Zaheer Bhatti
ALLEGATIONS, if not revelations this time by Cynthia Ritchie; an American blogger have yet again obviated some grave chinks in the Pakistani Armour despite achieving the nuclear deterrent by successfully playing the development close to its chest to neutralize enemy plans against the only Muslim atomic power. Besides requiring an intelligence probe into the current episode, several elementary questions have already arisen, some of which to start with are about the credentials of this women and what has she been doing in Pakistan despite several occasions when American nationals have been issued travel advisory by the US Administration to return home. Several other photographs of the attractive lady posing for the camera revealed by her to the Press, provide her a perfect cover to pose as a tourist attracted by the Pakistani landscape, purportedly working for women’s rights in Pakistan as if Pakistani activists required foreign assistance for the realization of their objective, and with little justification for her prolonged stay in the country; more so as she threatened to expose a lot of Pakistan’s political elite. She has also pretended to be making a Documentary, of which there is no evidence.
If she was among the thousands of American security operators combed out of Pakistan almost a decade ago, how did she manage to escape the Ministry of Interior at that time and instead manage access to the power corridors and the all-powerful Presidency at that time, which is demonstrated by her intimate and relaxed snapshots with the three accused PPP Ministers which she has shared with the Press; what was the objective of this character assassination after nearly a decade and why she chose to remain silent all these years! Her pretension that she was impressed by Pakistan and wished to contribute to its image-building, is belied by her current act of spilling the beans and threatening to reveal more about others in various political parties she had cultivated evidently by using her charms, and now in a position to dare the country’s Former Interior strongman to face the truth machine; hardly something which could qualify her as a Pakistan promoter.
Raising serious questions over the lukewarm reaction of all three former Ministers on the other hand who have merely rubbished the allegations except Rehman Malik who has sued her but with a pinch of salt and Reza Geelani the then PM, belatedly seeking to attach himself to Malik’s suit; are also where, when and in what capacity she had met all of them and posed for the camera with them obviously with their approval, particularly the Interior Minister pictured presenting her some kind of a souvenir which indicates that she was after all not an unknown commodity. It would be interesting and perhaps vital to find out about her boy-friend in Pakistan who according to her, had asked her to get everything from the past off her chest to live a clean life with him thereafter; a very naive hypothesis since far from contemplating peace in the future, the recipe while keeping them both in the news, would land them in turbulent waters; unless that is what they really aimed to happily achieve.
As to what she was doing in the Presidency, is not something for her to answer at this stage, but the Government of the day including the President, the Prime Minister and the all-important Interior Minister who was In-charge of the country’s internal security at that time. Rehman Malik’s Suit for damages looks watered down already with his effort to hedge behind character assassination of Benazir Bhutto by Cynthia earlier, to which he appears to be diverting as if she had been planted to defame the Party and its senior leadership without naming by whom, and instead of vowing to expose the woman and those she worked for, he placates her as someone against whom he holds no grouse as she belonged to a friendly country. Friendly Mr Malik! And nothing against a woman who has torn you to shreds! Many other noted columnists including Saleem Safi have since followed the Lady’s tracks, while news abounds that her safe exit out of Pakistan was being contemplated, which in the opinion of this scribe should never be allowed until the truth is unravelled and the deserving brought to book. Such a character could foul-mouth more dangerously in a conducive home environment.
With the lady’s credentials yet to be established, Pakistan’s track record in hosing into saboteurs and espionage agents has not been very bright. It is only by accident and quite belatedly that Pakistan was able to net some intelligence sleuths of its neighbourhood, but only after they had already caused considerable damage to Pakistan’s internal defences; Sarabjeet Singh earlier and Kalbhoshan Yadav later being among those who conveniently breached past Pakistani Intelligence from the neighbourhood; not to talk of Ajit Kumar Doval India’s National Security Advisor who openly bragged about living in Lahore, Pakistan disguised as a Muslim for seven long years without being detected.
Raymond Davis was nabbed after he had killed two Pakistani youth in broad daylight in public view; only to be honourably whisked out of the country. He turned out to be among those countless individuals given safe passage into Pakistan within the past decade by none else but a Pakistani double agent Hussain Haqqani who rose to hold key positions in the Pakistani Establishment including Secretary Information, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister and Pakistan’s Ambassador to Washington in various Governments. Using a beautiful woman to gain access to a country’s leadership and classified information is an age-old tactic, of which modern Intelligence is not unaware. To what extent this lady if a spy, had made in-roads into Pakistan’s Intelligence network and sensitive areas remains to be seen, but surely points to serious gaps in the country’s defences which in this era of hybrid warfare rules out nothing and calls for a thorough re-calibration of the system.
—The writer is a media professional, member of Pioneering team of PTV and a veteran ex Director Programmes.
