What is the Real Civil War in Pakistan?

By Waqar Kazmi
This article appeared in NewPakistan on October 4, 2009

Now that Pakistan’s military under civilian leadership has started
taking on the Jihadi-Taliban enterprise its apologists are crying
foul. It is easier to turn the people of Pakistan against the US than
in favor of Taliban after all the Taliban did in Swat and Malakand.

So the Shireen Mazari- Ahmed Qureshi Jihadi Support Network keeps
coming up with new excuses. The Truth is, and every true Pakistani
nationalist knows it, that Pakistan has to fight the Jihadis to save
Pakistan. This is a fight for Pakistan’s soul. The US role in this
fight is incidental.

However conspiracy theorists and pseudo-patriots like Mazari and
Qureshi keep trying to turn the attention of Pakistanis away from the
true problems facing our nation. For the last one year Ahmed Qureshi
has been screaming aloud about how the US has a nefarious grand
strategy for Pakistan. According to Qureshi this plan entails breaking
up Pakistan and as part of this plan the Americans will not only take
over Pakistan’s nuclear weapons but also send in undercover American
soldiers into Pakistan

How is it that for the eight years that General Musharraf was in
power, when the US-Pakistan collaboration was extremely close, when
Pakistan handed over people to U.S. for cash (as Musharraf admits in
his book) and when the American aid totaled to $10 billion Qureshi
never feared any American takeover? Now that Pakistan has a civilian
government which follows transparent policies, puts forth its views
before the Americans, disagrees openly with them and will only get
$1.5 billion annually Qureshi suddenly fears an American takeover of
Pakistan?

Qureshi’s co-Conspiracy Theorist and Pseudo-Nationalist Shireen Mazari
too never feared any American conspiracy during the Musharraf years.
Now that she is no longer the Director of the Institute of Strategic
Studies she suddenly sees Americans everywhere. If her article is not
published by a newspaper the Americans must be behind it? If she is no
longer Director of the Institute of Strategic Studies the Americans
must be behind it? In this scenario one must ask Ms. Mazari if her
recent appointment as Editor to The Nation was also under American
dictat?

Ahmed Qureshi’s latest piece titled ‘US Plans Will Lead to a Pakistani
Civil War’ refers in a very benign tone to the jihadis in Southern
Punjab. Qureshi claims they are being targeted only because they hurt
American interests. What Jihadi-Apologist Mr. Qureshi does not say is
that groups like Sipaha-e-Sahaba have killed more Pakistanis than
Indians or Americans. They are Pakistan’s enemies first and foremost
and every Pakistani knows that. Various polls conducted in the last
few months have shown that most Pakistanis want their army and police
to take on these extremists and rid Pakistan of this evil. Several
thousand Pakistanis have been killed in the last two decades in
sectarian warfare. Our army’s jawans have laid down their lives to
save us from these groups, the same groups Mr. Qureshi is protecting.
Who are these people – like Qureshi and Mazari – trying to fool by
playing to deep rooted Anti-American sentiments in Pakistan?

And how wrong is Mr Qureshi when he says that the Americans are
attempting to destabilize Pakistan and lead it towards a ‘Civil War’!
The real civil war in Pakistan, which has been on for many years, is
between the Sunni extremists who kill innocent Shias in mosques and
Shia extremists who blow up and kill innocent Sunnis. This is the Real
Civil War. A war which our state, our army, our intelligence machinery
has been fighting. Our brave intelligence officers have been killed by
these extremists, by the Taliban and Al Qaeda for standing up to these
jihadis. Our army has lost numerous men in its fight against extremism
and jihad. This is the Real Civil War. But unfortunately jihadi-
extremist supporters and apologists like Mazari and Qureshi and their
followers will never understand this.

Tags: Conspiracy Theorists, Pakistan-US, US-Pakistan