The people of Pakistan on February 18 tangibly voted in favour of asserting our national sovereignty against foreign, in particular American intrusion into domestic affairs of the country.
Hamid Mir reported in The News on February 21 that the Bush administration is trying to convince the PPP leadership to cooperate with Pervez Musharraf.
US diplomats in Islamabad are reportedly sticking to their position that both the PPP and PML-N leadership should stop attempts to push Musharraf out of the Presidency. Musharraf is still perceived as the "best choice" in the present political scenario for the Bush administration and allies.
According to sources the US diplomats are even engaged in coerciveness to convince PPP and PML-N leadership to accept Musharraf. The US diplomats with the blessing of the State Department and the White House are threatening the Pakistani opposition parties of following consequences if Musharraf is not accepted in the coming government setup:
(1) The US development aid to Pakistan will be in jeopardy if Musharraf is pushed out of office,
(2) The US is not going to lend support to Pakistan in international institutions such as the World Bank, IMF if Musharraf is ousted,
(3) The Bush administration will neither facilitate to avoid the present caretaker government from scrapping the NRO and opening up of cases against leaders such as Zardari if Musharraf is not a part of the government.
These pressure tactics applied upon the opposition leadership by the US and even some European diplomats may backfire because there is very little tolerance in the Pakistan public for such direct meddling and coercive methods anymore. What the people want from foreign diplomats and governments is to avoid foreign intrusion which directly compromises with the sovereignty of the state. However, diplomatic activity these days tells a completely different story where most notably the American and the British diplomats are working in top-gear to convince the opposition into accepting a working relationship with their favourite dictator. Not only the foreign missions, but it seems that the opposition parties are insensitive to the popular sentiments:
Why have the PPP, PML-N and ANP leadership permitted themselves to meet the foreign ambassadors in the Diplomatic Enclave? If urgent, the foreign dignitaries should reach out to the party leaders, not opposite. The present intrusion of foreign missions into the internal affairs of Pakistan is unprecedented.
It is unheard in any western country that foreign diplomats can hold such a position to "dictate" political outcomes. To illustrate this point I recall a situation in Denmark a couple years ago when the Turkish ambassador publicly expressed concern over the increasing antagonism against non-ethnic Danes, in particular of Turkish ethnicity in the Danish society. The far-right Danish People’s Party had entered into a power position with the Danish Liberal Party and non-ethnic Danes were on the receiving end of ethno-racialist political propaganda. Instead of listening to the Turkish ambassador the Danish political parties, media and public vehemently opposed such foreign involvement into domestic affairs by the Turks. In Norway, a Pakistani diplomat was exposed and criticized by
Norwegian politicians, media and society a few years back: reason was that he did not allow his daughter to adopt a Norwegian lifestyle and choice of partner. According to the public opinion even diplomats had to obey the local culture and customs and not import views alien to the public opinion.
The message from the people of Pakistan should be very laud and clear to foreign diplomatic missions engaged in on-going intrusion: stop meddling in our domestic affairs!