius Cicero, “A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.”