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The Rediff Special/ Colonel Anil Athale (retd)

Is Clinton safe in Pakistan?

The killing in Karachi of lawyer Iqbal Radh on March 10 had all the marks of an organised killing. The lawyer's assistant and the office boy, the only eyewitnesses, were also killed, leaving no trace of the killers.

The reactions to the killing were on predictable lines. A faction of the Pakistan Muslim League, close to the military government, blamed the Indian intelligence agency, RAW (Research & Analysis Wing), for the killing. So did the Karachi police chief. The motive, according to them, was to disrupt American President Bill Clinton's visit. Even Pakistani Interior Minister Munshi saw a 'foreign hand' behind the attempt to disrupt the trial of deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharief and defame Pakistan on the eve of Clinton's visit.

The only discordant voice, and possibly the most authentic view, was expressed by Kulsum Sharief, wife of the ousted PM. According to her, the assassinated lawyer had vowed to reveal the truth about Kargil. It is noteworthy that Nawaz Sharief's statement was taken 'in camera' and the public in Pakistan has no access to it.

Is it possible that the military rulers, scared of the truth coming out, decided to finish off Radh? To silence him and serve a warning to other lawyers. It is surely not a coincidence that another of Sharief's defence lawyers had his home demolished. (All this information is gleamed from the respected Pakistan newspaper, The News, dated March 11, 2000.)

The apparent logic of blaming RAW fails as all except the blinkered Pakistanis, are well aware of the collapse of law and order in that country. Pakistan has a history of killing FBI agents, Iranian trainee pilots and a Pakistani, Ajmal Kansi, even killed some CIA staffers outside its Langley headquarters.

The world has seen many ideology-driven assassinations. Egyptian president Anwar Sadat was shot by soldiers at a ceremonial parade in 1980. In 1988, Rajiv Gandhi, then the Indian prime minister, had a lucky escape when a Sri Lankan soldier assaulted him while he reviewed a guard of honour in Colombo. Both incidents took place as extremist organisations, the Islamic Brotherhood in Sadat's case and the Janata Vimukti Perumana in Rajiv Gandhi's case, had infiltrated the government.

Pakistan's case is even more radical. Since the Islamisation of 1979, initiated by General Zia-ul Haq, sovereignty rests with Allah. Once the 'rule of law' thus lands in the lap of God, it is but a short step for anyone to claim that he has divine mandate to do things as he sees fit. Thus, anyone with a longer beard or stronger voice can and does proclaim the mandate from heaven. Sectarian violence between various Islamic schools of thought is the direct outcome of that basic folly of abandonment of the principle of rule of law in Pakistan.

Since 1947, there has been a tradition of operating through covert organisations in Pakistan,. The 1947 invasion of Kashmir set the trend. In 1965, the methods of 1947 were repeated. Infiltration of extremist cadre-based organisations in the government apparatus has been an ongoing process in Pakistan for several decades.

Irrespective of the soundness of the ideology, once an ideologically inspired individual joins government service, he must shed that and follow the rule of law. The recent controversy in India over the permission for Gujarat government servants to participate in Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activities raised similar fears. Luckily for Indians, that madness was abandoned. What has been an aberration (in states like Bengal where Communists have been playing similar games), has been a norm in Pakistan.

In the light of these facts, it is highly optimistic for the Americans to expect rational behaviour from the Pakistan establishment. This poses a real danger to Clinton's security when he stops over in Pakistan. One has seen the arguments given in favour of this stopover by an eminent American scholar, Professor Stephen P Cohen in these very columns some days ago.

But with all due respect, it appears that Professor Cohen has underestimated the change for worse that has taken place in Pakistan over the last few years. The barbarism shown towards disfiguring of the bodies of Indian soldiers captured in Kargil was a symptom of the disease that has gone deep into the Pakistan establishment's vitals.

Clinton's security is the business of the Americans and one is sure there are enough competent people to protect him with hi-tech gizmos. Where the Americans may well fail is in gathering human intelligence. Given the surcharged atmosphere in the Indian subcontinent, it will not be beyond imagination to apprehend that blame for any untoward incident in Pakistan will be put squarely in the Indian lap. To that extent, what happens (or does not happen) in Pakistan is of rightful concern to Indians.

The Americans have been warned by Radh's assassination. Whether they heed the warning or not is their business.

CLINTON VISITS INDIA :The complete coverage

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