The appointment of Lt Gen Faiz Hameed seems to have sent shock waves to South Block at the Raj Path, the seat of Indian NSA and RAW. Immediately after the appointment, Indian intelligence and their surrogates in Pakistan started a vicious campaign against the new ISI chief. If India remains a hostile state against Pakistan and feels the heat about appointment of a new Spy Chief, one thing is assured that Pakistan has got the right man for the right job.
It is unfortunate that some of the Pakistani liberals and self-styled champions of freedom of expression collude with Indian agencies and forget that Pakistan bashing is neither in interest of Pakistan nor making them ten feet tall. SAATH forum was created in 2016 to target Pakistan Army and its leadership through a colossus of dissidents, activists and some opinion makers. Headed by Dr Taqi and moderated by Hussain Haqqani, this forum which claims to be a South Asian forum has never talked of human rights violations in other South Asian countries and has primarily become a Pakistan bashing forum.
Dr Ayesha Siddiqa has been an active member of SAATH(South Asians Against Terrorism and for Human Rights), unfortunately she has been found in company of dubious Islamophobes like Tariq Fateh and has been regularly targeting Pakistan Army. SAATH forum has a network which includes most of Pakistan haters like Tag TV host Tahir Aslam Gora of Canada, Dr Taqi(a PTM supporters) , Taha Siddiqui (the ex- head of WION in Pakistan, which is an Indian outlet) and Ahmed Waqqas Goraya etc, the forum is probably funded by hostile intelligence agencies. Some of the SAATH forum member shave openly met and hosted Terrorist leaders like Brahamdagh Bugti and PTM chaos generators like Mohsin Dawar. Indian digital media outlets like The Print, Wire and the Mint have been regularly used by SAATH forum members to vent their anger against Pakistan. I am sure the SAATH forum members will ask the question of proof of their link with hostile intelligence agencies, my answers is, please read out the proceedings of SAATH forum in last three conferences held in London and US and collect all the articles written by SAATH members and all the tweets on twitter in past three years, you will find one bottom line and one objective.
Conversely anything written by Pakistani writers and appearing in Indian outlets, should be a gold medal for the targeted institutions. Unfortunately, it has become a fashion with some of the so called Pakistani liberals and activists to please their masters abroad by abusing their own motherland and its defenders.
Hybrid War has many dimensions and I have deliberated upon these in my previous articles in the Nation. This warfare, which has now become a core syllabus in US, Russian and Indian security community, thrives on dissent and chaos. It has kinetic and non-kinetic dimensions and parts; the non-kinetic part is more pervasive and effective. One of the targets of Hybrid War is the leadership of targeted country. Pakistan’s political and military leadership at present has been a constant target of Indian Intelligence; Ayesha Siddiqa and her backers in SAATH forum appear to have been pumped by their paymasters. If one glances at last three conferences and huddles conducted by SAATH forum in US and London, one thing is clear, their consistency of targeting Pakistani military, the only change in last conference was that it included PTI leadership as well, so a politically elected and legitimate transformation in Pakistan is not accepted by these so called democrats and their backers.
India tasted the conventional response by Pakistani military in post-Pulwama standoff as it turned the Indian military into an international laughing stock. Indian Military pride was badly hurt when Wing Commander Abhinandan was paraded in front of the media to expose Indian aggression. Indian military minds and RAW paddlers were highly frustrated when Pakistan’s conventional response (despite Indian Military’s numerical superiority) dented their evil designs.
Some of the international opinion makers and South Asian experts like Andrew Korybko picked up this Infowar tactics by Indian intelligence very quickly and lambasted Indian media and their surrogates in Pakistani liberal community in an article published by leading Russian think tank, Geopolitica.russia. Even the title of the article, “Pakistan picked the Right Spy chief and Got the Right People Upset” summarizes it all.
Korybko elaborates the issue nicely and states, “Lt Gen Faiz Hameed was chosen to head the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency last week, infuriating the country’s liberals and indirectly drawing the ire of India as well, with the Infowar pushback against him strongly suggesting that he is the right man for the job because his appointment got the right people upset”.
Pakistani state has to start thinking about those so called dissidents and liberals and groups like SAATH forum who keep maligning Pakistan and its leadership at the behest of foreign sponsors. Can an Indian ex ambassador become a mouth piece of Pakistan and bash India in a Pakistani forum, if not, why is an ex ambassador of Pakistan playing on the alleged tunes of Indian intelligence? Hussain Haqqani is the most sought after guest speaker in Indian forums like Observor’s Research Foundation (most probably a RAW outlet) .This is a million dollar question and some of the liberals and especially active members of SAATH forum need to reflect. Pakistan is their home, good or bad, and India remains an enemy state; if someone can collude with an enemy state, just because there is a cover of freedom of expression, then there is a need to expose such people and groups as it amounts to treason and sedition.
Recently, President Trump was made answerable to a special council on the issue of collusion with a perceived hostile state, if this can happen in a mature democracy why can’t Pakistan ask it’s so called liberals and Pakistan bashers, who openly side with Indian narrative and use Indian platforms to target Pakistan’s Military leadership?